Dwane Casey's message to his players before tip-off Thursday night was about consistency.
It seems the message got lost along the way.
The night after a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the Hawks in Atlanta, the Toronto Raptors dropped a 106-105 decision to the visiting Denver Nuggets.
And afterward, a visibly angry Casey talked about an inconsistent Raptors team that virtually coughed up the game in a horrible first half.
"We're like this," said the Raptors coach, mimicking a roller-coaster with his hand. "We've got to get a level of play that we decide we're going to play at from the start of the game until the end of the game, we can't wait until we get our teeth kicked in before we start to play.
"That's been our M.O., whether we change the starting unit. . . just to get that jump-start, we've got to do it. It's just too many games in a row now that we get out and dig ourselves a hole."
DeMar DeRozan poured in 34 points, while Kyle Lowry had 16 points, eight assists, and six rebounds for the Raptors (12-8), in their first of six straight home games. Cory Joseph scored 15 points off the bench, while DeMarre Carroll had 10 points and six boards.
Will Barton scored 22 points to top the Nuggets (7-13), while Danilo Gallinari added 21.
Speaking to the media pre-game, Casey was wary of a repeat of last week, when the Raptors edged the Wizards in Washington, then lost ugly the next night at home to Phoenix.
His worries were well-founded as the Raptors dug themselves an 18-point hole by halftime. The Nuggets took an 81-71 lead into the fourth quarter in front of an Air Canada Centre capacity crowd of 19,800.
The Raptors stepped up their defence and capitalized on several turnovers and when Joseph scored on a driving layup with 5:24 to play, it pulled Toronto to within two.
But Denver hit right back, scoring six unanswered points.
"You've got a wounded animal coming into your house, and we didn't respond," Casey said. "Same with Phoenix the other night. They were wounded and came in and outworked us in our house. And that's embarrassing for that to happen."
The Raptors threatened a couple of times down the stretch. Luis Scola banked in a jumper to make it a three-point game with 26 seconds left, and then Carroll drilled a three-pointer to cut the Nuggets' lead to two, with just 3.3 seconds left. But two free throws from Barton clinched the win, and a three-pointer at the buzzer by Lowry was virtually bonus points.
"To be a big time program, we've got to be consistent," Casey said. "If we think about building a championship program — consistency."
The Raptors missed nine of their first 12 shots in a horrible first quarter that put them in an early 16-point hole. They shot just 36 per cent in the frame, and the Nuggets took a 29-19 advantage into the second.
"We've got to come out with a sense of urgency and not wait until we get down, to (have to) exert extra energy to get back in the game," DeRozan said. "We've just got to have a conscious effort of that every single night. We've got to understand we've got to put our stamp on the game early and control it the way we need to control it instead of fighting back.
"It always comes down to the last one or two possessions, we can't have that."
The Nuggets stretched their lead to 18 points on a layup by Nikola Jokic with 5:36 left in the second quarter, and Denver headed into the locker-room at halftime up 56-42.
The Raptors showed some life in the third, and a running dunk by Carroll pulled them to within six.
The Raptors host the league-leading Golden State Warriors on Saturday.
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét