March 19, 2008 | Air Canada Centre | Miami HEAT - 54 | Toronto Raptors - 96
HEAT Head Coach Pat Riley
On the game:
“I really don’t have much to say, it was just very complete right from the get-go. We left everything in Milwaukee last night. We ran into a very good team that’s lost five in a row, they got Chris back, and it was absolutely complete right from the get-go. We didn’t have enough fire power, we didn’t have enough coaching power. I feel really bad for them in there (locker room) that they didn’t make their shots. Just get out of the record books, but that’s just the way it goes.”
Was the team pretty upset?:
“Well yes, they don’t want to be humiliated. You know, we’ve had four or five games like this this year and sometimes that’s just how it goes, I’m not going to make any excuses. The worse that it got I think the more heart we lost; every time a shot wouldn’t drop we just got more and more frustrated. Like the good team they are, they just had no mercy; they put us away. We’ll have our day again. I don’t know when, but we will have our day again.”
Is it harder to win on the road in NBA as opposed to other pro sports:
"The good teams in this league are probably .500 on the road. Some of the teams are above .500. Look at the Celtics, they have an incredible road record. The reason why you win on the road is because you go into any place and defend. I can remember the times we had great road records, we had great defensive teams, which will always hold you when your offence is down. We used to go into arenas and make it a 88-70 game or 75-72 game and grind it out winning, but it’s not that way anymore. Teams today at home, especially this team, they’re very good here. Plus they’re highly motivated during this playoff race and a very proud team. They’ve come the last couple of years, so they’re not going to let any mistakes happen."
HEAT Guard Daequan Cook
Is this your worst shooting performance ever?:
"Yes, everybody has a bad shooting night but there is other things of the game that I need to get better on. I learn from things like this. Every night I am not going to come out and have a good shooting night, so I have to help the team in other areas of the game."
Have you ever been part of a loss like this before?:
“No, this is my first year. A lot of the guys have been telling me that this is the worst it is going to get. It is tough that it is in my rookie year, but it is a learning process right now. It is all about getting better.”
HEAT Guard Chris Quinn
On the game:
“Obviously it was very tough. It was pretty embarrassing to come out and lose like that”
How much of a factor was fatigue for you tonight?:
"I am in pretty good shape, that is why I work hard. It is what it is, we only have seven guys so the only thing we can try and do is to scratch and claw and do what you can do. Obviously it was not working very well tonight. "
Have you ever been part of a loss like this before?:
"I don’t know I have played a lot of basketball games. I have had a lot of wins and losses. It is obviously very tough for us, you never want to lose like this. "
Raptors Head Coach Sam Mitchell
On the game:
"They’re depleted. They got a lot of guys out. They got a lot of guys injured. They played last night. But coming off a West Coast trip, when we didn’t play very well, and just the travel alone, we came out with a lot of energy. And a lot of times this is a tough game just mentally to play because your sleeping habits are off, you’re waking up a lot of times in the night, you’re body clock hasn’t adjusted."
On the play of Andrea Bargnani:
“Andrea played well. I asked him, ‘Who was that masked man?’ Andrea seemed like he had a lot more confidence in the things that he did.”
On the play of the your defense:
"I just thought our defensive things we wanted to do, the things we wanted to take away from them, we did."
On the return of Chris Bosh:
"I just think it was an emotional list to have your best player back in uniform."
Raptors Forward Jamario Moon
On solid win coming off that west coast swing:
“Yeah, I think we started to lose a little bit of confidence especially after those five games-in-a-row. And since we were back at home we wanted to show our fans that we weren’t out, we were just down for a little while. We just wanted to come out and get a win for the fans here in Toronto.”
Chirs Bosh made a little bit of a difference didn’t he?:
"Oh yeah, we were happy to see Chris (Bosh) back on the court, we are going to need him for the rest of the stretch."
You have the Cleveland Cavaliers next, what is your approach for that one?:
"We are just going to go ahead and try to do what we were doing tonight. Stay on the glass, take our shots, just play good team basketball, and try to come back with a win."
Raptors Forward Chris Bosh
How is your knee feeling?:
“It feels good but if you ask me how the rest of my body is feeling it’s a different question. I’m just trying to get back into shape. Everything is at 100 percent or close to it so I’m just trying to build on it.”
Do you think you were an emotional lift for the team?:
"I think so. I’m just trying to bring intensity and passion to the game for us. I know it’s hard when you are missing key guys and sometimes it’s hard to find out how to win games. I just want to bring concentration on the defensive end. I know on the offensive end we are going to get looks and we are going to get shots."
Thoughts on your offense and was it what you expected?:
I got my shots up. I got passed a couple of guys and I got to the free throw line a couple of times. With the exception of my jump shot everything feels pretty good. The legs get heavy the first game back, it’s expected and there are no worries for me.