RAPS ROLL INTO WINDY CITY
Kyle Lowry and Co. come up short against Bulls in their first game back after the all-star break,
“If we think we’re going to go anywhere playing like that, we’re kidding ourselves.” RAPTORS COACH DWANE CASEY
ON HIS TEAM’S POOR DEFENCE
CHICAGO— It was ugly at times, gruesome and troubling and disappointing all at once.
But if it teaches a lesson or two or even continues to hammer home a point made incessantly since the NBA season began, a dreary Friday night here will have been worth it.
The Toronto Raptors were not good, not good at all, against a weakened, stumbling Chicago Bulls team, of that there is no doubt. But a painful lesson in a 116-106 loss might be more important than a win would have been.
“We had no defensive disposition at all,” coach Dwane Casey said. “If we think we’re going to go anywhere playing like that, we’re kidding ourselves.
“You can put it on anything you want to put it on. All-star break, focus, concentration: There’s no excuse for it.”
Playing for the first time since a week ago Wednesday — an equally disappointing loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves — the Raptors fell to a Bulls team that had lost five straight and had been roundly beaten Thursday night in Cleveland.
Two games does not a trend make — just like how 14 wins in 17 games doesn’t mean the Raptors have somehow arrived — but nipping bad habits in the bud with 29 games left before the real season starts is a good idea.
Trying to find some measure of consistency — in work ethic and stra- tegic moves — is what the unofficial second half of the season is about, and Toronto failed miserably at times.
They led by as many as 13 points in the first half but fell apart in the second; they made a bit of a run late in the fourth quarter but made enough gaffes to render the comeback mute.
It was an uneven performance all around.
“We’ve got to have a defensive presence and a pride in guarding our position and if we don’t, we’re going to have more nights like this,” Casey said. “It’s up to every man in that room to make up their minds they’re going to play defence. It’s one game, one game after the all-star break, but it’s a bad precedent to start setting.”
The players say they understand and it’s impossible they’ve missed the same message all year. It must have sunk in deeply because they are 37-18 and having a fine year but, for one night, there was slippage.
“I don’t think it was a lack of anything, I think it’s just communication, that’s it,” Kyle Lowry said. “Just open our mouths and speak, we just have to be more communicative with each other and not be afraid to yell and scream.”
Missing leading scorer Jimmy Butler, the Bulls got production from the predictable — Derrick Rose poured in 26 points — along with the new — Doug McDermott came off the bench to score a career-high 30 — and the totally unexpected, as Brazilian rookie Cristiano Felicio had eight. Pau Gasol chipped in 18 to go along with 11 rebounds.
The Raptors were basically reduced to a three-man offensive team, as Lowry had 27 points, DeRozan scored 22 and Valanciunas finished with 25.
The bench production was basically non-existent until Patrick Patterson had five points in a row in the final four minutes and starters James Johnson and Luis Scola combined for a miserable four points.
Terrence Ross was 1-for-6 from the floor and Bismack Biyombo had only one point in 15 minutes.