Toronto Raptors fend off Washington Wizards for 99-92 win

This is not really a time about measuring themselves against the night?s competition for the Raptors, it?s a time to take stock of where they are as a team, how far they?ve come and how much further they have to go, regardless of who they play.

So there wasn?t a lot of joy, nor any real sense of satisfaction after they beat the woeful Washington Wizards 99-92 at the Air Canada Centre on Sunday because as many troubling signs are being shown as there are good ones.

?Another below average defensive game for us,? said coach Dwane Casey, who will take the win but not the manner in which it was achieved.

?That?s going to be our challenge as a staff, to keep in tune defensively the rest of the way and not lose the foundation we have,? he said after a late flurry from DeMar DeRozan and Andrea Bargnani and a couple of sneaky big plays from Amir Johnson put away the game.

?We got it back the second half but we can?t mess with the game like that. We?ve got to make sure we stay with our focus and have that type of pride every time we walk on the floor, no matter who it is.?

As a whole, the Raptors were brutal defensively in the first half and Bargnani was among the most egregious offenders. He was slow to rotate, if he rotated at all, and didn?t play with nearly the intensity Casey wants, or he needs to have.

But it wasn?t as if the rest of the team was in some lockdown mode; all the rotations were slow, ball pressure was non-existent, perimeter shooters got too much room and only the ineptitude of the Wizards kept Toronto in the game.

?The trust has eroded a little bit, we have to get that back,? said Casey. ?Just the timing and recognitions of situations is just totally off.

?(It?s) totally different from two weeks ago; we have to get those things back, continue to harp on them, get on them because we can?t lose our foundation.?

Luckily, although the 12-40 Wizards played worse than Toronto over the course of the game, the Raptors woke up enough in the second half to survive a 31-point Washington fourth quarter.

DeRozan shot all nine of his free throws and had 13 of his 15 points in the second half while Bargnani led the Raptors with 18 points and Jose Calderon had 15.

Johnson had 10 points but also two of the game?s most pivotal plays. With Toronto clinging to a three-point lead with just over a minute to go, he had a thunderous putback dunk of a DeRozan miss.

About 30 seconds later, he set one of the greatest screens by a Toronto player this season to clear out the lane and allow DeRozan free passage to the rim for an easy layup.

?That was a great screen by Amir, the old San Antonio move (called) going down the highway,? said Casey. ?He cleared the highway for him; a legal screen.?

While victory is the preferred result of the two outcomes possible each game, Casey knows he?s going to coax better defensive efforts out of his team in the final 13 games of the regular season.

The thing he?ll have to fight most of all is the mental aspect, making sure the Raptors stay focused the rest of the way. It?s not easy for a non-playoff team to play hard every night through the end of the season. It will be up to Casey to make sure they do.

?I think if you look across the board in the entire NBA every coach is saying the same thing. It?s not really the playoffs for some of the teams, it?s not really time to really lock in so it?s kind of going through the malaise of this time of year for us,? he said.

?It usually hits this time of year. They can?t see the end of the road, it?s just the timing of it.?

safe and sound botticelli x factor winner footlocker julia gillard julia gillard pecan pie