TORONTO - Quietly, the Raptors went about their business on Tuesday, practicing in their own gym for the first time in over two weeks. Just outside the door, a few stray reporters waited for the morning session to let out as a much larger media contingent swarmed the Maple Leafs locker room four floors below. The hockey club, co-tenants with the Raptors at the Air Canada Centre, had fired their head coach hours earlier. Dwane Casey knew that he and his team were not making headlines in the city on this day. Content with just getting back to work at home after a long road trip, the Raptors coach wasted little time in reestablishing the defensive principles that have been slipping away. It started with defence, he said. Its one of those things that slips when you go for a long period of time without practice. Today was more of a training camp-type practice, which we need more of. Guys responded, had a good day of practice but weve got to carry that over to the games, he continued. And like I challenged the guys today, we should get more emphatic and more upset and [just as] teed off against the other team as we do against each other. If we compete in the games the way we compete in practice, wed be a much better defensive team. So we have to carry that over into game situations. The Raptors, a team that ranked 10th in defence last year and ninth through the first month of this season, have fallen a long way in that category. Only the lowly Knicks and Timberwolves allow more points per 100 possession since the end of November. I think its going to be the emphasis for the next couple of weeks for us with the way coach has been talking and preaching to us, Kyle Lowry said Tuesday. I think were all on the same page where we understand thats how were going to win. Seemingly, the teams improved offence has come at the expense of their defensive prowess, but Casey points to a more specific cause - the noticeable decline that coincides with DeMar DeRozans 18-game absence. Since DeMar has gone down our offensive style has changed a little bit in that were more of a running team, we play a little bit faster, Casey stated. I think that affected our defence somewhat. We had to survive and our offence stepped up and carried us in the games we won on the road trip and the games before we went on the trip, the coach went on. We had to adjust and the way we adjusted was to play a little bit faster, which, in turn, I really know affected our defence. According to NBA.com, the Raptors have actually played at a similar, and even slightly slower pace since DeRozans injury, but theres no question his time away has shuffled the deck enough to hurt them in various areas on both ends of the floor. Lowry, one of their hardest working defenders, has been overworked, evident in a pair of lopsided defeats to Golden State and Phoenix at the end of an already tiring road trip. At times during Sundays 16-point loss to the Suns, Casey hid Lowry on P.J. Tucker while combinations of Terrence Ross, Lou Williams and Greivis Vasquez handled the responsibility of guarding Phoenixs talented backcourt duo of Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe. This time home will do me good, Lowry said. Get back in our whirlpools, our treatment centres. We get a chance to be home, relax a lot more, get some good food, not eat hotel food all the time. So its good. Its going to be good for me. Although a 2-4 record is nothing to be ashamed of, given the high degree of difficulty on their recent road trip, those last two losses have left a sour taste in everyones mouth. No, Lowry said emphatically when asked if hes satisfied with the result of the trip. No, not at all. We had a losing record. If you have a losing record on a road trip or in general, its not successful. We won a couple games on the trip, but we wanted more. We wanted to win em all. Emotional, physical or whatever fatigue you have, the league doesnt feel sorry for you, Casey added. Those are the situations we faced in there but theres no excuses in this league. We got our butts whooped, now weve got to come back here and regroup, refocus, especially on the defensive end and get our act together. DeROZAN ON TRACK FOR RETURN Although DeRozan was not present at practice on Tuesday, he remains on track to return later this week. The Raptors guard had been scheduled to undergo a series of routine scans on his healing groin injury. The results of these tests will help determine when hes able to get back on the court - likely on Thursday at home to Charlotte, the teams next game, or Saturday at home to Boston. Its been nearly six weeks since DeRozan sustained his injury, tearing his left adductor longus tendon in a loss to the Mavericks on Nov. 28. Accompanying the team on their recent road trip, he was able to get in a couple full practices last week and should be back in the gym on Wednesday. Hes getting there, Lowry said of his teammate. Hes getting better. So today and tomorrow will be big days for him. I think hes going to come back aggressive whenever he comes back. We cant force feed him. We have to be patient with him. Cheap Air Max China Free Shipping . Or maybe he already did. Clark hit his first homer, Wily Peralta pitched into the seventh inning, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Miami Marlins 4-1 Wednesday night. Cheap Air Max Shoes Online . - Vince Carter, heading into his 17th NBA season, doesnt consider age a big issue anymore. http://www.cheapchinaairmax.com/ .com) - Scott Parel carded a 5-under 65 on Thursday and he grabbed a 1-stroke lead after one round of the season-opening Panama Claro Championship. Cheap Air Max Shoes China . Dwyane Wade took over in the fourth quarter. Cheap Nike Air Max Wholesale . -- Martin Kaymer never lost sight of opportunity even amid so much evidence of trouble in the closing stretch Sunday at The Players Championship.HALIFAX - Canadas Roger Sloan won the Nova Scotia Open on Sunday for first Web.com Tour title, holing a 5-foot par putt on the first hole of a playoff with Derek Fathauer. The 27-year-old Sloan, a former Texas-El Paso player from Merritt, B.C., played 37 holes Sunday after high wind from Tropical Storm Arthur wiped out third-round play Saturday. After the victory, the fans celebrated with a spontaneous rendition of "O Canada." "I love being a Canadian," Sloan said. "They just broke out in song. This means so much to win this here. I dont know which feels better — to win or to be done today. It was a long day." Sloan closed with rounds of 71 and 70 to match Fathauer at 11-under 273 on Ashburn Golf Clubs New Course. Fathauer had rounds of 71 and 66. Sloan earned $117,000 to jump from 80th to 12th on the money list with $149,303, putting him into position to earn a PGA Tour card as a top-25 finisher in the regular season. "Thats just icing on the cake," Sloan said. Sloan rebounded from a bogey on No. 12 with birdies on Nos.dddddddddddd 13 and 14 and closed with four pars. "I had zero awareness of where I stood all day," Sloan said. "I asked my caddie on 18 where we stood and he told me that up-and-down would get me in a playoff." He holed a 4 1/2-footer on the par-4 18th to force the playoff. "That was ticklish putt," he said. "It went down a cliff." Fathauer bogeyed Nos. 16 and 18 in regulation, three-putting from 25 feet on the last hole. "I kind of fumbled things coming in," Fathauer said. Fathauers drive on No. 18 in the playoff found the trees to the right, while Sloan split the fairway. Fathauer clipped the trees on his second, leaving him 100 yards away, while Sloan hit to 40 feet. Fathauer missed his par attempt from 30 feet, and Sloan holed his par putt for the win. Sloan is the third Canadian to win a Web.com Tour event in Canada, following Richard Zokol in the 2001 Canadian PGA Championship and David Hearn in the 2004 Alberta Classic. John Mallinger shot 67-73 to finish third at 8 under. ' ' '