Raptors tip off six-game road trip against Blazers
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The Toronto Raptors will open a six-game road trip Monday night against the Portland Trail Blazers and they feel that the timing could not be better.
They have dropped four of their past five games, including a 127-121 loss to the visiting Detroit Pistons on Saturday to fall to 2-6 at home. They are 5-1 on the road.
“Seems like we haven’t played nearly as good defense at home as we’ve played on the road,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “The record probably points directly to that. … We’re not sure why. We should have more energy and juice feeding off our home crowd and flying around a little bit more. But we haven’t seemed to lock in, I guess, I would say, a businesslike or professional-like attitude at home for some reason.”
Toronto does not play at home again until Nov. 28.
The Raptors will be facing a Trail Blazers team that lost 124-95 to the Denver Nuggets Sunday night, completing a 1-3 road trip.
Damian Lillard missed his first game of the season for Portland on Sunday with an abdominal injury.
The Raptors played Saturday without Fred VanVleet (groin). Nurse said VanVleet should be returning “fairly soon.”
Pascal Siakam had 25 points and 12 rebounds in 35 minutes Saturday in his third game since returning from offseason shoulder surgery for a torn labrum. Playing time restrictions applied during the early stages of his return have been lifted.
Siakam feels that having the same group together on the court will help the team mesh.
“I just feel like we have to continue to learn, we have to take every game with the same approach,” Siakam said. “And I think that comes with experience. We’ve got to continue to get better and make sure we pay attention to details because those are important; it’s going to win you a game every single night.
“So we have to be really focused on that. And I thought (Saturday) we made a lot of little mistakes that cost us the game. That’s something that we have to continue to grow and learn from, and I think we will get…
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Source : yahoo
