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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO - All season long, even as the Raptors were winning games with relative ease early in the campaign, Dwane Casey seemed cautiously optimistic - or optimistically cautious, may be more appropriate - about his team's chances once the playoffs rolled around.

We're often told that the postseason is a different animal, a different style of play, a different level of intensity, but only those who have experienced it can truly appreciate what that means.

Last year was Casey's first taste of it as a head coach, though he's been around playoff basketball for the better part of two decades in an assistant role. He knows what it's all about.

It didn't take long for him to notice the red flags in his team's changing on-court personality - transitioning from a defensive-minded club in year's past to the offensive-oriented, jump shot-reliant group we see today. Toronto's front office was aware of those warning signs, as well. They're as plain as day.

That doesn't make them a bad team, but it prohibits them from being a great one -  one that can rise to the next level at a time of year when the great are separated from the good.

“We played with a level, but in the playoffs there’s another level," Casey said on Wednesday after he and his players rewatched portions of their 117-106 Game 2 loss to the Wizards.

"There’s another level we’ve got to get to where, [we] want to knock somebody on their butt. [We] want to kick somebody and get up in somebody’s chest. You’re going to knock me on my butt? I’m going to knock you on your butt. That level is what [the players are] talking about, and that’s what we talked about in the locker room."

With Tuesday's defeat, Toronto fell behind 0-2 in the opening-round, dropping both contests at home as the series shifts to D.C. for Game 3 (Friday on TSN, TSN 1050 Radio) and Game 4 (Sunday on TSN). 

After holding Washington's premier scorers in check during the series debut and for the start of Tuesday's sequel, The Raptors' defensive woes - particularly on the perimeter - resurfaced in a hurry. With Paul Pierce playing the four and the Wizards going small, Washington scored on 13 of 15 possessions in a seven-and-a-half minute second-quarter stretch that turned a six-point Toronto lead into an 11-point deficit.

Although the likes of Pierce, Nene, Marcin Gortat and Otto Porter were all heavily featured in that run, it was the Wizards' dynamic backcourt duo of John Wall and Bradley Beal that made it all possible, picking apart Toronto's defence, which - as we've learned - tends to come apart far too easily.

For Raptors fans, it was painful to watch, but hardly an unfamiliar sight. A lack of communication would result in breakdowns on pick-and-roll coverage and in transition. A broken defensive possession would result in an offensive rebound - Washington had 10 on the night after grabbing 19 in Game 1. None of the team's perimeter players could keep Wall or Beal in front of them - Casey counted 17 blow-bys in the game, many of them coming during this stretch.

Stop me if you've heard this story before...

Despite finishing the season ranked third in offensive efficiency, only seven teams allowed more points per 100 possessions. Only three teams gave up more points to opposing guards. Only seven surrendered more points in the paint.

As usual, the easiest person to scapegoat is the coach, and many already have. But anyone that is watching these games with a critical eye should be able to see there's no easy fix for the Raptors' defensive woes, no one player or one person that deserves the lion's share of the blame. To put this all on Casey is to suggest that a replacement could get this same group to that next level, which is simply untrue.

They are who they are. One or two small tweaks at the trade deadline was not going to change that, hence Masai Ujiri's decision to stand pat. The Raptors GM insisted that their showing here in the playoffs will go a long way in determining his offseason agenda and with each passing game it appears more and more likely he'll have a busy summer.

“By nature, we’re an offensive team," Casey admitted. "By nature. By human nature, DNA, we’re a scoring team. We can’t let how hard it is for us to score now, because of what they’re doing to us, take us out of our intensity on both ends of the floor. Whether it is cutting hard, moving the ball, defending your position, guarding your yard, containing the ball. We can’t allow that to take us out of what we want to do. It’s done that a little bit."

Defence is a skill that requires qualities such as speed, quickness, toughness and basketball intellect. Not everyone can defend at a high level, but the trigger - regardless of whether you're the most or least gifted defender - is effort.

That's been the most frustrating, and at times perplexing, thing for Casey. Many of his players, particularly on the perimeter, are poor defenders. Some lack the foot speed, others the basketball IQ to get the most of their abilities. But the issue, more often than not, is effort. And that's not to say they're not trying but, for whatever reason, they're not fully and consistently committed to the defensive end.

"I think we didn't play with the energy we needed to," Lou Williams said following Wednesday's film session. "We didn't play with the sense of urgency in the situation that we were in, being down 1-0 at home. I felt like we should have competed harder. Games like that don't really come down to Xs and Os, it comes down to guys just wanting to win, and competing. I think they just did a better job than we did."

"We've talked about it," Casey insisted. "We've even worked on it probably when you normally don't. In the years I've been in the playoffs, we hadn't [needed to] work on boxing out and transition defence. But we've worked on it. Again, it's that time of year you can't have possessions, eight possessions, or multiple possessions where you don't get back in transition or you don't box out. But that happens and that's where we are as a young team trying to understand what it takes to win in the playoffs. And we'll get there. We'll get there. Is it going to be right now? I don't know but we've got a couple games in Washington to figure it out."