体坛英语新闻：Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas continues to grow despite loss to Hawks

TORONTO, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Toronto Raptors rookie-center Jonas Valanciunas continued his strong performance in the team's 91-109 loss to the Atlanta Hawks in NBA action on Wednesday night.

Valanciunas recorded a team-high 19 points to go along with 8 rebounds in 32 minutes.

Over the past eight games, Valanciunas' has averaged over 30 minutes a game, 13.3 points and 7.3 rebounds, compared to his season averages of 22 minutes, 7.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game.

Raptors head coach Dwane Casey is proud of Valanciunas' growth over the season.

"He is gaining confidence, playing time is going up," said Casey during the post-game press conference. "His confidence level is gaining by the minute, by the games."

With virtually no chance of making the playoffs, the 26-45 Casey's Raptors have 11 games remaining on the season to develop rookies like Valanciunas and slam dunk champion, Terrence Ross.

While Casey wants to put his rookies in a high-pressure situation to learn and make mistakes, he is still pushing his team to play for pride and win as many games as possible.

"I don't want to get into the habit of saying 'it's okay to lose'. At the same time, for his growth and development, (this) is a positive that we can get out of this," said Casey.

The 2.13-meter-tall Valanciunas was drafted fifth overall in the 2011 draft and played last season in native Lithuania before joining the Raptors.

The Lithuanian native has started 48 of the team's 53 games this season.

He started the team's first 28 games of the season before injuring his right ring finger, causing him to miss 18 games.