A locker room is a sanctuary for the players on a professional team.

It is the primary space away from the court where they develop the chemistry and bonds that help them become even better than their collective talents.

Even coaches, men in charge of these players, men who tell these players what they expect of them and how they will be deployed respect the room as the players’ space.

Raptors coach Dwane Casey and his staff obviously have access to the room, but they have their office and the players have their room.

Which brings us to what you are not going to find in the players’ locker room anymore.

And that would be scoresheets.

It’s common practice that after every game each player is provided a scoresheet. The sheet breaks down the individual players’ contributions as well as team totals.

That won’t be happening anymore in Toronto. Rudy Gay has put a stop to it.

Gay sees the scoresheets as an unnecessary barrier to team unity or even a temptation to be more focussed on what is best for the individual as opposed to what is best for the team.

“We’re not playing for stats,” Gay said.

Gay said there was no incident or no moment that pushed him toward this decision but as a leader on this team, he felt it was just something that was best for the team.

“I wanted to just nip it in the butt before it became an issue,” he said. “We come in here after losses, after wins and people are staring at those stat sheets, but that’s not what we’re about. We’re a team and the stat that matters is the W.”

When it’s pointed out that isn’t always the case in a league where the gap between the highest paid the lowest paid members on a team can be huge and stats may mean more to some than others, Gay agreed.

“It isn’t,” he said, “but at the end of the day if we win everybody gets their just due. I’ve seen it. I’ve been a part of it.”

Gay said there were no objections from his teammates when he delivered the news.

“No, none. It was pretty easy.”

Ironically, the numbers these days are looking more promising than they have in some time for most of the Raptors. Gay, who came down with the flu Thursday and woke up Friday out of breath, all achy and tired from a restless night skipped shootaround in order to be at his best for the game that night. His numbers weren’t all that great but, like his teammates, delivered when he was needed most.

As it turned out, Gay was no better Friday night than he was Friday morning but he said there was never a thought to not play.

“We’re a team and I’m going to push through things and hopefully the rest of the guys will do the same thing,” he said.

DeMar DeRozan had a big first half allowing Gay to ease into the game and figure out what he was capable of doing given his unhealthy state. In the fourth, when DeRozan started to falter it was Gay who picked it up scoring with 11 in the fourth quarter to help seal the win.

Both men ended up with 17 on the night but that number was irrelevant as far as Gay was concerned.

The Raptors got win No. 6 and that was the only number that mattered. And he didn’t need a scoresheet to tell him that.