Toronto Raptors vs. New York Knicks
Sunday, April 15, 2007 – Air Canada Centre

Mitchell

Thoughts on depth of the team…
Yeah our guys all came in and played well. I thought Joey (Graham) who felt sick this morning at the shootaround played great. I thought Kris Humphries played well and Jose (Calderon) finished the game for us strong.

How good does it make you feel that over the last two games you can rest up some of your guys?
We’ll think about that a little bit tomorrow. Right now we are going to enjoy something that we accomplished we set out to do at the beginning of the season and we’ll worry about that tomorrow.

How significant is home court advantage for you guys?
It’s significant for everybody, that is why you play eighty-two games. You ask any team, any coach in the league if they would like to get home court advantage. That is why it is important that Dallas won it throughout the playoffs and everybody is still playing hard down till the bitter end because if it comes down to the seventh game and you can get it home on your home court, it is pretty huge.

Is it good to have a couple games to rest your guys?
We are going to play our guys. Obviously we are going to cut guys minutes but I don’t think we are in a position where we just don’t put a uniform on our guys.

Bosh

CHRIS BOSH

Thoughts on baseline shot…
Well I just wanted to get a shot off. AP (Anthony Parker) made a cut under the basket, I couldn’t hit him and I knew that I could get a shot going right and pulling up. I had been trying to go to the hole all night but they were doing a good job of bodying me up so I just wanted to get a shot off. I got a good look at the basket.

Thoughts on doing the little things come playoff time…
Yeah every game in the playoff is going to be close. There’s going to be a lot of games where you got to execute in the clutch and I’m a big part of that so I have to make sure that I keep my composure and make sure that we get good shots.

What presence have you had in the locker room, what have you instilled in your teammates?
I think that everybody has done a good job because we believe in ourselves. We have to do that in order to be successful. It’s up to yourself first because just in case no one believes in what you can accomplish you have to believe in yourself first and we have done a good job of that. I made sure that I let everybody know everyday where we are tying to go and what we are trying to do.

How do you approach the final two games before the playoffs?
I think we need to come out and take care of business. Hopefully, get a little bit of rest and just focus in and lock in on what we are supposed to do with the minutes that we play.

Parker

ANTHONY PARKER

Thoughts on the game…
I think that was the difference in the game when we got a couple of turnovers in a row and some fast break points, got some momentum going our way and that’s what we were missing in the first half.

Thoughts on the fast-break…
When we get out and run and we can finish on the break, especially at home when it gets the crowd into it. Our guys get into it and turnovers are deflating. I know when I have turnovers you don’t get a shot at the basket and on top of that the other team scores, it’s tough. Momentum-wise it is great if we can go out and get steals and defensively be aggressive.

Thomas

Thoughts on Nate Robinson?…
The game doesn’t really favour him because of his size. Defensively he can’t get himself in the position that other players do because they can take advantage of his size. So I just try and talk him through the nuance and try to stay in the right position so taller players won’t have the advantage of his size. Every bump, every angle, he’s got to learn to play better angles.

How does it feel to coach a game that doesn’t have a great impact in the standings? …
Coach to win. We had an opportunity to win the basketball game. Guys are still giving the same effort and right now we just don’t have the weapons but the effort was there. We have two games left and we’ll definitely try to win the next game and the next game after that. We just keep plugging away, keep being professional and keep playing hard.

Curry

Thoughts on the game…
Toronto is a tough team and I think we gave a valiant effort out there but in the end we weren’t strong enough and couldn’t capitalize at the end.

Thoughts on the Toronto Raptors…
They are a good team, a playoff team, they are one of those teams that if you pack it in early, you are going to get blown out. We are definitely playing for pride right now, everybody wants to go out and play well these last couple of games and try winning one.

What are you looking to take out of these last two games?
Just to try and continue to get better as a team, helping the young guys, continue to develop over these last couple of games so they can go into the summer, have a great summer and come back refreshed and ready to play.

Francis

A tough loss for your team today…
It was definitely tough, we had control of the game for most of it. Turnovers really hurt us, and late in the game we came up empty on possessions. That right there against a team like Toronto, which plays good with all the guys that they bring in it is going to definitely hurt.

Thoughts on your flagrant foul…
I just tried to foul him, I wasn’t trying to hurt him or anything, and I just fouled him.

Thoughts on the Raptors heading into the playoffs…
They are a good young team, and their coach is doing a good job with the talent that he has. They are playing basketball together, and there is not really one guy that is dominating the basketball. They have a good chance of doing something special in the playoffs.

The last couple of possessions, you settled for two points, were they the only open looks?
Yes, that is what was there. We wanted to try and put points on the board to try and extend the game. It was unfortunate that (Joey) Graham was able to get that lay-up late in the game. You just want to try and extend the game as long as you possibly can, and at that point we made some mistakes.