Casey ‘harping’ on defensive miscues despite win streak
Lowry admits coach’s criticism is justified
Another win, another film session pointing out all the defensive letdowns in the game.
That’s what it is to play for the Toronto Raptors today and head coach Dwane Casey has no intention of letting up as long as he’s seeing sub-par defence.
The team has won three in a row after back to back losses in Sacramento and Houston, but bad defence continues to be the daily theme.
Following Monday’s win over the Philadelphia 76ers, the word on defence at practice on Tuesday was: “Terrible according to the film the coaches showed us,” Kyle Lowry said.
“We don’t bump cutters, we don’t tag, a lot of stuff on the film that the coach shows, but that’s the film, the film don’t lie,” Lowry said.
Lowry did seem to be a little caught offguard by another no-nonsense film session, especially after the team had endured a similar film session on Sunday when they got back on the practice court following a day off and after another win in Milwaukee.
“Coaches are going to find things to pick at, but that’s the one thing about it, we have to take it as positive, constructive criticism and go from there,” Lowry said. “I believe they want perfection from us and that’s what we have to strive to be, perfect.”
“We had a lot of defensive mistakes,” Casey said about the 76ers game. “We have to continue to work on our fundamentals. I’m going to keep harping on it, preaching it. We were in the same boat this time last year, where we had to do a huge turnaround defensively, and we’ll keep working on it.”
The film sessions are purposefully harsh in order to ensure no one gets too happy with the status quo.
Lowry, for his part, believes the film sessions are necessary.
“I’m not mad at them, we’re not mad, we’re just trying to get better as a team, so we understand where they’re coming from.”
Normally the Memphis Grizzlies would provide a great test for a team looking to gauge its defensive readiness, but for the second year in a row, the Grizzlies arrive in Toronto with a good chunk of the top of its roster out due to injury.
The latest, and certainly most significant loss, is that of point guard Mike Conley, who suffered a traverse process fracture in his back following a third-quarter collision during the Grizzlies’ loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Monday.
Also unable to play Wednesday will be centre Zach Randolph, who is dealing with a personal matter, and forward Chandler Parsons who is still a week or so away from returning from a knee injury.
Without Conley, the Grizzlies will be relying on a pair of rookies to man the point in Andrew Harrison and Wade Baldwin IV.
Regardless, Casey wants to see more improvement on the defensive side from his Raptors.
One way or the other, Casey is adamant the Raptors will get back to the defence they are capable of playing. Until he sees it, every single defensive mistake made is going to get highlighted.