A few short shots during Wednesday night’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves might not be a sign of fatigue, but Raptors all-star DeMar DeRozan wouldn’t say no to a little help, either.
A day after teammate Kyle Lowry admitted he was tired of discussing the club’s defensive woes and how to fix them, DeRozan said he would welcome some assistance when it comes to getting the Raptors, who have lost nine of their last 13 games, back to winning ways.
“Help is a great word with any team. Anybody could take help any day if it makes you better, a team better, anything,” he said Thursday.
But while the Raptors could add reinforcements by the NBA’s Feb. 23 trade deadline, the coaching staff and players plan to use this rare break in the schedule to focus on X’s and O’s and defensive systems, not the potential for a roster shakeup.
“I like our team,” coach Dwane Casey said the day after dropping a 112-109 decision in Minneapolis. “I like our guys. I have no control over personnel matters.
“(Raptors boss Masai Ujiri) and I have talked about our needs or whatever before, but I’m not even thinking about trade deadlines, and I encourage our guys not to worry about that and do the job where you’re at.”
Help or no help, DeRozan knows the Raptors need to focus on playing a complete game after a road loss that was largely the result of late-game mistakes. They have some time to work on solutions before returning to action against the Detroit Pistons on Sunday at the Air Canada Centre. The list of trouble spots is long, Casey said.
“Not letting guys cut to where they want to cut, forcing the post-ups out, pick-and-roll defence, getting into the body, a lot of different things,” he said.
Casey plans to use the practice time to focus on basic drills, reinforcing points that get lost in the grind of a long season.
“All the things we’ve been having trouble on, those are habits. You can talk about it, you can show it on film, but the only way you can do it is continue to do it in practice to rekindle those habits,” he said.
Practice is important, but so is balance, Lowry said.
“I played 36 (minutes), DeMar played 37 (minutes),” the all-star point guard said following Wednesday’s defeat. “That’s a lot of minutes for guys and a lot of travel. Right now, I think rest is our best friend.”
So is understanding your role, added forward DeMarre Carroll: “That’s big. Especially going to the playoffs, we’ve got to clean those things up because that’s what it’s going to come down to. It’s going to be physical play and down to the details at the last minutes.
“One guy can’t take a player off. We’ve going to do that collectively. If we can do that, we’ll come up with some of these wins.”
Carroll added he isn’t convinced the team needs to bring in anyone new to improve. For now, he said, it’s up to each player to do more: “Hopefully we can man up and do it.”
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