TORONTO - With six weeks remaining before his teams likely return to the playoffs, Dwane Casey is hoping to manufacture some late-season rest for the Raptors two leading scorers. Although DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry have shown no sign of wearing down, each logging more playing time than they have previously in their careers, Casey would like to keep them as fresh as possible for the stretch run, something that may be easier said than done. Sitting 9 1/2 games ahead of ninth-place Detroit in the Eastern Conference standings, Toronto - the Easts third seed - is poised to make its first postseason appearance in six years. With that comes another rarity for the franchise, playing meaningful games in March and April. The challenge for Casey and the Raptors coaching staff will be in managing the rotation, loosening it enough to give the guards a breathier - together or separately - without sacrificing important games. "Thats the hard thing," Casey acknowledged following Wednesdays practice. "Weve got to buy them a few minutes here and there but every possession - not only every game, every quarter [but] every possession - is meaningful." "When you start looking at scoring, we hit a drought the other night against Golden State right before the fourth quarter but we were just trying to buy minutes for those guys off the floor. Its a catch-22." DeRozan is fourth in the league, averaging just over 38 minutes per game, behind only Carmelo Anthony, James Harden and Kevin Durant while Lowry is 14th, logging roughly 36 a night. Amongst NBA duos, only Houstons pair of Harden and Chandler Parsons as well as Golden States Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson play more. In February, DeRozan played over 40 minutes a night, with Lowry nearly hitting 38. Since the early-December trade, Casey has been rolling out a strict nine-man rotation, using primarily Greivis Vasquez and John Salmons to spell Lowry, DeRozan and Terrence Ross. Getting reliable contribution from his reserves and piecing together the right combinations will be essential for the Raptors coach to expand the rotation enough to buy his backcourt duo more downtime on the bench. One player hed like to see more of, who could help in taking the burden off Lowry and DeRozan, is newcomer Nando De Colo. The versatile guard has played just eight minutes since being acquired from the Spurs in a deadline day trade two weeks ago. Although Casey has had trouble pinpointing where exactly De Colo fits in his lineup, he anticipates using the 26-year-old as a secondary ball handler, likely at the two or three position. "Weve got to make sure we have the right combinations on the court, that way we dont sacrifice scoring, but he knows how to play, he has a feel for the game," Casey said of De Colo. "You cant really put your finger on his position or what he is, a two, a three or a point [guard], but hes a basketball player. He just knows how to play." The Raptors got back to work Wednesday after taking a couple days off to satisfy a league mandate. "I thought we had decent focus," Casey said, "the usual first day back to school-type start, but I thought once guys got into it we ramped the intensity a little bit. "There was no resistance as far as the drills were concerned whatsoever, so I could sense they were anxious to get back. As a coach you dont want to lose that rhythm, thats the biggest fear. I didnt sense any of that today." While Jonas Valanciunas used the time off to get away from the game, spending the day ice fishing on Lake Simcoe (he returned home empty handed, without a fish), Terrence Ross took advantage of a rare mid-season opportunity for rest. Ross has been nursing a sprained left ankle, keeping him out of Sundays win over Golden State, but was able to practice in full Wednesday. "It happened at the best time," said Ross, who expects to be in uniform when the Raptors host Sacramento on Friday. "I got a few days off to stay off it and rest. Im feeling back to normal. Ive still got to do treatment on it but right now it feels good." Authentic Shoes For Cheap .com) - The Winnipeg Jets got over one hurdle by snapping their longest losing streak of the season. Authentic Shoes Wholesale . -- Get a flow chart ready to follow the Packers quarterback situation. http://www.cheapshoes.us.org/. -- LeBron James warned the Orlando Magic to stop double-teaming him and ignoring James Jones. Cheap Shoes Outlet Stores . - Benched Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman said he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and voluntarily entered the NFL substance abuse program more than a year ago after mistakenly taking a medication to treat the condition. Wholesale Shoes China Free Shipping .com) - Rick Nash scored twice and Derek Stepan chipped in a goal with one assist as the New York Rangers claimed a 5-2 decision over Calgary at the Saddledome.OTTAWA -- Theres nothing like beating the defending Stanley Cup champions to gain a little confidence. Craig Anderson stopped 46 shots in his first game back since being injured Mar. 10 as the Ottawa Senators beat the visiting Chicago Blackhawks 5-3 on Friday. "We found a way to win and thats all that really matters," said Anderson. "It felt good to come back from my whatever injury. Got back in there, get back in the saddle and it was good to see a lot of shots so you didnt have time to think and you just kind of read and react so it was really good." Clarke MacArthur had a goal and two assists to lead the charge while Erik Condra, Cody Ceci, Milan Michalek and Kyle Turris each scored for the Senators (30-29-14) Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa and Brent Seabrook scored for Chicago (42-18-15). Antti Raanta faced 29 shots. Chicago has lost three of its last four outings and captain Jonathan Toews says there are too many mistakes happening when his team has possession of the puck. "Id say there was some good moments where we did have control of the puck where we were getting point shots and second efforts and some of the things were looking for when were playing good hockey," said Toews. "Other than that it was sloppy turnovers, sloppy mistakes that we really need to get out of our system. We need to get those plays out of our game. Its as simple as that. We need to play some character hockey. Frustrating way to lose." Toews wasnt alone in thinking the Blackhawks failed to show their best effort. "I didnt like our game," said Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville. "We had a good start and obviously giving up a shorthanded (goal) right off the bat they got some momentum off it and played well." Ottawa scored twice in the third and killed off a 34 second two-man advantage to hold off the Blackhawks before a crowd of 18,922 at the Canadian Tire Centre. Turris made it 4-2 with a power-play goal at the six-minute mark of the third and MacArthur scored his 23rd of the season midway through the period to make it 5-2. "I thought we competed better," said MacArthur. "We had a little lapse in the second, but youre playing Chicago and theyre going to make a push, but we were able to make plays in the third and not clam up.dddddddddddd" Frustration started to set in for Chicago midway through the third when Andrew Shaw speared Zack Smith. Shaw was assessed a major and game misconduct for his actions. After the game Smith admitted he was less than impressed by the play. "A spear is always looked upon as pretty bad for someone to do," said Smith. "Its kind of a cheap shot, especially where he was aiming, but you saw the replay." The Blackhawks made it 5-3 with a shorthanded goal at the 17-minute mark as Seabrooks shot from the point just trickled across the goal-line. Ottawa jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but by the end of the second it was a one-goal game. The Senators were outshot 23-5 in the middle period. Chicago got on the board midway through the second with a power-play goal as Sharp took a great pass from Jonathan Toews and tipped it past Anderson. Hossa made it 3-2 when he scored with 41 seconds remaining in the second period. Hossa intercepted a pass at the Ottawa blue-line, cut through two defencemen and squeezed the puck past Anderson. Ottawa had made it 3-0 just 23 seconds into the second as Michalek tipped in a shot off a pass from Spezza. "I thought we had a little more confidence," added MacArthur. "I thought overall we had a little lapse and those are going to happen, but we answered back in the third which is big and I thought our (defencemen) moved the puck a lot better, especially in the third when we were under pressure." The Senators held a 2-0 lead after the first 20 minutes. Condra made it 1-0, scoring shorthanded midway through the first. And Ceci made it 2-0 in the final minute of the period as he scored from just inside the blue line. Notes: The Senators were without D Chris Phillips who missed his second straight game and RW Bobby Ryan (sports hernia, out for season). LW Matt Kassian was a healthy scratcha The Blackhawks are without RW Patrick Kane (lower body, two weeks), LW Bryan Bickell (upper body, day-to-day) and D Michal Rozsival (lower body, day-to-day). D David Rundblad, LW Jeremy Morin and LW Teuvo Teravainen were a healthy scratch. LW Matt Carey made his NHL debut. ' ' '