Morning Coffee – Mon, Mar 2

Raptors struggling to find ways to turn things around | Toronto Sun

“We’re good though,” Johnson interrupted a questioner after Saturday’s loss in New York City who was pointing out things have not gone well during this five-game losing skid. “We’re still good … We can’t feel sorry for ourselves even though we’re losing.” DeRozan said the team would be a “scary sight” when it gets rolling again. Greivis Vasquez put the current situation bluntly, though: “Our confidence, our swagger is just gone,” he said. “We are going to gather ourselves and talk. It is not going to be easy. It is time for us to be men and face the situation. This is when you find out who is who. We have a solid team. Now we have to show what we are made of. “We are second in the East we beat some good teams. Five teams from the West. They were good wins for us. We have proven we can do it.” Now, they will have to prove it again.

Kelly: Slumping Raptors need to rediscover who they are | The Globe and Mail

“Nobody said this was going to be easy,” Greivis Vasquez told reporters afterward. Sure, they did. Everyone said that. It isn’t the play sets, or offence, or effort, per se. Confidence is part of it, but the Raptors’ main problem is existential. At the beginning of the season, this team knew who it was – an outsider with a puncher’s chance. Now, it has no idea. The erratic, up-and-down performances started the moment the Raptors began to consider everyone else’s notion that they might be a dark-horse championship contender. They aren’t. They aren’t even close. They’re two or three players away. A point of order – 20 NBA teams are two or three players away from a title. What the Raptors need now is to rediscover who they are. If America is the native country of basketball, Toronto is its Island of Misfit Toys. There isn’t a player on this roster that hasn’t, at some point in his career, been an afterthought. Most have had their skills or character or basic make-up loudly doubted by their employers. A few have just been ignored. Most have been effectively fired. It’s a patchwork crew of guys who at some point were weighed and judged and found to be second-rate. But it all works together. Ujiri and Lowry were both right. The Raptors time is now. The question is “Time for what?”

Sixers could fix what ails struggling Raptors | Toronto Star

Part of the reason for the fall, said Vasquez, is that the Raptors no longer have the element of surprise they did earlier this season. There’s no longer any flying under the radar for a team that made the playoffs last year and got off to a strong start this season, Vasquez explained. “The season narrows down. Games start getting harder. Teams prepare for us. Now we’re not the Cinderella team any more. Teams are really preparing for us,” Vasquez said. The Raptors also need to get back to talking and working together the way they did in more successful times. “It’s a collective effort. I don’t think we’re doing it collectively, and that’s the bottom line. We have to play defensively help each other out, offensively we have to move the ball,” said Vasquez.

NBA Preview – Toronto Raptors at Philadelphia 76ers – Mar 02, 2015 | CBSSports.com

Covington overcame a 5-for-15 shooting performance to score a team-best 18 points in the loss to Toronto in January. Noel had a career-high 14 rebounds and 12 points while the Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan was held to eight points on 4-of-14 shooting. DeRozan, scoring 17.8 points per game, averaged 25.8 in his previous six matchups but enters this one in a shooting slump. The guard has connected at 33.7 percent in his last 12 games and missed 38 of 52 attempts in his past three contests.

Raptors-Sixers: Monday game preview | Toronto Star