Toronto Raptors vs. New Jersey Nets
Sunday, April 6, 2003 – Air Canada Centre

Wilkens

(On Vince’s injury) "It looks like a bad sprain, we watched it on the replay and he comes down and catches his foot on the side of Richard Jefferson’s foot and turns it. You can see that he turned it pretty good so we’ll have to wait. We’re going to take x-rays." (On leaving Vince in that late in the game) "There was still time and guys want to win, so we’re out there trying to win. We’re trying to score and the game’s not over. You hit a couple of three-point shots, which has been done, and all of a sudden it changes things. So you’re in there and your trying to win and you’re trying to keep good balance on the floor. We don’t have Voshon so we don’t have another 2-guard there and he was playing pretty good down the stretch." (On playing some of the younger guys more) "Well you know at times we’ve played different guys and we’ve been trying to give Michael Bradley a lot of minutes. We’re trying to give Jelani a lot of minutes but if you stick all of those guys out there at one time you’re going to get blown off the floor." (Is the 25th win worth it) "Well sometimes it is because what you’re trying to do is teach your players to win, not to lose.”

J. Williams

JEROME WILLIAMS

(On starters playing a lot of minutes) "It was tough. We are out there to win games. We don’t want anyone to get hurt but at the same time we’re not going to cash in the season." (On Vince’s injury) "Ankles are a hot spot and you can get a lot of pain down in that area, especially when all your weight comes down on somebody’s foot like that. I just hope that it is just a sprain and nothing else. At this point it pretty much tells the story of our year.”

Peterson

MORRIS PETERSON

(On cutting back minutes at this point in the season) "It was a physical game. Vince went down a couple of times and I went down a couple of times. It was a very intense game and we are a bit beat up but you have to try and finish the season strong. It is the coach’s call whether our minutes will be cut a little or not." (On Vince’s injury) "I didn’t see it but what I heard was, is that he came down on Richard Jefferson’s foot and turned his ankle. I don’t know how severe it is and hopefully it is okay.”

Scott

BYRON SCOTT, Nets

"Like I said, the toughest part of my job is finding minutes for guys. They understand that this is an important time for us, this time of the season and we’ll just try to keep it rolling." (On Kenyon Martin) "He was great. I thought the first three or four times he touched it, when he had some point blank shots and he just kind of missed them, he was a little rusty and then he got going. He just fought through everything and played extremely well." (On Jason Kidd not scoring a lot of points – is that a concern?) "Jason doesn’t have to score for us to be successful. He knows that but it helps when he does score. He’s getting everybody else involved in the game. He knows that we have two young forwards that are coming into their own and he’s trying to get both of those guys as many touches as possible. And then we have a centre, in Jason Collins, who’s a young guy who’s starting to play real well too. He’s trying to distribute the ball as much as possible and I think that in the second half, he knew that he needed to score a little bit. He had to be a little bit more aggressive and he did exactly what he needed to do.”

Kidd

JASON KIDD, Nets

“We knew Toronto just came off of playing Detroit well and they were playing good basketball. The hard thing is for us to compete all 48 minutes at a high level. We have something that we are playing for so to come up here and get a win, it’s a big win and we have to try and keep it going. In the second half we just stayed patient, they made a run at us but we executed and got good shots. Make or miss, we had good shots and we didn’t turn the ball over and that’s what you have to do to be successful in the playoffs. We knew if we could get the rebounds and limit them to one shot, that we could get on a run and that is one of our strengths.”

Jefferson

RICHARD JEFFERSON, Nets

(on guarding Vince in the second half) "A lot of it was getting into a comfort zone. I can’t even say that, more than anything it was me getting into him and a lot of it was J-Kidd because he was helping out. Every time he caught an eye subject (recognized a potential play) he was like, “Richard force him this way, make him a driver”. J-Kidd was basically directing me, and Vince heard what he was saying and it really just messed up his whole game plan. I was more of a decoy up on him and J-Kidd was really the defender." (on why the team was successful) "We got defensive stops, we got rebounds and were able to fast break." (on Vince’s injury) "Yeah, he came down on my foot. ”