TORONTO - Even before the Hawks painted their latest masterpiece on the canvas that has become the slumping Toronto Raptors, Dwane Casey couldnt help but fawn over the NBAs hottest team. Although the Raptors head coach immediately shot down an implication of jealousy, could you blame him if he was a bit envious of Fridays opponent? 14 Eastern Conference coaches should be. Oh, its impressive, Casey admitted ahead of his teams 110-89 loss to the Hawks, Atlantas 25th win over its last 27 games. Somebody asked me yesterday, was I envious? But Im not envious, Im impressed more than envious. Weve shown times where weve moved the ball early in the season and got the ball humming and moving, he continued. Weve shown stretches of that. The Raptors were the Easts best team for a franchise-best 60 straight days before Atlanta dethroned them on the second night of the new calendar year. While the Hawks have been on a tear through the league, defeating some of the NBAs best teams in impressive fashion, Toronto continues to trend in the opposite direction with no easily apparent or quick fix in sight. That was not us, Casey said after they allowed the Hawks to shoot 61 per cent in a game that matched their most lopsided defeat of the season. We didnt come out and put our best game on the court. Its not one person. Were still in that rut and the only way were going to get out of it is to work our way out of it. Casey would not diminish his teams effort and overall compete level, but knows that whatever it is the Hawks are playing with right now - what the Raptors had to begin the season - escapes them at the moment. For the second time this week, they held a closed-door, post-game meeting, the content of which theyre keeping to themselves, rightfully so. With limited practice time and mid-season fatigue beginning to wear on them, the challenge could be a mental one more than anything else. Theyve lost six of eight after racing out to an impressive 24-7 start. How do they find themselves again? We had a long talk, James Johnson said. Its going to stay internal, but we just got a little over-confident and we started taking to heart that were a good team [but] we havent accomplished nothing yet. As long as we get back to that, were still in a good place. Were still third [in the conference], first in our division, but it can go south right away and we dont want that. Toronto has accounted for a quarter of Atlantas eight losses on the season, both coming early in the campaign. Now, the division between the two clubs is significant. Casey often likens these Hawks to the multidimensional Spurs teams of the last couple decades - a natural comparison given that their coach, Mike Budenholzer, spent 17 years working as an assistant under Gregg Popovich in San Antonio. There are a couple obvious similarities in the way they spread the floor and move the ball but theyre also looking an awful lot like the Golden State Warriors team that also handed Toronto a 21-point loss earlier this month. All 10 players that logged meaningful minutes for the Hawks on Friday can shoot the ball. Most of them can pass and do so at a frenetic pace that had the Raptors defence running around aimlessly all night. Theyre a different team, Kyle Lowry said. More confident, learning their system even more. Their shooting is unbelievable right now. Theyre playing together. They got all their guys and theyre moving the ball extremely well, added DeMar DeRozan, who led Toronto with 25 points on 11-of-18 shooting in his second game back from injury - he and Johnson were the teams lone bright spots on the night. Theyre playing at a high level and you have to give them credit. Atlanta recorded 30 assists on 42 made field goals, hitting 12 of their 23 attempts from long distance and scoring 24 points off Torontos 19 turnovers - another alarmingly high total for a team that has dropped off considerably in that category. The Raptors have thrown the ball away 120 times over the past seven games after committing almost half the amount of turnovers (63) in the previous seven. You should be frustrated if youre getting your butts kicked, Casey said. Were all frustrated and you should be. If youre a competitor you should be frustrated, but theres no frustrating in pointing fingers, its everybody. On Friday, they were overmatched against a very good team that played nearly flawless basketball - an excusable loss in and of itself. But that storyline is sounding all too familiar. While the Hawks have been victorious in 11 of their last 12 contests against teams at or above the .500 mark, Toronto has dropped eight of nine to winning competition. Though the Hawks are beginning to separate themselves in the conference - now five games up on second-place Washington, five and a half ahead of Toronto - the East is still very much up for grabs. The Raptors may not be the team that many hoped they could be after that hot start to the season, but theyre right to believe they are better than this. At some point, if they are to contend in the conference and take another step as an organization, they have to start hitting back against the leagues heavy weights. They have to find themselves again. You can go right through the roster, said Casey. Coaches, players, say you can do this better, we can do this better. Thats what weve got to do, because weve done it. We did it at a high level for a couple of months. Weve just got to get that mojo back and get that two-by-four off our shoulder. Were still in a good place, but weve got to fight through this and grind through this tough spot right now. Steph Curry Shoes Free Shipping . In the late match, Shinji Okazaki scored two goals to pace Mainz to a 3-2 victory at Werder Bremen. Goals from Milan Badelj, Maximilian Beister and Hakan Calhanoglu ended Hamburgs two-match losing run and kept Hannover winless in seven games. Wholesale Steph Curry Shoes . J.J. Hardy drove in a run for the Orioles, who bounced back from an 8-4 loss in the series opener on Friday. Fresh off the 15-day disabled list, Derrek Lee went 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Jake Arrieta (7-3) gave up three runs on five hits over six innings to pick up the win. https://www.stephencurryshoescheap.com/. 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Ibaka is indeed injured and Oklahoma City needs to find a way to replace his defensive presence against San Antonio. Tim Duncan had 27 points and the Spurs took advantage of Ibakas absence to score more than half their points in the paint, beating the Thunder 122-105 Monday night in the opener of the best-of-seven series. Tony Parker did not appear limited by a hamstring injury, adding 14 points and 12 assists in 36 minutes in San Antonios first victory over Oklahoma City this season. Parker and coach Gregg Popovich both said earlier they werent sure if the Thunder would actually be without Ibaka, who injured his left calf in Oklahoma Citys series clincher against the Los Angeles Clippers. "Contrary to what San Antonio was thinking, hes not coming back," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. Thats bad news for Oklahoma City entering Game 2 on Wednesday. San Antonio had 66 points in the paint and shot 58 per cent from the field. It was the highest shooting percentage allowed by the Thunder in the post-season since relocating from Seattle. The Thunder got their usual offensive output from All-Stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, who scored 28 and 25 points, respectively. But Oklahoma Citys remaining starters, Nick Collison, Thabo Sefolosha and Kendrick Perkins, combined to score five points with 13 rebounds and one assist. Collison started in place of Ibaka and was 0 for 3 from the field with three rebounds and one blocked shot. Ibaka was averaging 12.2 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.23 blocks in 33.9 minutes in the post-season. "We play team defence, we dont just rely on Serge," Durant said. "He does a great job of blocking shots, but its all because of our team defence. Hes a big part of what we do. Hes a starter, had his best season this year, so of course were going to miss his presence, but we have guys that are going to step up and do it collectively." San Antonio planned to attack Oklahoma Citys interior whether Ibaka was playing or not, and found it much easier to do without the athletic 6-foot-10 forward. "We always want to try to penetrate," Parker said. "We always want our ball movement, thats how we play -- kick and pitch and stuff like that. You know, obviously its a little bit better with (Ibaka) not being in the paint, but were still going to try to penetrate and make stuff happen." The Spurs fed Duncan early and the veteran responded by scoring 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the opening quarter. Parker, who sustained a Grade 1 left hammstring strain in San Antonios series clincher against Portland, drove the paint and dished to Duncan early before looking for his own shot midway through the quarter.dddddddddddd "Thats part of our game plan," Duncan said. "He knew that they werent going to let him shoot the ball like he did in the last series. They were going to try to take that away from him, so he knew he was going to have to be an assist man." Parker scored all but two of his points in the first half. Manu Ginobili took over in the second half, scoring all 18 of his points with a series of breakneck drives and 3-for-4 shooting on 3-pointers. "Just got to do a better job of closing the paint off," Westbrook said. "I thought we did a better job in the second half of just putting more pressure on them, making it tough for them to get inside the paint." After starting Collison and bringing in 7-foot post Steven Adams to spell him and Perkins, Oklahoma City continually altered its lineup in an attempt to derail San Antonios attack. At one point the Thunder had Westbrook and fellow point guards Reggie Jackson and Derek Fisher on the court with Durant playing the post defensively. Duncan responded by dropping in a running hook on Durant. "Were going to have to find lineups that work," Brooks said. "I have faith in all of our guys to step in and do the job, no matter who we put on the floor." With the exception of a pair of free throws by Fisher, Westbrook and Durant scored all of Oklahoma Citys points in a 23-22 third quarter. The Thunder rallied to take a 76-75 lead on Westbrooks 17-foot jumper with 5 minutes left in the third quarter for their first lead since the opening basket of the game. "I think we need more from everybody defensively," Brooks said. "We scored 105 points. ... We scored enough points to win a basketball game. We have to do a better job defensively." San Antonio improved to 7-1 at home in the playoffs, winning its past five games by an average of 20.6 points. The Spurs, however, remember what happened in the 2012 conference finals, when the Thunder won four straight to rally from an 0-2 deficit. "Theyre a talented team," Ginobili said. "Theyre going to watch video; theyre going to fix mistakes. Its going to be harder for sure. Its just one down." NOTES: Durant was assessed a technical foul 30 seconds into the fourth quarter after throwing his fists down in frustration after being assessed a foul. . Boris Diaw was poked in his lower right eyelid early in the game, but returned to shortly thereafter once it was determined there was no structural damage. . Play had to be stopped twice to clean up blood on Collison, who was battling Duncan and Splitter defensively. ' ' '