Toronto Raptors vs. Charlotte Bobcats
Sunday, April 9, 2005 – Air Canada Centre

Mitchell

On tonight’s result…
It’s disappointing, we turned the ball over 19 times. We missed shots, which happens, and we still had an opportunity to win the game.

Was there a miscommunication on that last timeout?
I thought we just went through this last week. Called a timeout, if we don’t call it, you have to advance the basketball, they trapped Mike (James) and everybody is running away from the ball and you try to get the ball in the front court because last time we got it in the back court with four seconds to get it over. Give Charlotte credit, they made a good play. I’m trying to get the guys to understand, you have to think the whole time.

We’ve talked about basketball IQ all season long, is it getting frustrating that after 77 games the team is still having difficulty understanding the game?
You just have to keep going over it. Last I checked they had no pills, so you just have to keep going over it, that’s all you can do.

On tonight’s performance…
I thought Loren (Woods) gave us good minutes. I thought Joey (Graham) did some good things tonight. I thought we did some good things. We missed shots, you look at the shots we missed, we got great looks. I just tell all our guys they have to be aggressive on the floor. When you pass the basketball, you have a chance to penetrate and make a play, you got to try to make a play, you just can’t catch the ball and hold it. Everybody’s got to be aggressive with the basketball but we’re not. Whenever you try not to make a mistake, you’re going to make a mistake.

James

MIKE JAMES

Thoughts on the game…
Tough luck. We had a chance, we went up by three and couldn’t get a stop. It’s hard when you can’t get stops, it’s hard also when you try to make plays and we missed a few open looks. It’s just tough and there is nothing you can do about it except try to get better.

What happened on the (Gerald) Wallace steal late in the game?
He made a play on the ball. They were trapping me and they wouldn’t let me get the ball over half court. I knew I only had 17 seconds so I was forced into making a play. It’s hard when they are trapping and there’s no help. I’m not trying to make excuses, it’s all about making plays but it’s hard when you have no help and nobody in the back court to pass it to. He (Wallace) isn’t leading the NBA in steals for nothing so he was up there and made a play on the ball.

Peterson

MORRIS PETERSON

What happened on the (Gerald) Wallace steal late in the game?
The coach was trying to tell us to call a timeout, and I don’t know. We were supposed to call a timeout first before we took the ball out and something happened, and we ended up getting the ball in. We were trying to call a timeout and they were pressing. It was a bad play, a bad play on our part. It cost us the game.

Thoughts on your performance…
I’m not worried about my shot, that’s going to come. We were trying to give other guys an opportunity to play. I’m going to let the game come to me and not force anything. If I have open shots, I’m going to take them, it just happened, I didn’t make my shots, but that’s the least of my worries. What I take pride in doing is going out and playing hard and leaving it on the floor. My shot will come back around in a couple of days, I’ll work on it.

Bickerstaff

You guys really hung-in there and gutted it out and Gerald Wallace had a big steal…
We don’t think that way – at least I don’t. I thought there was a little confusion there on the timeout. What Gerald (Wallace) did, was he didn’t stop playing. There was a point there, where we were up four (points) and we became discombobulated because we were worried about calls. I think you always have to maintain your focus. These guys (Toronto) have done a terrific job; when you talk about Sam (Mitchell) and what he’s done since the inception and the games they have won and the games without Bosh, Toronto has done a great job.

You’ve had a lot of young players make big improvements in their game…
I think the metamorphosis for all the young players is due to all of the injuries. They have had the ability to get on the court and play. For instance, we have found what Gerald (Wallace) can do in terms of putting him on the block and we have taken advantage of it. The one guy who just broke his finger (Bernard Robinson), his improvement has been tremendous. We’re both (Charlotte and Toronto) making progress and Toronto has some very nice players also. Somewhere down the road we will be competing and I think the rivalry will grow.

On the players still playing hard despite being out of the playoffs…
I expect that. They (the players) expect it. They are very professional. Anytime anybody pays any type of money, they are paying to come to the game, then you have got to respect that. What we have asked our guys to do is respect the game. We’ve played some really good basketball against some good teams. My hat is off to these kids, they get at it. We have set the tone in terms of work ethic, that’s one thing that doesn’t take any skill: to work had. The guys, to their credit, haven’t pulled their wagons up to the door at the end of the season when there is nothing to play for.

What’s been the big difference with Raymond Felton in the second half of the season?
Experience. You can see the evolution with his game. Raymond just has so much courage and toughness. He played Mike James the entire game and he wanted it. What Mike got, Mike earned because Raymond was there. I like that.

Wallace

GERALD WALLACE

Did you see Toronto try and call a timeout?
No, I didn’t know they were trying to call a timeout. We were just trying to put some pressure on them. It really wasn’t a press that we were trying to do, we were just trying to put a little extra pressure just to make them use a little more time bringing the ball up the court instead of coming up the court and getting set in their offence. It worked out to our advantage, I was able to get into the passing lane.

Is this a typical win for your team with everybody pitching in?
Yes, that’s the way we win. All 12 guys in uniform have to be a part of us winning. Everybody came out tonight and the minutes that the guys played they contributed and did what they had to do and we were able to win the game.

You had a nine point lead, is there ever a sense with this team ‘oh no, here we go again’…
We know we’re the Bobcats. We have to play whether we’re up ten or down ten, we have to play every minute like it’s the last minute of the game and we were able to do that tonight. They made some runs, made some big shots, the crowd got into it and we were able to come back and take them out of the things they wanted to do and get some easy baskets on the offensive end.

Knight

BREVIN KNIGHT

You had a very balanced attack with four guys with double-doubles…
Yes, everybody played well. It’s coming down to the end of the season and right now it’s just playing for pride. Our guys still want to get better and have a good showing every night we step on the court. Tonight everyone pitched in their helping hand.

A big steal at the end of the game…
That’s what we do, we get steals. That’s why we lead the league in steals. We do a lot of gambling and sometimes it hurts us, but once we get them, it definitely helps us on the offensive end, so that’s just our aggressive style and tonight it definitely helped us out.

On Charlotte’s ‘no quit’ style of play….
Gerald’s (Wallace) first steal really kind of opened the game up. They were trying to call a timeout and we know once you get in that mode everyone tends to relax. So we wanted to try and pressure them trying to get the ball over and Mike James threw the ball back across. We know if we have Gerald anywhere near, he is going to get it. He did a great job of getting the steal and then Jumaine Jones finished it.