After a close but ultimately humiliating loss to a Knicks roster resembling a D-League squad, Dwane Casey, Amir Johnson, and DeMar DeRozan spoke to the media.
Casey was asked whether the problem is mental for DeMar DeRozan right now:
A lot of it is. Not only for DeMar, but for all of us. A lot of it is mental. Golfers get the yips as far as puts, we’re getting point blank three-point shots, point-blank layups, dunks that we normally make. The only thing that’s going to fix that is to see it go through, and guys to pull themselves through it.
On whether the team is taking good shots:
Some of the wide open looks are looks that guys make. Patrick Patterson, I’ll take those shots from him. Lou Williams getting a lot of wide open looks. Couple of threes that were ill-advised, some in transition, some people shooting threes that shouldn’t be shooting them, should be driving to the basket, we got to clean those up. For the most part, the ball did move, the ball popped, at the end of the day to get those assists we got to make buckets.
On DeRozan’s ill-advised 360-attempt and whether he’ll talk to him about it:
That happens. It wasn’t advised, no, you don’t want that to happen at all. He knows better, I don’t know if there needs to be a conversation about that. I’d just like for him to get his confidence back. Get back to DeMar DeRozan who usually can post anybody in the low-post, make point-blank layups and wide open jump shots. I think he needs that more than criticism right now, he needs a pat on the back and an arm round him more than a foot in the butt.
Amir Johnson on whether the team is down:
We’re good. We still good, man. It’s been worse than where we are now. Just because we’re on a little losing streak doesn’t mean we lose our confidence. We just need to come together as a team and get a win, and continue off that win. Our confidence is still up.
DeMar DeRozan on what needs to be done:
Put together one good game, honestly, just get back to understanding and knowing that we can play a lot better basketball. Got to execute better on both ends, just understand our coverages, if we’re going to switch, or big-big rotate, it’s just a collective effort, not just one guy. Especially on the defensive side, we got to be on string together. Put together spurts of spots, not trade buckets and not rely on our offense to win games.
I usually reserve this space for a comment on the quotes, except that this time I have no words. We lost to the Knicks and Andrea Bargnani outplayed DeMar DeRozan, and a dude by the name of Langston Galloway hit the game-icing three. There are no words that can sum that up coherently.
I’ll leave it at this: the Raptors are not playing as a team. Their star player’s play is setting a bad example for the rest, and speaks to a lack of accountability present on the team. When guys see DeMar DeRozan looking off Jonas Valanciunas in favor of taking a horrible shot, it’s got to be deflating. The surprising part is that DeRozan and Kyle Lowry are self-proclaimed leaders on the team, so when you see the former setting horrid examples, it doesn’t compute. Maybe he needs to be brought down a notch down and not think he’s the official scorer on the team, and perhaps go back to playing the way he did when he just came back from injury: pass first, get-fouled second, shoot third.
Quotes transcribed from raptors.com videos.
