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| Sunday, December 20, 2009 Final Score: Toronto 98, New Orleans 92 Hornets Post Game Quotes
On having an opportunity late, you just couldn’t quite crack into it, but you made a run at it: "We did. It was a difficult afternoon for us offensively, all day. Toronto made us work for every shot we got and played a strong defensive game. As well, we had a number of open looks that we liked, but didn’t go down today. So give Toronto all the credit." On the Raptors doing a good job on trapping Chris Paul: "They really did. They did a very good job keeping him bottled up. They did a very good job of keeping our weakside of the floor contained as well. We struggled getting a lot of things established inside to go along with that. That’s why we shot a low percentage from the field." On the Raptors getting their hands on misses in the tail end of the game: "They did. We had our chances to play with, where we came up with the ball underneath our basket, and would have been a big play if we converted into points. We weren’t able to come up with that one play today to get us over the hump, or to get us into a situation where we had a little bit of control. I thought Toronto played a strong game, and give them all the credit in the world."
Thoughts on Toronto’s defence on you tonight: "They did a good job of moving with the ball. I give a lot of credit to (Andrea) Bargnani, Chris Bosh and those guys they were aggressive on the ball screens and never gave us a chance to get going." Is this loss more difficult coming off the win in Denver? "Yes, this was a winnable game for us. We didn’t come out with any type of intensity, same story different night. We didn’t defend, all these things just keep on happening." On Toronto using a lot of pick-and rolls: "We had our issues with the pick-and roll. It is something that we have to get better at. Every team has to get better at something and I think that defence is a top priority for us."
What happened down the stretch? "We had a couple of shots right there at point blank range that we needed. They were hurting us in terms of (Hedo) Turkoglu off the screen-and-roll in the middle and that just burned us the last couple of possessions." Raptors Post Game Quotes
Thoughts on another solid defensive performance: "I thought our guards did a nice job early of picking up. Chris Paul is tough to guard and I thought we did a pretty decent job of trying to cut the floor in half and keeping it on one side. Our ‘bigs’ did a nice job of being up in his stance and then recovering. This is a team when they get their three-point shooters going they become really tough to guard. The fact they were three-of-21 from the three was good for us and our wings we asked them to stay home." Thoughts on the production of Marcus Banks: "The one thing Marcus (Banks) can do is defend. When he is in the game we try and let Turk (Hedo Turkoglu) run a lot of the offence from the point-forward position. Marcus can guard point guards and even tonight Chris Paul tried to post him up a couple times in the third and Marcus was very strong and did a good job holding his ground. He has been taking advantage of the chances he has had to play right now. He stays ready, he works out all the time and is ready to go." Thoughts on the play inside of Chris Bosh: "I thought down low he was excellent. I didn’t think he had as much bounce today, the first couple plays (David) West went by him and I was a little bit worried. I may have played him too many minutes the first quarter. I played him the whole first quarter, but I thought we had a good thing going. But he really responded in the second half. He went and got rebounds and I thought Andrea (Bargnani) was very active tonight. He got a big rebound for us, two blocked shots and clogged up the lane which is pretty tough to do against Chris Paul."
Thoughts on the defensive effort against Chris Paul: "It was great. We all had a chance to guard him and individually we did a good job. When he came out we tried to trap him and show him different stuff. We did well today and hopefully we will carry this on into the next game. It will help us win games because we realize what we can do defensively." Thoughts on winning a close game: "It is really important to get wins against good teams to help your confidence. It helps to see where you are compared to the beginning of the season and it shows what you still have to do to get better."
Thoughts on the defensive effort the last two games: "I am just glad to see some carry over. I thought we did some great things in the New Jersey (Nets) game and then to come in here tonight against a tough New Orleans team. I thought guys followed the game plan and everyone was active."
Thoughts on the teams defense: "Well I think we played pretty good. We locked down on defense, had good pressure on the ball, and that is just something that we have been talking about, I think when we play good defense we are a pretty good team. We have to keep that in mind for the rest of the season and make sure that we pay attention to defense every time we step on the court." How important was it to jump out early and contain Chris Paul: "Very important. He is one of the best, if not the best, point guard’s in the league. Being able to contain him is very important because he can really get it going. I think the last game he had like 30 points, 19 assists and 9 rebounds, so he can dominate a game and really control it and he does a good job of doing that. We have to give credit to our guards, they played a good game and we tried to help them as much as possible when we had the chance." Is it kind of fun for you to play energy players like Sonny Weems, DeMar DeRozan and Amir Johnson? "Yeah, it is good to have guys that just want to hustle out there and just go hard to the boards, lay it on the line on defense and play hard. I think it’s always fun when you get a chance to play with guys like that, so I hope they have fun playing with me too." |
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