Raptors coach Dwane Casey, who is trying to get the consistent two-way effort out of Andrea Bargnani that two coaches in the past have failed to do, will continue to pour on responsibility for the six-year veteran.

“He’s logging a lot of minutes (38 on Monday after 41 on Sunday) and I thought he was tired (but) he’s really giving it to us on the defensive end, coming over to tag, challenging shots,” said Casey after Monday’s win. “Not only is he giving it to us offensively, now it’s defensively and he has to maintain that stamina to do it both ends.

“Where a guy like Dirk (Nowitzki) is used to that, a guy like Carmelo (Anthony) is used to that, Dwight Howard; now for us, Andrea Bargnani has to do that, take that workload and take his career to the next level and that’s what we’ve asked him to do.

“He’s asked to do a lot but that’s who he is for us — he’s our star and when you’re the star, your minutes are going to go up and your workload goes up,” Casey said of Bargnani. “You have to be really physically and mentally focused and strong to push through that.”