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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO - The Raptors' locker room was dead silent after Sunday's collapse, their 10th loss in 14 games and perhaps the ugliest one yet.

What had been one of the NBA's most joyous and tight-knit teams over recent years is carrying a very different vibe around them these days. With the losses piling up and the frustration building, tensions are high and for the first time all season you got the sense the room was starting to splinter.

Kyle Lowry isn't just a smart player, he's a very clever person. Tom Sterner, his former assistant coach, called him "calculated" on TSN Radio, which almost makes him sound like a James Bond villain, but the better way of putting it is this: he rarely does or says anything by accident.

While he wisely poured some cold water on the fire ignited by his ominous post-game comments after Monday's practice, as expected, it's hard to believe it was merely frustration speaking for him the night before. He knew what he was saying and, most importantly, he knew what he wasn't saying.

"We keep putting [ourselves] in the same situations over and over and not being successful," he told reporters after his team coughed up a 16-point fourth quarter lead in the 102-101 loss. "Something gotta give, something gotta change."

"Any idea what?," he was asked.

"I have an idea, but I'mma keep my mouth shut, keep it professional."

Clearly biting his tongue altogether, as he had been doing, was not producing the results he hoped. Doing a complete 180 and calling someone out directly, naming names, would have only served to make things worse. Assuming the goal was to get the team's attention, particularly the front office, this was the perfect storm, a happy medium.

Who, or what was Lowry referring to? Given the way they have been playing of late it could be any number of things, realistically. Their elder statesman at 30, Lowry can't be thrilled about being asked to play with - and win with - so many young guys. He can't feel good about the ongoing power forward dilemma or the way many of his teammates are performing defensively, but the natural assumption is that his comments were aimed at the head coach, Dwane Casey.

With his team in a tailspin, Casey has come under fire recently. His rotation decisions have been in question, as has his late-game play calling, which - on Sunday - amounted to DeMar DeRozan launching tough shot after tough shot in isolation.

It's not all on Casey. Some of it is, of course, but put it this way: the Raptors led by 16 and were shooting 55 per cent through three quarters on Sunday, he didn't just stop calling plays in the fourth quarter. Their defence fell apart, allowing Detroit to shoot 62 per cent over the final 12 minutes, and they went away from sharing the basketball. The guys on the floor have to take as much or more responsibility for that as the guys off it.

At this point, the Raptors' hurdle is as much mental as anything else. For as bad as they have played over the last six weeks, you look at the standings and the East hasn't exactly run away from them. They're nine games over .500 and still in the thick of the playoff race, but do they believe they are the same team they were a couple months ago?

"The difference for this team is a year ago when they were winning games they were winning all the close ones and now they're losing all the close ones," said Sterner, who spent two seasons with the Raptors and remains good friends with Casey after being let go in 2015. "That builds frustration and the easiest thing to do is point at [Casey]."

Oddly, to Sterner's point, the Raptors have lost their edge late in games, a time in which they excelled last season and even earlier this season. Over the last 14 contests, Toronto has a record of 1-6 in the games they have led during the final two minutes. When playing with the lead in crunch time over that stretch, they have shot 4-for-16 (1-for-5 from three-point range and 0-for-2 from the free throw line) with no assists and four turnovers. Their opponents are shooting 11-for-23 with seven assists and no turnovers. They have been outscored 29-9.

"We're all frustrated," Casey said, asked about Lowry's comments on Monday. "I take that as frustration. Kyle and I, we have a husband and wife relationship, that it's good and bad. We go at each other but we know at the end of the day we're in the foxhole together. I didn't take that in any way whatsoever as a slight or as a negative. We're all frustrated, I'm frustrated, his teammates are all frustrated. So I didn't take that as a personal slight or as a throw me under the bus comment."

One way or the other, this is uncharted territory for a team that has prided itself on handling its business behind closed doors since Masai Ujiri and his staff took over nearly four years ago. This is not their first disagreement - it can't be - but it is the first that is playing out in plain sight. How they deal with it will be crucial in determining whether this becomes a forgotten story or the very thing that tears them apart.

Here's the difficulty: On one side you have Lowry - their leader and their best player who is also a free agent-to-be. Making him feel like he's being heard is important, assuming they don't want to alienate him. However, it's virtually impossible to envision a scenario in which they let go of Casey during this season. The team has improved its record in each of his five seasons in charge and he led them to their first-ever Conference Finals last year. The organization values that and will almost certainly give him the chance to see this through.

So, in lieu of another option, they will have to make peace and move forward together. They have a history of friction, Lowry and Casey, which isn't entirely unusual for a point guard and head coach, both of them strong-willed men. But they have found a way to co-exist and work together for the past five years and they have each thrived in Toronto as a result. Simply put, they have to find a way to do it again.

Ujiri's response need not be choosing between player and coach and it won't be. As the February 23rd trade deadline approaches, he has an opportunity to squash this perceived feud with one bold move. The right trade at the right time has the power to spark a team, to bring them together and solve a lot of problems. That was the case four years ago when Ujiri sent Rudy Gay to Sacramento, a franchise-altering deal that sparked this string of recent success. Clearly this is the right time. The question remains: is the right trade out there? As the plot continues to thicken, these coming weeks should be some of the most telling in the organization's history.