Fred VanVleet After Raptors' Loss to Hawks: 'We Play Young and Dumb a Lot'

Toronto Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet shouldered the responsibility of Saturday's 127-100 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

"As the leader, as the point guard, I take the responsibility for the performance that we put together these last two nights," he told reporters. "We've gotta be better. It's time to wake up and at least fight; fight a little bit more and just play together and have a bit more resolve."

He continued: "We play young and dumb a lot. Sometimes we get away with it and sometimes we don't."

It was Toronto's second blowout loss in a row coming out of the All-Star break after Friday's 125-93 defeat to the Charlotte Hornets. The club is also just 1-4 in its last five games, although VanVleet remains optimistic.

"I believe in this team," he said. "I think we'll be back to playing at the level that we need to be playing at, hopefully sooner than later. I take full responsibility for the poor performances, and I'm looking forward to getting this team back to where we need to be."

While the Raptors shot just 40 percent from the field in the loss to the Hawks, the offense wasn't the biggest issue. VanVleet led the way with 24 points and nine assists, and the team had just 11 turnovers.

However, Toronto consistently struggled to stop Atlanta.

Trae Young poured in 41 points to go with 11 assists as the home team shot a blistering 57.8 percent from the field and 41.9 percent from deep. The Raptors didn't have OG Anunoby because of a fractured finger and couldn't find anyone to consistently slow down the Hawks' star point guard.

The back-to-back losses to the Hawks and Hornets are particularly concerning because they are jockeying for position with them in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament picture. Toronto holds the No. 7 seed but is just one game ahead of the Brooklyn Nets, three games ahead of the Hornets and 3.5 games ahead of the Hawks.

The Raptors would surely like to catch the sixth-seeded Boston Celtics by making up their 2.5-game deficit to avoid the play-in tournament entirely, but staying out of the Nos. 9 and 10 seeds would at least help them avoid a win-or-go-home game to start the play-in tournament.

For now, VanVleet is focused on turning things around ahead of a critical back-to-back against the Nets on Monday and Tuesday.