A process, Dwane Casey calls it, reiterating almost daily that the Toronto Raptors will not become a defensive juggernaut overnight, that it will take constant improvement and consistency for them to get where they feel they need to be.
They took a major step back at the Air Canada Centre on Sunday night.
The Raptors held a 16-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, but dropped a disheartening 102-101 decision to the Detroit Pistons that under-scored Casey’s assertion that the periodic lulls the team goes through can often crush them.
A Kentavious Caldwell-Pope three pointer with 13.2 seconds left completed a dramatic comeback for the Pistons.
The Raptors suffered a series of crippling breakdowns on Detroit’s game-winning possession, the kind of lack of attention to detail that Casey has been harping on all season. Ish Smith was wide open on the perimeter and passed up a shot to drive. When he kicked the ball to Caldwell-Pope in the corner, he was equally open to knock down the game-winner.
Toronto’s last chance went by the boards at the buzzer as DeMar DeRozan’s 17-foot turnaround jumper got nothing but iron.
Despite one of their best defensive showings in weeks, the late-game slip-up was much the same kind of issue that has popped up consistently all season. Toronto’s offensive game bogged down, which caused the defence to lapse and it cost them another game.
Tobias Harris led Detroit with 24 points while Caldwell-Pope finished with 21.
DeRozan had 26 and Jonas Valanciunas 17 for Toronto, which fell to 32-23 on the season. Kyle Lowry had 15 points.
The Raptors were once again without veteran forward Patrick Patterson, who missed his eighth straight game with a bruised left knee.
Casey said before the game that Patterson had gone through a “good workout (on Saturday). . . so that’s encouraging.” The Raptors didn’t say if Patterson would return Tuesday in Chicago.
Casey did make a change in Patterson’s starting power forward spot, starting one rookie, Jakob Poeltl, over another, Pascal Siakam.
Poeltl has played exclusively at centre this season and only played about three minutes all year in the same frontcourt as Jonas Valanciunas but Casey had been steadfast that specific matchups would dictate who plays the spot that will eventually be Patterson’s.
With the Pistons starting six-foot-10 power forward Jon Leuer, who is more of an outside scoring threat, the Raptors coach countered with Poeltl, who played 20 minutes with five points and four rebounds.
Patterson’s absence has exposed a roster need for the Raptors and, with the NBA trade deadline less than two weeks away, rumours of possible moves will only become more prevalent.
Casey is spending time trying to convince his players to ignore them.
“I’m more trying to keep our guys’ attention off of it,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of issues. I’ll leave that to Masai (Ujiri, the team’s president) and Jeff (Weltman, the general manager) . . . they’re all over it as far as what the league is doing, who’s doing what. They’re on the phone constantly. So I’ll let them do that part. I try to stay out of that.”
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