BOSTON—There is a decided pecking order in the structure of the Toronto Raptors roster. Not all players are treated, or created, equally.
It’s the same all over the star-driven NBA and quite pronounced in Toronto, where things stop and start with all-star guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. The fans know it, the players and coaches know it; it’s just the way it is.
But that doesn’t mean the other players are bit actors in a season-long drama. For as much as it is The Lowry and DeRozan Show, if the supporting cast can’t help, the Raptors can’t win.
And, not surprisingly, the struggles of the role players in the last couple of weeks have meant even the efforts of Lowry and DeRozan have not been enough, explaining in part how the team has lost six of its last eight games.
Heading into Wednesday, forward Patrick Patterson was 8-for-21 from three-point range going in five games since coming back from a knee injury.
Canadian guard Cory Joseph has been up and mostly down all season. He hasn’t had a game of more than five assists in a fortnight, he’s having a hard time keeping opposing guards in front of him defensively, and he was 17-for-50 from the floor in eight games before Wednesday.
DeMarre Carroll was 18-for-67 in eight games, Terrence Ross has run hot and cold, with 21- and 17-point games interspersed with nights of six, four and seven.
Get the picture?
“We all know our role, we know that Kyle and DeMar get the bulk of the offence,” Patterson said. “We fill as is . . . We know what we have to do. And we’ve got to do better. We’ve got to do a lot better.”
No matter what Lowry and DeRozan do — and they have earned their status as the engines that drive the team — they need help.
“I think we’re a little out of sync. Some of our role players are starting, playing big minutes because of injuries,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said this week. “Now their chemistry is off a little bit. The reasons and excuses are not important, but that is (the case).
“I don’t know if it’s a lack of effort. It’s a lack of chemistry more than anything else, if that makes sense. They’re off. Their plus-minus has been down for the last couple of weeks. And I would say that it would be attributed to their lack of chemistry.”
To be sure, DeRozan has been out of the lineup— he missed his fifth game of the last six Wednesday as he tries to recover from an ankle injury — Patterson missed a couple of stretches with knee troubles, and and things have been jumbled for some time. But it’s a no-excuse league and they know they have to be better.
“We have to give Kyle and DeMar an outlet on the offensive end, we have to relieve pressure on them,” Patterson said. “We do rely on them a lot. I think each and everyone of us has to step up on the offensive end, whether it’s hitting shots in clutch moments, whether it’s creating plays and finishing around the rim, attacking, being a lot better on that end. We know we have to do that.
“Kyle and DeMar can only do so much. We all collectively have to step up.”
The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, Vevobahis 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
