The Canadian Press
Melissa Couto
TORONTO–DeMar DeRozan had gotten used to leaving the arena in a good mood.
He hasn’t been doing much of that lately, though.
Eric Bledsoe netted 40 points, and Devin Booker added 20 more, as the Phoenix Suns beat Toronto 115-103 yesterday to hand the Raptors their first three-game losing skid in over a year.
“If you’re a true competitor, you hate this feeling; you hate leaving the arena like this,” DeRozan said.
“It sucks at night, having that on your mind, having consecutive losses, especially three that you’re not used to having,” he noted.
“You just have to come out with that feeling and that hunger, that aggressiveness, the next game.”
Toronto seemed poised to break its two-game slide–leading by eight points in the fourth quarter.
But the Suns (15-29) used a 20-7 run to take control of the game.
The Raptors hadn’t lost three straight since November, 2015.
“When you lose three in a row, you should be frustrated, you should be upset,” stressed Toronto coach Dwane Casey.
“I don’t want anyone in the locker-room not to be upset and frustrated because we’ve set a standard for ourselves to be better than that.”
DeRozan led the Raptors (28-16) with 22 points before leaving the game with just over a minute to go.
He had rolled his right ankle earlier in the quarter when he stepped on teammate Jonas Valanciunas’s foot while making a shot.
The all-star guard was limping after the game but is hopeful the injury will heal quickly.
“I was trying to play through it but it just got a little bit more uncomfortable,” DeRozan noted.
“With just a minute left, I didn’t want to go out there and something else happen.”
Kyle Lowry, who finished with 15 points, had a rough night from the three-point line, hitting just 1-of-9.
He also was ejected with 1:30 to go after taking a flagrant-two foul following contact with the head of Brandon Knight.
Lowry said he meant no ill-will toward Knight and had texted him after the game to apologize.
Tyson Chandler added 16 points while PJ Tucker chipped in with 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Suns.
Valanciunas recorded his team-leading 17th double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds for Toronto, with DeMarre Carroll adding 14 points.
Lucas Nogueira, back in the starting lineup after missing two games as part of the NBA’s concussion protocol, scored 13 points, including 11 in the first quarter.
Phoenix, which swept the season series against Toronto for first time since the 2013-14 campaign, improved to 7-17 on the road while the Raptors fell to 15-7 at home.
“It’s a little bit of adversity but we’re professionals, no one’s feeling sorry for us,” Lowry noted.
“We’ll be fine . . . just have to get back to work, back to basics,” he stressed.
“We’re not panicking,” Lowry added.
“I think we understand what the situation is, we just have to figure it out.”
