“We just started to get a little overconfident. We started taking it to heart that we were a good team and we haven’t accomplished anything yet.”
– James Johnson
Post-game, Raptors vs Hawks
That overconfidence was bizarre to begin with. The Raptors came home on their flight from Phoenix with a sense of alleviation. Ten of their next 17 games were scheduled to be at the Air Canada Center – 13 of them against sub .500 teams.
How distressing to know that three games into their ‘softer’ schedule, the Raptors have a losing record. It’s mentally straining – each loss is a domino effect that adds to battered morale.
It’s not always easy to measure confidence levels, but you can sometimes observe it – as was the case in the locker room tonight after the game. The difference in mood tonight as oppose to Wednesday night was like night and day.
No jokes, no laughter. Even getting a murmur out of the players outside the scrums was difficult. None of the players really wanted to talk. The last time the Raptors were given a proper beat-down at home was in November against the Bulls. That night the Raptors had a similar conquered-attitude about them. Losing is one thing, but losing to an opponent you know is just better than you is another.
Dwane Casey didn’t try to sugarcoat anything, everyone from 1-15 and the entire coaching staff is upset.
“You should be frustrated if you’re getting your butts kicked,” Casey said. “We’re all frustrated and you should be. If you’re a competitor you should be frustrated, but there’s no frustrating in pointing fingers, it’s everybody.”
When asked more about it, Dwane Casey compared it to being hit by a wall – one that requires a sledge hammer to demolish.
“Whatever wall we hit, we hit it, and we got to get a sledge hammer and bust through it together. There is no one person in there you can fault, it’s not that, it is all of us in together. It’s something we got to fight through and grind out.”
That wall the Raptors have hit can be explained to an extent. Decision-making with the basketball has been questionable. Turnovers have been a huge issue.
The other main problem is the inability to rotate quick enough on the defensive end. Five defenders collapse and the opponents can usually swing it around quickly enough to the weak side for an open look. That’s been a headache all season. Against a team like the 76ers you get away with it, but against the Hawks you’ll get torched.
As Dwane Casey noted, the effort is there, but the decision-making isn’t. There are things beyond Casey’s control, one of them is Terrence Ross’ inability to score the basketball despite having good looks.
When asked about Ross’ slump, Casey could only say so much.
“He’s getting good looks.”
Something else beyond the coaching staff’s grasp: The efficiency in which teams dissect them through tape. Particularly now that they’re on the radar.
Outside of the scrums, James Johnson nailed it.
“Everyone is scouting us now.”
DeMar breifly talked about it too.
“I think it’s just teams putting more pressure on us.”
So how do the Raptors get back on track? A trade might inject some life back into the team. The need for a rim protector has been discussed to death.
A trade is always a risk though. The Raptors are still in a good place in the East – depending on what your expectations are – and putting a bucket down doesn’t fix the leak.
According to DeMar it’s just getting back to doing things the right way – the way they started the season when he was around to propel the Raptors to the top of the conference.
“We just have to regroup and look at the things that we may not be doing right. With me coming back and playing my second game, it’s just getting back involved and getting back to how we were playing at the beginning of the season.”
