体坛英语新闻：Raptors continue defensive struggles in loss to Magic

TORONTO, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Toronto Raptors defence allowed Orlando Magic to shoot 53.2 percent in a 114-113 loss on Sunday evening's NBA game.

With the loss, Toronto fell to 29-19 on the season and have dropped six of their past seven games. Raptors also fell to third place in the Conference, allowing the 29-18 Celtics to overpass them by half a game.

Raptors Head Coach Dwane Casey was displeased with his team's effort on the defensive end.

"We have to find five men that are going to go out there and defend," Casey said after the loss. "You can go right down the roster and everybody had a defensive mistake. It's everybody and that is what I told the team, everybody is involved, the whole group in the room, we're all accountable for this."

Entering the game, Orlando ranked in the bottom five in points scored (99.7 per game), field goal percentage (44.1), and three-point percentage (33.5). During the game, Toronto's defence allowed Orlando to score 114 points on 42-for-79 (53.2 percent) from the field and 10-for-23 (43.5 percent) from beyond the arc.

The worst stretch in the game for Casey's squad was the middle of the second quarter where Orlando went on a 21-2 run in the final 6:20 of the quarter to erase a ten-point Raptors lead.

"It's as bad as we have played all year," Casey said of the rough stretch in the second quarter. "We have to go back to fundamental basketball, back to basics, almost back to training camp to get our defence back in check."

Raptors All-Star guard Kyle Lowry, who had a game-high 33 points and eight assists, agrees with his coach's assessment of team's recent woes.

"I agree with him," Lowry said after the game. "I think it (defence) is something we haven't relied on, our offence has been so good the last couple of seasons but Dwane Casey's staple in this league has been defence and we're not living up to that."

After outscoring opponents by an average of 7.8 points per game in their first 32 games of the season, Raptors have been outscored by an average of 0.8 points in the 16 games since. During this span, which dates back to Jan. 1, Raptors hold a record of 7-9. This is the first month since March 2015 that Toronto will finish with a losing record.

"It's very challenging," Lowry said of the rough stretch. "At the end of the day we still have to go out there and play games, nobody is going to feel sorry for us. So at the end of the day we have to stay positive, stay upbeat, watch and learn and take everything and continue to grow as a team.

On a positive note, Raptors saw the return of three-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan, who missed the past three games with a sprained right ankle. The 27-year-old finished the game with 22 points, seven rebounds and six assists in just over 36 minutes of action.

Next up for Raptors is Tuesday evening when they host Anthony Davis and the Pelicans.