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Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry controls the ball against Washington Wizards guard John Wall in the first quarter in Game 2 of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at Air Canada Centre.Peter Llewellyn

If the Toronto Raptors are going to seize their first win in this first-round playoff series with the Washington Wizards Friday night in the U.S capital, one particularly worrisome trend will need to be eliminated.

The Raptors find themselves down 0-2 to the Wizards after two home games in which they started strong and then collapsed in the second and third quarters. If that tendency continues, the Raptors will have little chance of bringing this series back home to Toronto.

On Tuesday, that trend was most glaring, as the Raptors exploded offensively in the first and led 31-26 to end that quarter, before allowing Washington to pile in a jaw-dropping 71 points over the next two quarters. That night, the Raptors actually set a franchise record for most points allowed through the first three quarters of a playoff game with 97.

"We had control of each game," said DeMar DeRozan at Friday morning's shootaround. "We just had spurts where we lost it and gave them a cushion and now we're fighting back. We understand that, and if we stay levelled and play 48 minutes, especially on the defensive end, we're going to get a win."

The Raptors made adjustments between Games 1 and 2, but it didn't help. The Wizards have tossed out lots of player combinations early in the series that they rarely used this season. The drop-off in both games came at the time that the Wizards moved Paul Pierce from the three to the four position on the floor. In the first game, it was Pierce's sharp-shooting that started to make Toronto unravel. In the second game, the slide had nothing to do with Pierce, but rather the Raptors' inability to get back quickly and properly in transition.

Tuning up pick-and-roll defence is a priority for the Raptors tonight. Head coach Dwane Casey also stressed that the Raptors' need to cope with any offensive struggles that might arise, and not let those woes begin carrying over to the defensive end of the floor.

"All year we've been bragging about our offence but we've got to get our swagger back on the offensive end and fight through the grabbing, what they're doing with us, the traps and stuff like that," said Casey. "It's nothing we haven't seen this year and executed against this year."

A day earlier, before the team left Toronto, Casey told his players that anyone not willing to really compete in Washington shouldn't even go to the airport.

"It was something he felt like needed to be said," said Patrick Patterson. "All my teammates were on the plane. Everybody is here. Everybody must want to compete."

The Raptors chose not to hold shootaround at the Verizon Center as the Wizards did Friday morning, but instead did it at Georgetown University. Casey didn't give a straight answer when asked about the location, but joked about the possibility of looming cameras or scouts taking notes on their pick-and-roll coverages, then said the team just needed "a little fresh air."

The Wizards, after all, shot around at Ryerson University when visiting Toronto on Tuesday. It's not uncommon, especially in the playoffs.

Toronto was 22-19 on the road this year. They were 1-2 on the road in the playoffs last year.

"The only thing that matters is what each and every one of us believes in this locker room, that we're a brotherhood, that we're a family and that we fight for one another and we love one another," said Patterson. "Every single time we step on the court, we try our best to let that show."

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