RAPTORS: Post-Game Quotes

Post-Game Quotes

Mitchell

SAM MITCHELL

Thoughts on the game tonight…
We are disappointed; we had a lot of breakdowns. You have to give Philadelphia some credit, they shot the ball well. You are going to have nights where you have to win playing defence and you are going to have nights where you are going to have to score. We had great shots in the first half. We got shots and we didn’t make them. Our defence wasn’t good. Offensively we weren’t very good. .

Thoughts on the injury of Jose Calderon…
I haven’t had a chance to talk to the trainer. He tweaked his hamstring and tried to play in the second half. Jermaine’s back tightened up and he had to go to the back for a little while. We have tomorrow off and then come back Friday and Saturday and get a good practice in, get ready to play Miami.

Thoughts on the backup point guard situation…
We have two guys who are trying to learn to play in the NBA. You can watch it on TV and you can practice it, but until you get in front of 19,000 people and play against starting point guards and guys who have been in the league and know how to play, there is a learning curve. We are trying to get these guys up to speed as fast as possible. There are no short cuts. Jose (Calderon) went through the same thing.

Calderon

JOSE CALDERON

How does your hamstring feel?
I think I am better now. I wasn’t 100 percent so that’s why I couldn’t stay on the court. I think somebody else could do a better job than me; I couldn’t be 100 percent on defense or offense so I decided to go..

How did it (the injury) happen?
I was trying to get a layup, and I went up and at that moment I felt a cramp. I feel better now, I tried to get back but I wasn’t feeling 100 percent, it was feeling sore. It is not something that I want to get worse but with the ice I feel better now.

Have you had hamstring problems before?
No, not really, this is a one time thing, but it happens..

Will you miss Sunday’s game…?
No, I am looking forward to that. This is the first time that we have three or four days off. I want to be there on Sunday so let’s see how I wake up tomorrow, hopefully everything is feeling much better but I want to be on the court Sunday for sure.

Bosh

CHRIS BOSH

Thoughts on the defensive play…
We just didn’t get back. We can’t get caught up in lows and highs, we just do our job. Today we didn’t do the things we talked about stopping. We talked about limiting their transition points; they had 19 points in transition. That is one of their strengths and if you let them get out on the open court they are going to be hard to beat.

You say that you guys talked about it, can you come up with any reason why you guys didn’t do it?
We just didn’t do it. You know how it goes, things just didn’t get done. Just like, you don’t do your work, your boss asks you what happened and you say I just didn’t do it. You will save yourself a lot of hassle if you admit your faults. We just have to do a better job of getting the job done. We can sit here and try to think of why we are not doing certain things or what’s going on, but when it is all said and done you just have to do your job. That is really it, and sometimes you have to bust your hump.

Cheeks

MAURICE CHEEKS

Thoughts on the play of Andre Iguodala…
I haven’t been disappointed in the way he’s played, I mean, obviously he’s played a great game but I think everyone who stepped out on the court played a nice game. I know Andre was 1 rebound from a triple-double. I haven’t been disappointed in his game, I wanted him to be more aggressive and I thought tonight he was more aggressive. When you shoot 54 percent from the field that cures a lot, but I thought the way we played the screen-and-role, the trap and the pick-and-role kept us aggressive the whole game. That was the difference in the game, us being aggressive on the pick-and-roll and pushing the basketball down the court.

Tonight they seemed to play not just with each other, but for each other…
I really believe that the way we played the game on the defensive end of the floor was the difference in the game. Whether it was our comfort zone on the offensive end or whatever it was, I really believe the way we played on guarding the screen-and-roll and the activity we had with our hands resulted in us getting up and down the court on the offensive end. I just think the way we played defensively on screen-and-rolls made the difference in the game.

How much of your play tonight was based on sheer disappointment in the team’s recent lack of success?
Some of it was, we hadn’t won a game on the road so I thought the guys talked about getting a win on the road. That is usually big when you are talking about it, you want to get your first road win. I just told them to relax out there, just let your energy be on the defensive end of the court and when you do that, you are not putting that much pressure on the offense. I think that is what happened the last few games, you put so much pressure on the offense and not enough pressure on our defense.

Brand

ELTON BRAND

Does the team feel relief?
Great relief. Toronto is a pretty good team, they beat us in our home opener. We beat them pretty handily. We had a commanding lead and held on to that lead. Just for team morale and psyche it is a good win for us on the road. We know that we can play..

Season high in points tonight…
I got in the rhythm and got my shots. Like I said the coaching staff has been working hard to make sure I am integrated into the team and into the game. They tell me to go out there and play and everybody will fit in with each other and that is what happened tonight. Defence first of all got the win, it is not about offence.br>

Iguodala

ANDRE IGUODALA

Do you feel relief?
I don’t know if you can say relief. It is just good to get a win on the road coming off a back-to-back. I think we held them down the stretch when they made a run at us and we were able to keep our lead and get the win.

Was that the best 48 minute effort?
This year yes so far, but we still have some work to do. I think we can still be a little bit better. I think that my game can be stepped up..

Thoughts on the game…
I think that it was really good for us to get off of the losing streak that we had. It was great. The guys that we brought in, Elton (Brand) and the other veterans, they could kind of say a word or two to help us with the losses or tough losses. Last year we would go through streaks where we would lose eight or nine in a row and did not know how to get out of it. We would look at the schedule and say alright what is the next game that we can win. With the good veterans that we have, now it is the next game we can win, no matter what. You always approach the next game after a loss and bounce back and continue to do the things you have been doing well and just fix the mistakes and I think that tonight we did that.