Toronto Raptors vs. Boston Celtics
Sunday, November 4, 2007 – Air Canada Centre

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Mitchell

What did you think about Ray Allen hitting that three at the end of the game?
We knew it was coming. He just got picked off. Ray hit a good shot, they have a good team.

Are you surprised at all of the intensity of the game?
No I’m surprised we actually had a chance to take them into overtime when we were shooting 36 percent. We know they’re a hard team to play. If T.J (Ford) didn’t play the way he played, and our defense wasn’t as good as it was, we wouldn’t of had a chance to win the basketball game. As disappointed as you are with the loss, we shot 36 percent...you’re not going to win a basketball game (like that). We had a chance to win, in overtime, we had the ball a lot. You’re all disappointed but that is just the ball game.

How was it playing against a team that has hardly played together?
I don’t know, were we playing against a bunch of high school guys? Look at those guys, they have a lot of NBA experience. All defense has to do with continuity, if you don’t have that, if you have the ability to do it, if you have a player like Kevin (Garnett) who’s talking, putting people in the right spot, you can do it. They’re a good basketball team, they’ve got pride.

Why did you decide not to double on Garnett?
They got five. Let’s see, James Posey hit three three’s at the game. Ray Allen hit seven. Eddie House made two three’s. So where are we going to come from? Kevin is the best, if you come with it too early, he comes at you hard. If you come too late, he gets deep. He hit two fade-away jump shots. That’s the shots we have to live with. If we can force Kevin to take 15 fade-away jump shots and he makes them, he is a great player.

Ford

TJ FORD

Thoughts on your performance…
From the start of the game the way it was playing I knew tonight was going to be the night where I had to put up a lot of shots because they weren’t leaving our shooters. We gave ourselves a chance to win even though we shot a bad percentage. It went into overtime with a chance to go into double overtime until Ray (Allen) hit a three. I think we left it all on the court even though some guys didn’t play as well but our confidence is there. I think those guys on the other end know we don’t fear anybody.

Thoughts on the teams slow start…
It’s going to be like that sometimes. We are not always going to have that performance where we come out and shoot 50 percent in the first quarter or the first half. Sometimes those shots are not going to go in, so when that is the case you have to find other ways to be effective.

Bosh

CHRIS BOSH

Can you comment on T.J. Ford and his performance tonight?
T.J. played spectacular. He kept us in this game, he found a lot of guys, he made it easy for us. Some days he’s passing the ball creating for others and some days he’s creating for himself. I’m glad to see him be aggressive like that.

Thoughts on your performance…
I tried to hang in there. I think I just did a good job of staying in the game. I didn’t let things, early on in the game, frustrate me. I just wanted to make sure I concentrated, just try to be a leader out there and no matter what happens just to have a good game. Being patient paid off. I just kind of ran out of gas towards the end.

Your thoughts on this ball club trying to dig yourself out of a whole early and this Celtic team obviously has a lot of talent…
We couldn’t make shots and that’s going to happen some nights. The thing I’m most proud of from this team is that we didn’t let the game get out of hand and we still had a chance to win the game and in this league that is all you can ask for. We played decent defense against the, we didn’t make things easy for then and we just kept ourselves in the game. We had a stretch where we had our opportunity but we came up a little short.

Thibodeau

I guess you will remember this one?
Yeah good game, good road win so obviously we are happy about that. Our thoughts are with Doc (Rivers) and so that makes it special that we were able to win for him.

What was it like emotionally for you?
Yeah, you know some tough plays there, some mistakes that hopefully we can clean up but what I liked about what our team did today, we had a lot thrown at us, we handled it, the veterans were great and we kept fighting through things until the end.

What was it like for you coaching as a head coach for the first time in a regular season game?
It’s different. Obviously when you’re an assistant you’re making suggestions and when you’re the head coach you’re making the final decisions and when there are a lot of final decisions to be made some work out well and some don’t but it’s coming at you fast.

Garnett

Talk about the level of intensity the game had tonight…
A lot of intensity and a playoff atmosphere here. We knew that it was not going to be an easy game, an afternoon game, a building with a lot of energy, a team that is playing really well with a lot of confidence. What else could you expect? We know we have some things to work on, but this is a very confident team. T.J. Ford got some big shots down the stretch, Ray (Allen) hit the biggest shot of the night. It was a big game.

What did they do to get back into this game, as they didn’t have their first lead until overtime?
They were making a lot of shots, this team is very good at shooting the ball from the outside. (Chris) Bosh does a good job of setting the tone, being a force inside and also defensively sound. I think once we started to move the ball they got a little fatigued and we started to draw the match-ups. Then Ray (Allen) hit a big shot.

Does this give you a pretty good idea of what this division is going to be like?
The league is the league. This team is not the division champs for nothing. No one gave them anything, they had their backs up against the wall for a couple years, but they kicked the door down last year. I know how Sam is, Sam is a very competitive person and his team is going to be competitive.

Did you know you had to bring you best effort today?
It was an emotional win today. This win is dedicated to Doc Rivers and his family and my heart goes out to him, so if you guys can please keep him your prayers. This win is for Doc.

Allen

Is that how you drew up the last shot?
That is exactly how we drew it up. A lot has been said about this team and what’s going to happen at the end of games and who is going to take that shot. It is a joy to be out there offensively and for the coach to be able to draw up a play and there are three options, Paul (Pierce) he had a shot if he threw it in and stepped back in. He caught me wide open and KG (Kevin Garnett) set a great pick, but even if I wasn’t open, KG was under the basket. It was a great play.

Was it an emotional win for you guys?
It was, I think we are a still a pretty new team, pretty young in the fetal stages of our development; we are still learning a lot about each other. I think every game is going to be a new experience and we look forward to it but there is so much expectation put on us, but at the same time we just want to play basketball and have fun.