(On Stephen Jackson and Kawhi Leonard giving the defense a boost…)
“We will see. They just got back. One would hope that is the case especially with Kawhi. Jack’s toughness and Kawhi’s quickness, hopefully it will help us.”
(On the Spurs continuing to play well through injuries…)
“We really pushed Danny (Green) and Gary (Neal) to the point where Gary is out now. We ran those guys into the ground with those other guys hurt. They did a great job for us. It finally caught up to us on that third road trip but they were magnificent.”
(On how well the Raptors have been playing during their five-game win streak…)
“They have given us trouble almost every time we have played them. (Demar) DeRozan, he is like (Amare) Stoudamire. He gets 90 (points) every time he plays the Spurs. We’re hoping we can guard him a little bit better than we have in the past. We told the guys it is like us against Miami. Their top guys are out and they’re going to come and play just like we wanted to play in Miami. It’s the NBA and everybody wants to play. Everybody wants to do well. You can’t take anybody for granted. We will see if do.”
(On the kind of player DeMar DeRozan is…)
“It is a little bit of everything. When you are a good player you do a lot of different things. He can score inside. He can shoot it. He’s quick. He is explosive. He’s aggressive. He is all of those things.”
(On the Raptors holding their last seven opponents under 100 points…)
“Dwane (Casey) does a great job of establishing that as the basis of his program. Everything else comes after that. He knows that’s what it takes to become a consistently good basketball team. He has done that for a long time. It looks like that message is getting through to his team.”