Toronto Raptors @ Orlando Magic
Thursday, April 4, 2007 – Amway Arena

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Mitchell

On the win...
“I’m proud of our guys. Coming off of back-to-backs against these two teams isn’t easy. We got off to a sluggish start but when we got the lead down to something manageable going in to halftime we felt like we gave ourselves a chance to win the basketball game. We had to get a key rebound and start making some shots and just keep the pressure on. (Hedo) Turkoglu had an unbelievable game. He just kept answering whatever we threw at him. I just thought our guys battled. Chris (Bosh) was unbelievable in the back-to-back. Joey (Graham) in that third quarter gave us a big lift offensively. Guys that came off the bench and played came off and played hard and played together.”

On not being able to put the game away:
“We’ve got some young guys that made some mistakes. My message to them has been to just play hard, play together, and I can deal with the mistakes. And the good thing about it is that they made them and their teammates didn’t get down on them. We’re not mad at anyone, we just want our guys to play hard and play together and we can overcome the mistakes if we stay together and we were able to do that.”

On the slow start:
“We’re coming off of back-to-backs. Guys who have been in the NBA a long time know that. They’re playing hard in a game they need to win and we had a tough game last night and with traveling. We kept hanging in there and giving ourselves a chance and got the lead down and were able to take the lead. TJ (Ford) and Jose (Calderon) ran the team excellent and Chris, with the minutes he has to play because of injuries, has just been unbelievable.”

On the game coming down to free throws towards the end:
“We were putting them on the line and they were putting us on the line. We work on free throws and we work on three-point shooting and get shots up there every day. You just have to step up there at that time and make them.”

Bosh

CHRIS BOSH

It has been physical man. I think the referees are getting ready for the post season. The game that we played last night in Miami was probably one of the most physical games we have played all year. I think that is good for us that we can maintain our own play.”

“First of all, we are getting to the line. That is big for us. The shots aren’t going in sometimes, so to get to the line and make some free throws is big for us. I am glad that we showed a lot of composure.”

On switching to zone defense
“I think they didn’t see it coming. We just wanted to switch it up on them. We just wanted to throw a curve ball at them and see what happens.”

“Yes that was a good call (Grant Hill taking down Bosh late in fourth quarter). I was going for the basketball and he got a piece of my elbow. The referees made the right call.”

“It was energy. We were coming out flat and kind of lackadaisical. We had to pick it up on the defensive end first and keep sharing the ball.”

“I know that we have come a long way. I can count several occasions in my mind that we were down 15 on the road and we did not capitalize on our situation. I am just proud how far the team has come along.”

“We are very aware that we are in the race for third place right now. Every game means something. You can’t take a day off. Home court is very important, so we are going to keep playing.”

Graham

JOEY GRAHAM

On today’s win happening to be for bigger stakes…
Yes, it feels good to clinch a playoff spot. For us now we are trying to clinch our division, get home court. Everything builds on itself. You look at where we were at the beginning of the year, what people were saying, now these people are riding with us. It’s been great and we’re just going to build on this.

The last few games the rebounding intensity has picked up…
For us with Garbo (Jorge Garbajosa) being out, and Andrea (Bargnani) being out we lose a lot of height and with that comes some rebounding. Guys got to come in and play hard and get rebounds, like Joey (Graham) did the other night. It just comes down to trying to impose our will on the other team.

Hill

On the last foul call against Grant Hill...
“No, we’ve had no video tonight, I haven’t had a chance to look at anything.”

“I thought on his last shot he got fouled. I couldn’t tell, to be honest with you, I couldn’t tell.”

On the last offensive possession
“We ran a side out-of-bounds play that we worked on for two days. Turk didn’t have to take a jumper, but he was open and he had it going, so I’m not complaining about that shop at all. There’s four or five different options on that play.”

On Toronto’s offensive rebounds late in the game
“We gave up a huge offensive rebound to Bosh which never should have happened and then Ford and Jameer were tangled up on one underneath and they got the ball back out-of-bounds. They got sent to the line a couple times, which was very questionable to me late in the game, but the offensive rebounds, Jameer’s there was nothing we could do about, but the one that Bosh got we should have never given up.”

On Hedo Turkoglu’s game tonight
“He had the hot hand early and was making shots and we just kept going to him to see what we could get out of him and Grant, those were the guys that were our best offensive weapons. I thought Keyon came in and did a good job with his defensive pressure, I thought Trevor came in and did a great job on Chris Bosh, Bosh had seven points in the second half, I don’t know about the foul call on the last one, Joe Forte said he raked his arm but I couldn’t tell.”

Dooling

“We felt like we had some lapses, had things under control and they made their run.”

“We’ve jumped on some teams, battled back on some others. Once again, we started out really, really nice. And went downhill from there. We picked it up in the fourth quarter, but good teams have to be complete and play for the whole 48 minutes. We weren’t able to do that tonight.”

“Every game is important. We’re in the last leg. Every game is important. We’re not really concentrating on New Jersey but we’re watching them. We’ve got to focus on ourselves, we’ve got a good opportunity to beat one of the elite teams in the East and we let it slip away.”

Turkoglu

“I was feeling good the whole game. I don’t know what happened, it came out. But we should have taken care of business before that and not win it on last second shots. We had a lot of turnovers, a lot of offensive rebounds we gave up. That’s the reason we lost the game.”

“I never doubted myself, my shots, my confidence the whole year. I’ve had some ups and downs all year but never doubted. Keep attacking; put it to it, I know it’s going to come. Like tonight, it came to me. It’ll help me out, to help get some wins that last six, seven games. I’ve got to help the team when I get a double, like tonight.”

On career high...
“No, you can’t enjoy it. I mean, you always enjoy it when you score and get a career high but it would have tasted better with a ‘W’. That’s the key, to get ‘w’s.”