Mental mistakes behind Raptors’ struggles
Returns of Patterson, Nogueira could put players back in familiar roles
A guy misses a defensive assignment that was worked on over and over in practice and watched in film sessions. Or a player goes this way instead of that way in an offensive set that’s been a staple since the first day of training camp.
The player slaps himself in the head in frustration, the opponent scores or gets a stop and Dwane Casey ages before our very eyes.
“They’re what I call ‘oh crap’ moments,” Casey said Saturday, “and we’ve got to cut back on those.” Those moments are popping up with far too much frequency for Casey’s liking as his Toronto Raptors stumble through some dog days in the NBA schedule.
They were drilled Friday in Charlotte after losing Wednesday in Philadelphia, and they’re staring down the barrel of a stretch of three games in four days starting Sunday. The Raptors need to get out of whatever they want to call the funk they are in.
They went over reams of film of before a quick workout on Saturday, mostly pointing out mistakes they know they shouldn’t make.
“A lot of it is the mental focus more than anything else, more mental fatigue than physical fatigue,” Casey said. “It’s up to us to hold us to hold each other accountable. The players hold each other accountable, we’re holding them accountable as a coaching staff.
“There was nobody spared in the film session, that’s the way it should be because everybody had mistakes (Friday) night.”
As Casey was talking, two of the team’s injured big men were taking part in a series of four-on-four games after Toronto’s film session and quick workout Saturday.
Patrick Patterson, who has missed five straight games and nine of the last 11 after injuring his left knee at a game in Phoenix, and Lucas Nogueira, who sat out the last two road losses under the NBA’s concussion protocol, will be re-examined Sunday before being cleared to play against the Suns.
Casey isn’t sure how close his injured players are to being 100 per cent. “We’ll find out tomorrow where guys are and how their bodies feel,” he said.
Their return would restore a sense of normalcy to the Raptors rotation that has been missing since Patterson was first injured. It’s not an excuse, Casey said, but it is a factor.
“We’re playing some threes at the four out of necessity but, that said, what we’re doing is simple enough that we shouldn’t have those mental mistakes,” the coach said. “That’s no excuse, injuries happen to everybody, to every team in the league and how you handle it and how you come out of it is on us.”