Through injury and poor play, DeMar DeRozan still one of coach’s main men

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The way Dwane Casey sees it, what DeMar DeRozan is experiencing right now is a "double whammy."

The Toronto Raptors' all-star shooting guard injured his thumb in a scramble for the ball in Game 1 of this second-round playoff series with the Miami Heat and it's been bothering him ever since. He was already shooting poorly in Round 1 and the injury seems to be compounding the problem.

In Game 2 against Miami, DeRozan surprisingly missed six free throws. In Game 3, he went 6 for 17 from the field. Game 4 saw him air-ball a jumper, miss a layup and go 4 for 17 as the team scored just 87 points – the Raptors' lowest offensive output of the series.

Tied 2-2 heading into Wednesday's Game 5 in Toronto, the Raptors need more from their star shooter or they'll be forced to experiment further with player combinations that make up for his missing points.

"Now, he has the thumb and he's dealing with that along with the confidence in his shot and his offensive rhythm," Casey said. "It's something he wants to play with, he says he's okay, he says he can go, but I see him losing the basketball in a crowd and guys hitting [him]. When other teams know you have an injury, they're going to whack at it."

Casey stressed – once again – that the Raptors won't simply bench DeRozan or Kyle Lowry, the star point guard who seemed to have come out of his scoring woes with a 33-point showing in Game 3's win, but then answered with a dismal 2-for-11 shooting performance on Monday.

DeRozan is shooting 33 per cent from the field, 15.8 per cent from beyond the arc and an inexplicable 73.8 per cent from the free-throw line (he averaged 85 per cent in the regular season). He's scoring just 17.7 points a game, which is the worst average of his three trips to the postseason. He has nearly as many turnovers a game (2.4) as he does assists (2.5). His minutes were limited in the third and fourth quarters on Monday before he was forced back in when Lowry fouled out.

"It's uncomfortable, not doing a lot I normally do with gripping the ball, and the missed layup really showed me how much I've got to deal with it," DeRozan said after the 94-87 Game 4 loss. "I won't make excuses about it. I know for sure I'm not going to shoot like I did tonight next game. I'll deal with it, I'll push through it. You can't let frustration get you."

The team flew home from Miami on Tuesday and had planned to do a group film session upon arrival. But they cancelled it and gave an optional workout day instead – therefore, players weren't required to speak with media. Casey was the only one who met reporters.

With Jonas Valanciunas sidelined since spraining his ankle in Game 3, Bismack Biyombo started at centre on Monday and scored 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field; he made all five of his free-throw attempts, and added 13 rebounds and two blocked shots over 31 minutes. His plus-11 was the best plus-minus of the night for the Raptors.

However, late in close games, the Raptors have to balance having the right players on both the defensive and offensive ends of the floor. While Biyombo is a great rim protector and helps defensively, the Raptors chose to put in Patrick Patterson to spur much-needed scoring. It didn't produce those points. Instead, Miami's Dwyane Wade rolled in for costly buckets in the paint.

"We were trying to create offence and that lineup had been successful for us before," Casey said. "I felt like our spacing was bad and our offensive rhythm wasn't there. We made that decision and it didn't work out."

Toronto aims to retake the series lead at home on Wednesday – a lead the team let slip away on Monday.