RAPTORS: Post-Game Quotes

Post-Game Quotes

Mitchell

SAM MITCHELL

Thoughts on the offense…
I think we’re just moving the basketball. Jose (Calderon) and T.J. (Ford) are doing an unbelievable job of distributing the ball. I think Chris (Bosh) when he’s trapped, he’s moving the basketball and it becomes contagious. Everybody moves the ball, guys know that they’re going to touch it and when you know that, we tell our guys to be ready to shoot. Part of our practice, we get a lot of shots, I mean we shoot a lot of shots. We’re just playing well right now, we’re playing with a lot of confidence and guys are stepping up taking shots.

Thoughts on the upcoming break…
We need it. T.J. (Ford) is still nicked up, Chris (Bosh) a little nicked up, AP (Anthony Parker) a little bit sore. We have guys nicked up so we need it. It would just be hard without a little break in the middle to kind of rejuvenate your guys, you just have to.

Thoughts on the season so far and moving ahead…
It’ll be interesting to see how we do, knowing that so much was said about the team. All the teams we were playing, most of them, were .500 or better. We lost to Detroit on the back-to-back with a chance to win the basketball game. When we were 2-8, coming back from that trip, playing Cleveland, nobody thought we had a chance that game and we won it. Not only did we win it, we played very well. It’s just something about those guys, they won’t quit. They enjoy playing together but they won’t give up. They won’t accept giving up. Like I tell them all the time, just play the way we play, play hard, play together and we can deal with the results.

What are you looking to improve as the team comes out of the All-Star break and into the stretch run?
We have to get better defensively and rebounding, that’s something that’s just a continual battle for us. Get better defensively and rebounding and just not be satisfied, don’t get content, and just continue to do what we’ve been doing.

Bosh

CHRIS BOSH

Nice to get a win before the break…
We came in with a lot of focus and we didn’t want to look past today. We enjoy winning basketball games and I think this team is figuring out what it takes to win.

What do you think about the atmosphere in the arena?
It’s always been a great experience playing in big games. As we get closer to the end of the season, the anticipation of everybody looking forward to seeing basketball games is really bringing the fans out.

How big was this game to create separation (from the Nets) in the standings?
We knew if they could win this ball game, that would have given them a little bit more confidence and that probably would have push started them into the second of the season. If they win a game and we lose a game, they’re right there with us. It was really important to come out here and make a statement tonight, win a basketball game and just keep doing the things we’ve been doing to get us here.

Peterson

MORRIS PETERSON

Thoughts on seven Raptor players scoring in double digits…
That’s amazing. I think that goes to show how unselfish we are. I thought we had pretty good ball movement tonight, we did a great job finding guys and we hit some shots. If you look at the stat sheet, I think we shot 58 percent for the game? I guess it was our night.

They shot well too but the defense stepped it up in the fourth quarter…
I think we got stops when we needed to. I thought we had a couple of breakdowns but we really tried to make other guys score and not let Vince (Carter) score too much. We had to pick our poison, (Bostjan) Nachbar and Eddie House did a great job knocking down some shots. We wanted to see if they could do it the whole game. When it counted we knocked down shots and got stops.

Frank

LAWRENCE FRANK

Thoughts on game…
We couldn’t put together any shots and we allowed them to shoot 58%, we’re not going to win games like that.

Thoughts on losing the game to the team you are chasing…
Well, unless this is the last game of the year, it’s just disappointing. I mean, any time you lose it’s disappointing.

Thoughts on playing without Jason Kidd…
Without a doubt, it impacts us. We struggled to contain their point guards, but we can’t make excuses. The third quarter, the way we evolved it, the five point swing there, (Jose) Calderon gets the two, we turned it over, (Andrea) Bargnani hits the three. Just defensively as a whole, we had a hard time getting a handle on it. We didn’t do a real good job from a team standpoint in terms of having five guys on the same page, but you have to give Toronto credit.

Are you worried about how well Toronto has been playing?
Toronto’s playing great. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit, but with 28 games remaining, I don’t think we can be watching what Toronto does. They played great but what we need to do is continually get healthy and get better.

Carter

VINCE CARTER

The Raptors had seven players in double digits, what do they do?
They do a great job of spreading the floor. One through five can all shoot the ball. When you have a point guard like T.J. (Ford) who can, well T.J. and (Jose) Calderon who can get into the lane, they look and pride themselves on sucking guys in, to get shots for their guys. They do a great job of it and that is why they are successful.

Are you getting more concerned with the injuries and what the Raptors are doing?
I am not worried about what the Raptors are doing. We just have to keep fighting and hopefully we can just maintain until our guys get back. The All-Star break is coming at a great time for us, hopefully to give Jason (Kidd) time to heal and RJ (Richard Jefferson) time to heal and kind of get away from it for a while and as a unit come back fresh and hopefully we can make a run for it.

Nachbar

BOSTJAN NACHBAR

Why did you have so much success tonight?
I think because we shared the ball. I wasn’t creating shots for myself, other guys created shots. They were being really unselfish and looking for open guys. Offense was not the problem tonight.

Are you becoming concerned with the injuries and the way Toronto is playing, you might not be able to catch them?
I don’t think that we are concerned, but it is not going to be easy. There is still 28 games to be played so we still have a lot of room to get better and start winning.

Toronto had seven players in double digit scoring….
They spread the floor, and then they have two point guards that are really good at penetrating and kicking the ball out. It is hard to guard penetration and outside shots at the same time, especially the way they were playing tonight.