FLYIN’ HIGH IN PHILLY
Phoenix Suns took on 76ers Monday ahead of tonight’s matchup with Raptors
SUN RISES: Suns’ Marquese Chriss goes airborne after trying to dunk over the 76ers’ Dario Saric during play Monday night in Philadelphia. The Suns continue their road trip Tuesday night against the Raptors at the Air Canada Centre. More,
There wasn’t a lot of practice time for NBA teams under the old scheduling system, when games were jammed into a period almost two weeks shorter than they are now.
Also, back-to-backs were more frequent, and the spectre of four games in five nights always loomed.
Now that the grind is eased a bit with no more four-in-fives, fewer back-to-backs and plenty of extra time in the calendar year for the same 82 games, one thing is apparent and entirely counterintuitive: There’s still not a lot of time for practice.
As illogical as that sounds, it’s become a fact for the Raptors now that they are in one of the easiest periods of their schedule.
When they face the Phoenix Suns at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night, it will be Toronto’s third game in a 13-day span. This is unheard of rest for a team well into the regular season. Still, coach Dwane Casey hasn’t had a chance to work them too hard.
“It seems like, ‘Oh, you should just go out and practise,’ but it’s harder because you’ve got to make sure you manage the rest, manage your legs, manage the energy the guys expend,” Casey said Monday after the Raptors worked out at their Biosteel practice facility.
“You can’t treat it like a training camp (and try to) get away with the gift the schedule is giving you.”
Casey and his staff have taken to changing the tone and script of practice each day just to break things up. They’ve done individual work one day and group work another; they’ve had long film sessions followed by on-court teaching moments and periods of free-flowing runs. There have been a couple of days entirely off, which is a welcome break for all.
“That’s why we try to keep it fresh,” Casey said.
“We had two different groups (Sunday) . . . just to change it up to keep it fresh where it wouldn’t be monotonous. That’s the thing you want to work against — monotony and getting stale in those situations because you do have those days off.”
The break has also provided some recuperation time for injured players. Kyle Lowry was excused from Monday’s workout for a personal matter that was scheduled for a couple of weeks, Casey said, while Jakob Poeltl was sent home after showing up a little sick. Delon Wright continues to do some shooting as he recovers from a shoulder injury, while Lucas Nogueira remains on the shelf for an undetermined period thanks to a calf muscle tear.
And with the G League team on the road and unable to provide live, healthy bodies as reinforcements, the practice day was a bit limited by the number of available players.
“We had a good day (Sunday), a lot of individual work, team work,” Casey said. “Today was more team-oriented. We’ve had to be more creative in how we manage the practice days instead of thinking we have another training camp, which would defeat the purpose.”