Raptors sharing Lowry’s pain

‘We’re all frustrated,’ coach Casey says of his team’s struggles

His voice may have been the most resounding in the Toronto Raptors’ locker room on Sunday night, but Kyle Lowry is hardly alone in his dissatisfaction.

The guard called for change after a narrow defeat to the Detroit Pistons that night, a game which saw the Raptors squander a 16-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

But Lowry stopped short of sharing just what changes he believed were necessary, clamping down with the intention to “keep my mouth shut, keep it professional.”

On Monday, Lowry denied speculation that his critique was directed at Raptors head coach Dwane Casey, saying his comments were more general.

“They were more so me saying, ‘We’ve got to do things, change things, myself get better and hold guys accountable more,’ ” he said.

“I don’t do anything but play basketball. I don’t make management decisions, I don’t make coaching decisions. I say what I feel from my heart. At the time, that’s how I felt.”

Casey did not take his player’s analysis as a personal slight. If anything, he said he understands Lowry’s take.

“We’re all frustrated,” Casey said. “I take that as frustration. Kyle and I, we have a husband-wife relationship that’s good and bad. We go at each other but at the end of the day we know that we’re in the foxhole together.”

The same can be said for the group as a whole, according to forward DeMarre Carroll. The team’s closeness has not changed even as tension simmers.

“Guys are still together, still on the same page,” Carroll said. “Guys love each other, guys talk all the time. We had a group text last night so we’re good, we’re in good spirits.”

It is certainly not the first time the Raptors franchise has faced adversity, but hardships have been few and far between for this particular group over the past two seasons. With the recent rough stretch — the Raptors have dropped 10 of 14 games and fallen to fourth in the East — the bad is that much more magnified.

“We’re not responding to the adversity well at all,” Lowry said. “We’ve just got to figure it out. Every single thing we do is just tough right now on us. Shots are tough and defensively guys are making shots on us.

“We’ve got to find ways to dictate the game a lot better.”

The Raptors’ problems did not suddenly become apparent in this most recent 14-game stretch. The last time they faced the Chicago Bulls, who they visit Tuesday night, the team was plagued by a now familiar storyline: the Raptors started the fourth quarter of that early January contest with a 12-point lead, only to blow a game which seemed all but put to bed.

Toronto’s self-destructive behaviour that evening allowed Chicago to put up 33 points in the final 12 minutes and another 16 in overtime.

Toronto was riding a 24-12 record at the time, so while Lowry lamented the loss to the Bulls in the aftermath, no one was pressing the panic button.

Today, things are more dire. But Tuesday is another day, Lowry said.

“We’ve got a chance to go and win games. We win the game and we get better. That’s all we can ask for is to continue to grow and get better as a group.”

Do that and Carroll believes all the recent frustration will begin to melt away.

“We’ve just got to clean up these things at the end of the game and start back winning,” Carroll said, “and it’ll be like this never happened.”