Forgive Rudy Gay, he’s only been a member of the Toronto Raptors for a short time. Otherwise, he’d know that now is about the time of year that you fold up your tent and start planning for next year. The writing has been on the wall for some time. The Raptors are going to miss the playoffs again this season and somehow look worse since acquiring Gay, who has missed three of the team’s last 11 games with a sore back.
That nagging injury prompted some to suggest Gay might sit out the rest of the season, but he wasn’t having any of that talk. “The only way I’m going to get shut down is if the doctors tell me I need to stop playing,” Gay told the National Post Tuesday. “I’ve been forced out before, and that’s not something I look forward to.”
Fair enough and it will take some time for Gay and the Raptors to turn it around, but their numbers with him in the lineup are discouraging. Toronto has won just nine of 17 games that he has suited up and the team’s offence has struggled to find its rhythm while the club tries to run it through Gay and DeMar DeRozan.
“He will be a day-to-day thing and he’s going to see how his back responds to therapy, working hard to keep it loose,” Raps coach Dwane Casey said of Gay. “He wants to continue to play and we are going to allow him to.”
And why not? With the team in the middle of a 3-11 slump, this is the time the team should be using to figure itself out. While the slide is certainly discouraging, this is a young squad that has seen a lot of significant changes and injuries this season, so Casey is trying to stay positive.
“We’re such a young team,’’ Casey told reporters. “Guys are going through this for the first time. We have to enjoy the ride, not fight it, not combat it, but enjoy it, playing, getting excited about playing every time we go out on the floor.”
The Raptors are back in action Wednesday night when they welcome in the Atlanta Hawks, but will then play five of their next seven on the road. Toronto finishes off the regular season with three of its last four at the Air Canada Centre, with the season finale at home to Boston on April 17.
