Raptors happy for rest after tough stretch
Team has lost four of last five, in part due to shaky defence and gruelling road schedule
LOS ANGELES— It was nice that the Toronto Raptors got an extra night in Los Angeles after Monday’s game, some of the players got to spend time with family and friends, the rest didn’t have to rush to a charter aircraft and a three-hour flight to Houston that would have landed in wee hours of the morning.
It was made possible by the fact that Toronto had played on consecutive nights and there was going to be no official practice on Tuesday afternoon, a traditional day off in the NBA after back-to-back games.
While the rest was nice for the tired-out athletes, Raptors coach Dwane Casey would have preferred a couple of hours in a gym somewhere trying to work the kinks out of a defensive system that’s all tangled up.
“It’s very difficult because we’re doing everything now by film and until we get some practice time to get our shell defence rhythm back, and our one-on-one defence . . . right now, teams are just putting their heads down and going to work,” Casey said after Toronto lost for the fourth time in five games, drubbed 123-115 by the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night.
In the midst of a difficult stretch of games, the Raptors simply haven’t had any time to get in a legitimate, work-hard practice session.
Monday’s game was their fifth in seven days in three time zones and four cities, a grind even with the perks of charter flights and opulent hotels. There are games Wednesday here and Friday in Milwaukee before the road trip ends and, finally, they will have two days off in a row and can spend at least one of them in the type of long, intense practice they can’t get working on a day between games.
“We can’t make excuses,” DeMar DeRozan said.
“At the end of the day, if it’s a tough schedule we have to learn from it. It’s the best way to learn from it, going against teams like (the Clippers and) understanding we are right there with them.”
The Clippers ran up three quarters
“We can’t make excuses . . . It’s the best way to learn from it, going against teams like (the Clippers and) understanding we are right there with them.”
DEMAR DEROZAN
of 30 points or more against Toronto on Monday, shot better than 50 per cent from the field and killed the Raptors with the most rudimentary of NBA plays — the pick and roll.
“We have to understand how to close out each quarter, try to win the last three or four minutes of each quarter,” DeRozan said. “It’s going to come, once we hit that stride and understand what we need to do defensively from that jump ball to that last second on the court, we will be fine.”
It doesn’t get much easier for the Raptors finishing out this road trip — their second longest of the season — before they get home for six in a row that includes only one set of games on consecutive nights.
The Rockets are one of the most prolific offensive teams in the league, led by James Harden, who will be a tough cover for his close friend De- Rozan.
The Bucks are a unique blend of athleticism and youth that will be playing at home and catching Toronto at the tail end of a long road trip.