Toronto Raptors vs. Boston Celtics
Tuesday, April 4, 2005 – Air Canada Centre

Mitchell

What happened tonight?
I don’t know, the same thing that happens to us all the time. We move the ball for 46-47 minutes, get a lead, last two or three minutes of the game we don’t move the ball. We foul too much, 56 free throws, how are you going to win?

Your team went 28-for-28 from the line…
We put them on the line 53 times. We’re not going to win a basketball game having them shoot 56 free throws, it’s impossible, we foul too much.

You knew this was a young team going in, are you surprised that this team hasn’t learned to overcome and erase those same mistakes?
No, not with the young guys. We’re just going to have to keep telling them, we tell them 40-something seconds ago if they score call a timeout, we put the ball inbounds and no timeout. We just came out of the huddle, if they score, we’re going to call a timeout. We haven’t committed one foul in practice, I referee every scrimmage, I call fouls, they haven’t committed one foul in practice but we commit them in the game.

James

MIKE JAMES

Thoughts on officially being out of the playoffs…
We are playing for pride right now. I think every time we come out onto the court we have something to prove to ourselves. Even though the season is winding down, we still have to go out there and give a great effort every night.

Coach (Sam Mitchell) said the Celtics had too many free throws (53 FTA)…
It is tough and it goes both ways. I guess the teams were making aggressive plays to the rim. Some were questionable, but when you are constantly going to the rim you force the referees to call it one way or another. There’s nothing you can do about it except accept it. It’s tough the way we have been losing, but that’s just the challenging season this year.

Peterson

MORRIS PETERSON

Thoughts on officially being out of the playoffs…
The main thing we have been trying to concentrate on is playing good basketball. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to pull the games out. It seemed like tonight was the same story, just a different day. We have a lead down the stretch and we just didn’t win. We need to try and understand that down the stretch we have to come together, and we have to make sure we do the little things. At the end we turned the ball over, including myself, and it cost us the game.

Does losing get to you?
As a competitor, I hate to lose. Every time I lose a game I feel it eats at my insides. That’s just me. But I’m pretty sure all the guys in this locker room feel the same way. We are all at this level to win and the thing we have to do is keep fighting. Every time you get knocked down you have to get back up. We can’t hang our heads and say this is a lost season or anything like that. I think if this team continues to grow, and play with the core guys that we have, I think in the future we can definitely make the playoffs.

Rivers

On tonight’s game…
I don’t think you’re going to draw art from this game at all, it was not a beautiful game in any way. I really thought it was tough for both teams, you could see early on, to get it going. We are coming to the realization that if Philly (Philadelphia) keeps losing, they’re making us stay in the race which is not a bad thing and the Raptors are out. You could see energy early on, but after that, it actually became a good basketball game especially in the second half. I love that I was able to keep Gerald Green and some of our young guys on the floor and win the game. So we’re happy with the win.

Paul Pierce shoots 2/10 but he gets to the line time and time again…
He’s the best. He’s one of the best in the league at getting to the foul line. It’s funny, when you coach against him, which I did in Orlando, I always thought “Gosh, he lives on the line.” When you coach him you don’t think he goes to the line enough. You think he gets fouled every time, he has a knack. He is a physical basketball player and he has a knack of getting to the line.

You guys did a good job of shooting the ball as well…
Yes, Raef (LaFrentz) was huge obviously. Raef came in and made some huge shots for us and made another big one in the second half. When our bench has 53 points, we’re going to win most games and it was on a night when Paul (Pierce) was off from the field, but on from the free throw line, so we’ll take it.

Pierce

PAUL PIERCE

You struggled from the field tonight…
My shot wasn’t really falling, I missed a couple of easy ones, but I just stayed aggressive. It doesn’t really bother me to miss shots. ( I just) stay aggressive and play the way I know how to play.

On Raef LaFrentz coming off the bench…
He came in, Raef is a veteran, so it doesn’t bother him that he’s a starter or coming off the bench. He’s a classy veteran and really accepts his role and does whatever he has to do to help the team.

What is going on coming down the stretch in the huddle?
We just try to keep our composure, run our offence, and be more solid on defence. Stops that we made, we rebounded the ball, we made shots, we got to the line and got the necessary stops we needed.

Gomes

RYAN GOMES

On tonight’s performance…
We still want to finish the season off strong, we haven’t proved anything yet so we have to continue to go out there and play hard, give it all we got and get ready for next season. In the new year none of what happens to us this year matters when going into the next season. We want to keep playing hard and picking up good habits and doing the right things.

You did well down the stretch when your team really needed it…
I just tried, it was one of those screen plays where he ran up into me and I was able to take the shot and make the most of it… I was just trying to be aggressive and it was a close game but you can’t go in there like it is slow and soft, you have to go up there strong and that is what I was trying to do.

With the game on the line, you showed a lot maturity at the line…
As a youngster, you always go to the line and say, ‘tie game, no time on the clock,’ so I think those came to be habits that you’re used to doing, as any basketball player. I just got up there and made them. We were up two possessions already but you still want to add to that lead, so they can’t get an opportunity. They came down and Mike James hit tough shots and they got lay-ups and if we missed those free throws, it could be a different way, but luckily we always go in there and step up and make free throws at the end of the game.