TORONTO — Twenty thousand seats line the Air Canada Centre, but they are empty. The high-definition scoreboard is dark, the speakers silent.
On game nights, the arena is packed and booming, a cauldron of happy chaos and national pride. But sometimes DeMar DeRozan craves the silence.
So last Friday—with his Toronto Raptors trailing 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, their season on the line—DeRozan arranged a late-night shooting session. Just DeRozan, a few friends and an assistant coach in a near-empty arena.
He did the same late Sunday, on the eve of Game 4.
"It eases my mind, more than anything," DeRozan told B/R on Monday night, after leading Toronto to a second straight victory and a 2-2 tie with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"When you love to do something, you just want to do it," DeRozan said. "And you feel more comfortable when you're in this gym shooting and there's not 20,000 people here. It kind of makes else easier when it is 20,000 people in here, because they don't know you was in here the ...
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Article written by Howard Beck