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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO - Hit somebody.

Those were the instructions Dwane Casey delivered to his players ahead of Saturday's postseason opener. Hit somebody. Anybody (almost).

"It's just a matter of attention to detail and remembering I've got to go hit somebody," the Raptors head coach preached just 60 minutes before tip-off at the Air Canada Centre. "What we're saying now [is] if you hit anybody, you're not wrong. Just hit somebody. Don't just turn and go to the rim. Don't accidentally hit your teammate but hit somebody."

Playoff basketball is about toughness, both of the physical and mental variety. Casey knows that, his team is coming to understand it, but talk is cheap.

"That was the game," he said roughly four hours later. Toronto had just fallen 93-86 in overtime, dropping its first game in a best-of-seven first-round series with Washington. The Raptors, not unlike the Wizards in many ways, had been all kinds of awful. Neither team could buy a bucket or produce anything resembling a coherent offence for most of the afternoon. None of the featured guards, on either side, made much of an impact. The list goes on but, rightly so, Casey kept going back to the top of it. Rebounding.

"We talked about it," he continued. "And it's not just our big guys, it's everybody. We start watching when the shot goes up and we've got to get in and clean up the boards. We know that. It's been an issue. We do a good job, we don't do a good job. So we've got to get consistent with it. And until we make it a priority it's going to be hard for us."

The Raptors were annihilated on the glass to the tune of a 61-48 Washington rebounding advantage. The Wizards grabbed 19 boards, including four big ones in the extra period. Toronto didn't score in OT until 30 seconds remained. They barely had the chance.

If you watched this team enough during the regular season, you're likely familiar with this narrative. Only three NBA clubs ranked lower in defensive rebounding. Only four gave up more second-chance points. Washington is on the opposite end of the spectrum in both categories. This was bound to be an issue and sure enough, it didn't take long.

Of course, this year was supposed to be different. The Raptors had dropped their playoff opener at home to Brooklyn in similarly ugly fashion a year ago and the justification was legitimate. For many of their players it was a brand new experience. This time around, both internally and externally, the expectation was that they would know what to expect, and adjust accordingly.

DeMar DeRozan, now playing in his second postseason series, struggled with his jumper, shooting just 6-of-20 from the field despite stepping up as one of the team's strongest rebounders, leading them with 11 boards. Kyle Lowry was markedly worse. The point guard never looked like himself. He hit just two of his 10 shots, missing all four three-pointers, committed three turnovers to only four assists and fouled out with two and a half minutes to go in regulation. His back-up, Greivis Vasquez, played the role of hero, scoring eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter, including the game-tying three-ball that forced OT.

They got next to nothing from their best player.

"I'm very mad, I'm very upset but I've got to deal with it," said Lowry, who finished with seven points and eight rebounds in 33 minutes of action. "It's something that I've dealt with before. It's not going to keep being like that. It's something that comes with who I am. At the end of the day, a bad game is one bad game. We've got another one Tuesday."

"I think he came out a little overaggressive on both ends," DeRozan said of his teammate. "I told him slow it down a little bit, but that's him. That's our point guard. It sucks that he had to foul out but the one thing I know about him, he's going to bounce back."

He'll need to be better for this team to win the series, there's hardly any doubt about that, but despite all that went wrong, they were right there. More than anything else, they need to play bigger, stronger, tougher.

The Wizards' biggest advantage in the series may be their rebounding, something they exploited - and then some - on Saturday. For the Raptors, their ability to draw contact on jumpers and get to the line was a strength all year. However, they shot just 14 free throws, including three in the second half and OT. Granted, playoff games are called differently and the officials tend to let a lot of things go, but Toronto didn't put much pressure on them to blow the whistle.

"We've got to push them out of the paint the best way we can," DeRozan said. "Even if we've got to take a foul instead of letting them get another chance at the basket."

Much to everyone's dismay, Paul Pierce made himself the centre of attention earlier this week, suggesting the Raptors don't have the "IT" factor that makes you worried.

Vicious boos and "Paul Pierce sucks" chants welcomed the former Nets forward back to the ACC. It was the 17-year vet that turned the game in the second quarter, shifting over to the four spot and scoring nine of Washington's points in a 14-2 run. He led all scorers with 20.

The Raptors pretended like they weren't bothered by Pierce's comments. Masai Ujiri took to the stage in Jurassic Park, just outside the arena, before the game to tell the thousands of fans waiting for him to curse that the team doesn't "give a s---" about Pierce. Casey wondered what the future Hall of Famer meant.

What is "IT"? Perhaps "IT" has nothing to do with talent. It's not necessarily a personal slight at DeRozan or Lowry, the team's best players, specifically. "IT" is an intangible that intimidates. "IT's" about toughness.

Pierce has "IT", even at 37-years-old. Do the Raptors? They didn't on Saturday.