"As starting forward James Johnson pointed out following a brief non-contact practice Thursday, it's fine to lose once in a while "but not like that."

"That" being the near 40-point loss in Boston on Wednesday that was so bad in all facets of the game that head coach Dwane Casey could not in good conscience follow it up with a day off regardless of the fact the team had just played on back-to-back nights and have another game Friday.

"We just went back to the basics," Casey said. "I thought we looked punch drunk from the Atlanta game. A little reeling, kind of lost our bearings a little bit and (Boston) poured it on and we caved in. Today it was back to our fundamentals. That's the only thing you can do when you're in a tough time."

Casey referred to the peaks and valleys every team in the NBA deals with, particularly in a crazy 66 games in four-months schedule they're playing, and said this was one valley he expected this season and probably not the last one. Even so a day off after Wednesday's showing was out of the question.

"If we hadn't had a game tomorrow it would have been a full-bore practice, not to punish them but all part of the growth process," Casey said. "I am not losing sight of the big picture. I am more surprised that we have not had more valleys than we've had. Now it's like swimming. You know when you hit the bottom of the pool. We hit bottom (Wednesday) night so we have to hit and bounce back or we're going to drown."

Quality of opponent should help in that regard with the 4-18 Washington Wizards coming into town but even that is a concern. To begin with the Wizards have already defeated the Raptors once this year and that was when the team was spinning it's wheels even more than it now is."