Following Friday morning practice session in Toronto, Raptors head coach Dwane Casey spoke to members of the media with regards to what his team needs a bit more of. Now that they're facing a 2-0 deficit in their Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers, coach Casey is calling for more “grit and toughness” from his players.
“It’s pride, it’s toughness,” coach Casey told SportsNet Friday, speaking after practice before his Toronto Raptors departed for Cleveland, where they’ll play two awfully important games against the Cavaliers. “The toughness part is the part I didn’t think we played with last night. I thought we did in Game 1. We did in parts of last night. But we didn’t do it long enough. So, it’s about grit, toughness.
“The rookies, they don’t know any better,” coach Casey continued. “They should just be playing hard. But the veterans, they understood. They spoke up in the film session, spoke up in our practice this morning. They understand what we need to do now. The difference is between words and actually getting out there and doing it. I can get up there and speak and draw up X’s and O’s all we want to. But it’s just physicality, grit, and toughness.”
Coach Casey is right about Toronto's Game 1 performance — a 113-112 overtime loss inside the Air Canada Centre. However, an incredible performance from LeBron James in Thursday night's Game 2 affair led to a rather embarrassing defeat (128-110). Simply put, James exploded, scoring 43 points on 19-28 shooting from the field (1-3 from beyond the arc), 14 assists, eight rebounds and one steal in 41 minutes of action. Making things a bit worse, Kevin Love racked up 31 points and 11 rebounds.
“It can’t look like a summertime workout, or a pregame workout. It’s got to look like there’s some duress or distress,” Raptors swingman CJ Miles told SportsNet. “Make them wrestle, make them fight. I always say, ‘if I’m going to go down I’m going to go down with all my bullets gone.’ You’re going to go down fighting. And that’s the way it’s got to be.”
Game 3 is set to tip inside Quicken Loans Arena at 8:30 p.m. EST on Saturday night. ABC will have live broadcast coverage. Let's see how the Raptors respond.
“We’re professional players,” coach Casey said in closing. “It’s a seven-game series. We can feel sorry for ourselves if we want to. But I don’t think our guys are going to. We know what we didn’t do and have to do better. We know it’s tough. It’s not going to be easy. But, yet and still, we have the toughness and grit.
“That’s what we’re made out of. And that’s what we have to depend on.”
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