Raps welcome lengthy break
But Casey says four road games in five nights big price to pay
There is a price to pay for everything and as he prepares to send his Raptors off to the longest in-season break in his time as the team’s head coach, Dwane Casey wants the NBA to find some balance.
The league, in an effort to save wear and tear on players whose all-star weekends are cluttered with games and appearances and scant little rest, has extended the break to almost a week.
It will be a welcome respite for all before the grind of the final 30 or so regular season games are upon them, but once action starts up, it is a busy time of year.
The week in the middle hasn’t been replaced by any extra time at the start or the end of the season, so what they get in time off they will pay for in the following eight weeks or so.
“It’s a good mental break, the eightor seven-day break is great, but I think one thing it’s done is crunch up the games and if you’re not careful, it’s going to cause injuries, more fatigue on the bodies,” said Casey. “We’ve got to find, along with the all-star break, a way to space out the games a little bit more. That way you do take the stress off the bodies and you do get a better product on the floor.”
The Raptors do go from the sublime to the ridiculous. They face the Washington Wizards at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday night but then don’t play again until a week from Friday in Atlanta. And coming out of the longest in-season break in franchise history, they will play four road games in five nights, as exacting a toll as there is in a season.
“It’s not my call to make but I would say that something (is needed) to relieve the pressure of as many back-to-backs that are crunched in all in a row,” said Casey. “Something is going to give, whether it’s bodies or the product on the floor. There’s nothing better than a fresh NBA body and a mind going into a game.”
The prevailing wisdom is to cut something out of the interminable pre-season to find the extra days necessary rather than to start the season earlier or extend the playoffs past their late-June completion date.
“I like that . . . whether it’s pre-season, time between games in the preseason, less pre-season games and that type of thing. Again, that’s above my pay grade, but that would be my recommendation.”
Many of the players will flee for warmer, more relaxed climates for the week (Casey joked he’s headed for “the closest chair”) to let their bodies and minds clear because they know what awaits them once the holiday is over. But the looming tight schedule might not be too unbearable.
“I really don’t care,” said Toronto’s James Johnson. “We love playing basketball more than we love practising . . . so the games are OK.”
The extended relaxation time is important, though.
“More than anything else, it gives the players a chance to take a deep breath, regroup, get over some of the nagging injuries they have,” said Casey.
“Sometimes we take things for granted, we look at a guy like. ‘How come he’s not playing at a high level?’ Well, his body’s messed up, something hurt, he’s sore, he’s mentally sore.
“There’s a lot of things going on,” he added. “They’re human, they’re not computers.”
Coming out of the longest in-season break in franchise history, they will play four road games in five nights