RAPTORS KEEP COOL
‘We’re fine,’ says Lowry after sleeping on Toronto’s ugly Game 3 performance in D.C.
There have been times in the playoff careers of these Toronto Raptors that the post-game mood ranges from sullen to even more sullen.
Games, that is, after which it was hard to tell if the Rapto rs’ stars were more frustrated by the play of their opponents or just disappointed in themselves.
After one rough loss a couple of years ago, Kyle Lowry stayed late at the arena and shot baskets by himself, trying to find the stroke that had deserted him. An empty court, late at night, can be pretty sad and lonely.
Cut to Lowry on Friday night, after the Washington Wizards had punched the Raptors in the face, metaphorically and almost literally. He answered his questions pleasantly, and then as he left the podium, he sang a McDonald’s jingle: “Ba da bap BUH Buh! I’m loving it.”
Then came the sight of several journalists raising an eyebrow in unison. Kyle Lowry, being cheery after a tough loss? Was he medicated? Had he undergone hypnosis? Was this a clone? WHAT HAVE
YOU DONE WITH THE
REAL KYLE LOWRY?
Or maybe Lowry was still reasonably relaxed after that Game 3 loss because he and his teammates truly believe what they have been saying all year: they know they are a good team, they believe in this team and these players, and they aren’t going to freak out. At least not yet.
“We’re fine,” Lowry said on Saturday afternoon, after the Raptors practised on the campus of Georgetown University in downtown Washington. “I mean, it’s a loss. We’re not happy at all.”
“But we’ve got to go out there and play again. There’ s another game tomorrow at 6 p.m. We got a great practice in, great film in. We’re communicating. And that’s the biggest thing. We have to communicate, all be on the same page and know we have a bigger goal. And every day is a step to our goal.”
Aside from the obvious things that are different about this series, starting with the results so far, where the Raptors still have chance to take their first ever 3-1 playoff series lead, the team has also seemed significant different in an intangible sense. In each of the first two games, after they had built solid leads, there were moments when they absorbed a Washington haymaker. Instead of folding, with an anxious Air Canada Centre on the verge of notthis-again fretting, the Raptors steadied themselves and cruised to comfortable wins.
Head coach Dwane Casey said on Saturday that some of his past squads might have crumbled in those situations. To what does he attribute the difference?
“Maturity. Experience. Consistency,” he said. “We’ve been through the fire before. Three or four years ago, were we ready? That’s a question. I think that is the difference.”
After a long video session at their hotel on Saturday morning, Casey said the team mood was good, even when problems were highlighted. “Guys owned up to their mistakes in situations, so I would say it’s good,” Casey said. “Nobody should be happy, we all should be teed off and ticked off that we got spanked the way we did last night. So from that standpoint we’ll see how we respond tomorrow.”
Again, it felt like a stark departure from previous years, when playoff losses were often accompanied by a searching-for-answers vibe.
Casey said the team remains confident that they know what to do to beat the Wizards.
“We are where we are for a reason,” he said of a 59-win group that earned the top seed in the East. “There’s a larger sample size other than one game. Wear ethe same team that everybody was jumping up about two days ago, now we’re the worst team in the league.”
That last part isn’t quite true. Yes, some doubts flared up again about the Raptors like an oil well fire, but NBA types were not shocked to see the Wizards bounce back from an 0-2 hole with a strong effort at home.
They have an All-Star backcourt, too. The question is whether the Raptors can assert themselves again, and can play like the team that had finally outrun its playoff ghosts in the first two games of this post-season.
“We gotta do things better, harder, more physical and with more focus,” Casey said. “We had 10 plays last night where one guy or two guys totally screwed up things we’ve been running all year.”
The Raptors have said all the usual things, too, about giving credit to the Wizards and respecting their opponent and noting that they are more talented than a typical eighth seed. But the subtext to so much of what they have said since the loss is notable. They aren’t talking about figuring out how to beat these guys, but saying they have to stop shooting themselves in their large feet.
They feel they already know how to beat these guys. Now they just have to prove it.