PHOENIX—There will be no lamps smashed in anger, as there have been in Raptors history. There will be no yelling and screaming or tantrum throwing, and no locker room buffets will be tossed aside by a coach more bent on theatrics than reality.
Dwane Casey knows that things aren't particularly good for his team right now — that's as obvious as anything in the world — but he knows the way things are in the real world of NBA basketball and, while miffed, he will not overreact.
"Some of the mistakes we're making are just mentally flat mistakes," Casey said after the Raptors were drubbed 125-109 by the Phoenix Suns here Sunday night.
"All the yelling and screaming in the world is not going to change that. It's a byproduct of a long season. You're going to have stretches like that in an 82-game season.
"There's no room to panic or anything like that, but we've got to get back to Toronto and back to the basics defensively. We're going to start from scratch. We have to."
It is a wise course of action.
There will be moments like Sunday's — and Friday's loss to Golden State — that will come up over a long and tiring season. There are too many games in too few nights. The toll it takes is real, and the fact that the Raptors have now put up back-to-back stinkers is only surprising because it took 30-plus games before it happened.
They have not been good this weekend, but they are not terrible. This stretch of disturbing play will pass. It's just a matter of finding that mental sharpness that's eluding them right at this moment.
"We hold guys accountable for what they do, but it's such a long season you can't come in and browbeat them for being flat mentally," said Casey. "We tried to get some quick substitutions in to keep fresh bodies in, fresh minds in.
"We played three very solid playoff teams, very good teams, but that's no excuse. We have to be stronger mentally and have a better focus on the defensive end."
The Raptors were collectively dead from the neck up from the opening tip as they lost a third straight game for the first time since December, 2013. The Suns hung a 43-point second quarter on them to assume a 70-53 halftime lead and render the second half basically 24 minutes of inconsequential play.
It was the second straight ugly first half for Toronto — the Warriors dropped 66 on them Friday in Oakland — and that's a troubling habit developing. But not enough to cause the players too much angst.
"We can't worry about what happened two games ago or a game ago," said Kyle Lowry. "Tonight we got our butt kicked, and we have a long homestand to go home to and prepare for and that's what we should focus on."
The Raptors, who will likely have DeMar DeRozan back for Thursday's game against Charlotte, got 21 points from Jonas Valanciunas and 19 from Lowry in a game they'll try to forget quickly.
"It's a long season," said Lowry. "It's not a sprint. It's a marathon. I think we have a bunch of resilient guys in there, but it's three games. Everybody loses games.
"We weren't going to go 82-0 and we weren't going to break the Bulls record of 72-10, so let's throw that out the window now and just go out there and play games. We've just got to come back and refocus."
The loss leaves Toronto with a 2-3 record for the five-game post-Christmas road trip, and 2-4 if the pre-Christmas Chicago game is considered. In some seasons under other circumstances that might be something the Raptors would feel good about, but with high expectations for this team — after early-season success — this won't sit well with anyone.
"We're not satisfied whatsoever because . . . the mental focus level wasn't where it needs to be for a playoff calibre team," said Casey. "I thought guys were trying. I don't think anybody out there was dogging it . . . but there's a way to compete mentally and a way to compete physically, and we're competing physically but not mentally."
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