Toronto Raptors vs. Detroit Pistons
Friday, April 13, 2007 – Air Canada Centre

Mitchell

On team finding ways to win…
We didn’t shoot the ball well, we shot 36 percent and I thought that we got some wide open shots and we just didn’t make them. Our defence wasn’t that bad and we rebounded the ball. I think Hump, Kris Humphries and CB (Chris Bosh) were just unbelievable on the boards and that is what won the game for us. The guys they had on the floor, those guys played hard, Lindsey Hunter and Antonio McDyess those guys played hard. It was a good win for us, it just puts us a step closer to what we are trying to do to get to the third spot, but that is a good basketball team. If it comes down the line that we meet them, we are going to have to play better.

Thoughts on Kris Humphries…
He’s just bringing us energy, and some size and quickness. He is undersized most nights but he gets there and battles and I thought tonight he kept us in the game. He kept getting extra possessions for us and he got some timely baskets and got to the free throw line. We made a couple plays at the end. I thought AP’s shot was obviously big and CB made a couple of good moves and then the move T.J. (Ford) made to get us up three was a good shot.

Was your team frustrated with their open shots not going in?
Probably a little bit but we encourage them to keep shooting those shots because they are open. The guys can’t turn down an open shot when it is wide open and we’ve played that way all year and we are not going to change that. I’m not going to try to pull strings on these guys and tell them not to take that. What we have done has got us to this point and we are going to win or lose playing that way.

Bosh

CHRIS BOSH

Thoughts on the second half…
At the end of the game it is always important to put everything behind you and just try to execute down the stretch. We buckled down, made some shots and converted on offence.

Did it matter who Detroit put on the court tonight?
We want to play the same way no matter who they put on the court. We knew that Flip (Saunders) was probably going to rest his guys because they are an older team. They put their second group out there and they did well but we had to come out and take everything seriously because we are still trying to clinch home court.

Thoughts on the play of Kris Humphries…
Hump is really coming along. He has his lapses sometimes but tonight he played a great game. I think this is a model game for how he has to play for the rest of the year. He’s big for us, he can block shots and really bother a lot of people. I think when he does that and he brings that energy for us we are a better team.

Parker

ANTHONY PARKER

Thoughts on the shot…
You know I just knew I had to get it off and when I got it off I was trotting back thinking it’s online, I think it’s going in. Then I was like ‘Did it hit the backboard?’. It hit the backboard but I was just trying to get it off and thank God it went in.

Thoughts on fourth quarter…
Everybody steps up and made huge plays for us to be in that position. Humphries with the rebounds, a big blocked shot, we got some turnovers, T.J. getting a huge steal at the end and we gave ourselves a chance and that’s what it is all about. We kept giving ourselves a chance to win the game and we just kept fighting and getting it done.

Humphries

KRIS HUMPRHIES

That’s a lot of rebounds young man…
I just hustled out there. I tried to get boards, we started off slow and the ball just came my way tonight.

Did you have a sense that things would come around for you and you would get the playing time you are getting?
Yeah, for sure, that’s the reason why you work on your game and come to the gym at night is to make the most of your opportunity to play. I don’t think you can look around at anyone in here who thinks they can go a year without contributing or playing a lot. I just try to stay ready, stay in shape and make the most of my opportunity.

Saunders

Thoughts on the game…
Our starters played well. Our zone was good when we played it. We gave our young guys some opportunities to play in stretch situations where they normally don’t get that opportunity, and I thought they played well. (Chris) Bosh played 43 minutes; (Anthony) Parker played 46. You know, we got Amir (Johnson) who just came up from the NBADL yesterday and those guys played basically the whole fourth quarter and hung in there. Basically, (Anthony) Parker makes an unbelievable shot that kind of knocked the wind right out of our sail. We missed some easy shots down the stretch, but it was a good learning experience.

Did this game give you some perception of how this match-up would be in the playoffs? …
I hope both of us are there in the conference finals. They’re (Toronto) going to be two or three seed. Like I said, we played well, our zone was great tonight.

You had the privilege of coaching Sam Mitchell, what are your thoughts on him now? …
He was a coach when he played, how he played. He is a coach that knows what he wants to do and how he wants the players to play and he makes sure that they play that way.

Webber

The game had the feel of an exhibition game tonight…
Yes, we definitely want to win every game, but also we want to give guys a chance that haven’t played to play and stay injury-free. We can keep using it to work on different schemes, different play calling, so it is really just a different scenario but we still want to win.

Talk about the play of your bench players…
It was great, they had the lead most of the game and they don’t play in certain situations and they are not used to, you are going to be out of alignment and not be comfortable and things like that. This experience is going to help us down the road with these guys and we will gladly take it.

Do you guys feel pretty good with the conference wrapped up and the ability to do things like sit Chauncey Billups?
Yes, but we also want a championship. Nobody really cares about how we feel right now, we are on a mission. So right now we are just trying to get better every day.

Thoughts on a possible playoff match-up with the Raptors…
I don’t care. I don’t even want to get into it, you don’t know who you are going to play. Everybody has to get out of the first round, so whatever happens, happens. When we come to the playoffs, you will see a different type of animal.