Miles not himself against Celtics

the words he used towards the official after the technical, but was shocked they didn’t get him a second technical and an ejection.

But that’s not to say Miles isn’t bothered by his 0-for-5 performance from the threepoint line that night. Or his combined 8-for-41 (19.5 per cent) three-point shooting over the last six games either.

It’s just that with 12 years in the NBA, he’s learned how to deal with slumps of those kind. It’s quite easy, he says.

“I used to try to deal with them. But how do you try to deal with something that’s not there any more?

“There used to be a carryover,” Miles said. “Don’t get me wrong, after the game (even now), I digest it, I think about it, I watch some clips from the game. I’m one of those guys, good or bad, I replay the game in my head no matter what. It’s a nevertoo-high, never-too-low thing. You’re never as far away as you think and you’re never as good as you think. You can always get better.”

So the mini slump he’s in will not affect Miles, but like any good pro, he’s always learning from his struggles.

If he had a complaint about Saturday’s tough night besides the technical, it was how he allowed the Celtics to bait him even a little which perhaps got him off his game.

“They did a good job and obviously tried to get me frustrated. Also, just little stuff after plays,” Miles said. “I know what it is. Teams have been doing it all year, just holding and grabbing. That’s what you do to keep a guy from getting in a rhythm, especially a shooting guy. You try to take (away) his legs, try to get physical with him. I can withstand that. It’s just not letting your emotions take you out of the game. And I felt like last game I kind of (did) within, but I didn’t lash (out) at anybody.”

His body language as he made his way to the team bus, head down, not even seeing the people he was walking past after the game Saturday summed up his night but that is the extent he will take that night’s shooting woes home with him.

DeMar DeRozan saw it too and says that’s exactly how he wants his teammates reacting when they aren’t performing up to their own standards.

“Anybody, when you have a bad game, you carry yourself different because you feel like you let your team down,” DeRozan said. “It’s good when you see that in your teammates and in yourself. It lets you know it means a lot. You know you’re going to work that much harder and not let it happen again. It’s fine. We all go through it at some point. I just always look at the bounce back as being the greater thing because we all go through it.”

Miles has always attracted attention in the past from defences but not to the extent to what he’s seeing this season.

“The way I’ve been guarded this year, I’ve had to make a lot of adjustments to learn how to play with it,” Miles said. “I’ve never been targeted this way. I’ve been (a player) not to leave, not to help off as much. This year is different also because I’ve done more moving to get shots because people aren’t just going to let me stand in the corner and get shots and find space like I’ve been able to do over the last few years and shoot damn near 50 per cent from the corners. People won’t let me do that any more. I take it as respect.”

Miles is trying to figure it out just as he’s done countless times in his career. He knows he’ll get there and those shots will start dropping again. More of a concern right now is an apology for that referee.