Toronto Raptors vs. New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets
Sunday, April 2, 2005 – Air Canada Centre

Mitchell

A good comeback, but how do you explain the team’s performance in the first two and a half quarters?
We didn’t play well (and) we didn’t shoot the ball well. For the game, we shot 39 per cent, we didn’t get to the free throw line. We talked to the guys, you have to get to the free throw line. It’s just hard to win if you don’t get any easy baskets. We didn’t make shots early and that’s the game.

What happened in overtime?
We didn’t make shots and they got to the free throw line. They hit two jumpshots and in both overtimes they kept penetrating and getting to the free throw line. We just don’t have guys that penetrate like that. Speedy Claxton can get to the hole, Chris Paul can get to the hole, David West is a good post-up player who can make plays inside and without Chris (Bosh), it’s just hard for us. Trying to find a guy we can get the ball to who is going to cause a double-team. Mismatches, we have to take advantage of that. Again, our guys, that’s not what they do. Matt (Bonner) tires to drive to the hole, we don’t want him doing that. You can’t be disappointed, guys got to do what they do and we’ll work on it. When we had Chris, we got to the free throw line as much as anybody for the most part of the season. Chris was getting there 12-13 times a game shooting 80 per cent. Not only that, but now you start counting the times we get in the bonus and then we get to the free throw line with ticky-tack fouls. We don’t get any of that and we don’t have that. We used to go to the free throw line 28-30 times and now we’re going 12-15 times.

James

MIKE JAMES

It was a gutsy effort tonight…
Not enough, not enough. It takes one point more than the other team to win a game and tying isn’t good enough. We had our chances to win and it’s a little disappointing, but you have to keep going.

Thoughts on your performance…
It happens. I shot bad tonight. Every night is not going to be a great night, but the main thing is perseverance. They say you miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take. If I have an open shot and as hard as I work, I’m going to continue to believe in myself if the shot goes down or not.

Peterson

MORRIS PETERSON

Thoughts on tonight’s game…
We came up short tonight. We battled back, but we didn’t play our brand of basketball in the first three quarters. In the fourth quarter we played ourselves back into a position to win. In overtime, it seemed like we ran out of gas.

Villanueva

CHARLIE VILLANUEVA

Thoughts on tonight’s game…
We came out a little slow and we picked it up towards the end of the third and fourth quarters to send the game into overtime. I think we played a decent first overtime and then in the second we let up. Our defence is what got us the lead back and we let down on defence.

Was there any extra motivation playing against Chris Paul?
Not at all. I just went out there and played. I try to do whatever I can to win the game. I love his game, I love it. He passes the ball well, he rebounds well and he can score, too. He is more of a pass first point guard.

Scott

On tonight’s game…
We showed some guts tonight. I know our previous two times, I think we had overtime games, we kind of just went flat. I think just because of the fact we were disciplined when we got into overtime and tonight we just didn’t fold. We kept playing hard, we showed that type of resiliency we’ve been talking about all season long. We grew up tonight a little bit and I think that was the key to the game tonight.

Linton Johnson made two huge defensive stops late in the game…
He did a real good job of making a mark and finishing at the goal. With his lift and his athleticism, he challenged the shot. We got lucky on both plays and got away with it in overtime. Give him a lot of credit for coming in, especially the first time coming in cold.

You got contribution from a lot of players…
We had seven guys in double-digits in scoring and we are getting a lot of help from a lot of different individuals and that’s something we have to continue to do.

Paul

CHRIS PAUL

Did you know in the fourth you almost had a triple double?
Not at all, it just happened. That’s what I’ve been saying all along that eventually it will just happen and thankfully we got a win tonight to go along with it.

On winning three games in a row…
It feels great, but it’s just a win, it’s another game so now we just have to get ready for Detroit.

Comment on the second overtime…
We just started to make shots and we got a lot more aggressive. I think that during the fourth quarter and first overtime they were really aggressive towards us and we were sort of on our heels. In the second overtime, we got set up and we wanted to be the aggressor.

Williams

AARON WILLIAMS

On tonight’s win…
We are starting to play a little bit better now, hopefully we can continue this for the rest of the regular season and into the playoffs.

Everybody is stepping up at different times…
It’s definitely a team effort, we don’t have any real stars on the team. We’ve got some guys that are going to be really good and are really good. We have a very unselfish team and it shows out there on the court.

What was the difference in the second overtime?
Getting off to a quick start. Once you get ahead, other teams start pressing a little bit which I think Toronto did shooting some three’s they shouldn’t have shot at that point in the game. It puts a little more pressure on the other teams.