Toronto Raptors Media Availability | Postgame at Houston Rockets | February 2, 2024

Toronto Raptors Media Availability | Postgame at Houston Rockets | February 2, 2024

Like how do you remember how you got that tie Bru and how painful it was or um uh Sacramento on the west coast trip Uh Kevin her her need me yeah so you played through for a couple of games yeah and uh it wasn’t wasn’t getting

Better when I was playing through it so and I mean how’ you feel like it’s one thing to miss a week and then come back against a team playing at that kind of pace it must have been little yeah they’re they’re a good team um mix of older guy and younger guys talented

Young guys uh but yeah they play fast for sure and I was asking dark when you’re playing as a team that is that athletic what are what are the keys to prevent them from just kind of running out the Gat I think trying to keep them

Out the paint trying to keep him out of transition uh we didn’t do that at all uh being in shifts and helping each other on the drives and making them make that pass keeping a tight shell but you know we got to be better in that area I

Got to be better uh on defense uh but yeah how do you improve that exactly is that a matter of just being physical like like buming Cutters because we know a big thing was yaka perto was out so of course his presence was missed but how does the rest of the

Team also um help protect the paint um uh I mean you could say technique and stuff but a lot of it is just defense a lot of times just decision to just do it uh offense is probably more technique and skill and things like that but uh

Defense probably more just mindset uh to just be in the right be a step ahead be in the right spots uh to commit to helping each other um and I got to do a better job we got to do a better job you’re a Kentucky guy obviously what’s

Your do you have much interaction or history with Shay and what’s your opinion on how he’s kind of evolved the last couple years here yeah he’s he’s uh that’s my guy uh when I was struggling my freshman year he used to hit me all the time and then when I started playing

Good my sophomore year he ke he kept hitting me and things like that uh uh but now he’s he’s playing at a all NBA MVP level uh it’s going to be the same thing kind of the same thing uh tonight as far as you know trying to show him

Bodies and be in gaps and and try to make make him give the ball up so uh watch the film and try to be goodart from the fact he’s 66 um is there an El of this game that allows him to be just so effortless in terms of where he gets

He can get to yeah I think just him being able to get to his spots like you said he’s 66 so uh it’ll be a good challenge for us you know to try to you know make him take some tough shots and you know try to

Make him Miss there are tons of great College Programs of course Kentucky’s always one of the strongest ones but what about that Kentucky program that translates so well to the NBA level I think I think first of all the practices uh you Pro when you go to Kentucky you

Probably have four five maybe six players on your team that are going to NBA uh with you so uh and then when you get to the NBA everybody’s good so it’s kind of the same thing as far as you know being in practice against NBA player every day in college and then

Coming and playing against the best of the best so you kind of just it’s kind of like a almost like a JV program before you go to Varsity in a way in terms of the injury you said it wasn’t getting any better while you were playing with it does it feel like it’s

Mostly behind uh still um still a little sore but uh uh still a little sore they told me I couldn’t play a certain amount of minutes or today so uh just trying to get back uh but you I’ll be all right and then sorry in terms of uh watching

Film dark was talking about how he sat down with you and yak and you went over some actions what was your biggest take away from the film sessions with the two of you guys uh one just just really cool to just be able to sit down with with

Darko and have him I’m I’m big on learning and being able to get better that way and process information so uh uh thankful for that honestly um and then just being able to you know pick each other’s brains talk basketball uh and just saying where we

Can you know where we can be better offensively defensively uh how we can uh speed up the process of learning and speed up the process of competing and things like that U I think was a big takeaway so anything you took out Yak uh yeah they can really pass the he has a

High IQ uh I kind of already knew that but just sitting down and talking with him I can tell even more um you got a when you see Team like that that’s that athletic uh what are you know what does a team need to do to

Kind of slow them down because it just look like Houston was a little faster a little more aggressive and you guys running back for all the time uh first of all uh offensive execution needs to be better um I thought we didn’t do good good enough job tonight

Of moving the ball we ended up a game with only 19 assists uh and uh when you take tough shots when you over dribble the ball that that just put puts puts you in a tough position that you need to constantly be running back and guarding in

Transition um sometimes bad shot is uh equivalent to turnover and they were able to get out in transition scored a lot of points and to score a lot of in in the paint um um main thing is to have your defense set to get all the Five

Guys back to be in good positions and then to help each other they are athletic team uh they are um they have multiple players that can they can do a really good job of uh touching the paint and uh in you know uh you got you got to

Be a team in order to stop that you got to have all five guy guys connected to to stop them didn’t see like guys had a whole lot of intensity right from the start do you feel that and what is an explanation for it I wish I I new Doug

The the explanation for it yesterday probably was our best practice of the season and based on that I I really hope that today we’re going to go out there and really really compete and play hard and uh we just uh I I I don’t know the

Reason um but we were flat to start at the start of the game and uh and it just carried on we had moments that that we turned it on but uh we we were not able to sustain it you mentioned the offensive execution I really LED you

Know almost threw up that you were having a tough time touching the paint was that something they were doing or it was just a lack of focus or int whatever word you want to use that year goes yeah I don’t know what year word to use but

Every time when you inject new players in in a starting lineup and uh getting quickly back obviously very excited to to have him back and and yakob to to have him back it just like everybody’s like they were kind of like searching like finding the Rhythm well you know

How how they they can play off of each other so uh um hopefully um this film from tonight is going to be really good film for us to study and to to to learn from and uh hopefully next game we going to be much better going up against sh

Alexander next game not to look too far ahead but he’s one of the best offensive players right now in the league um can you just give me some thoughts on him as you kind of mentally start to prepare for that uh you just mentioned his name

So I I still did not get over there to to start thinking about OK CN that preparation so uh obviously one of the best guards in the league uh extremely Dynamic uh player that can touch the paint uh anytime he wants a really good scorer I believe he’s averaging 31

Points this year so it’s it’s going to be uh again it has to be a team effort there in order to slow him down make it really hard on him thanks for watching the Toronto rappers YouTube channel check out our latest video And subscribe for more lead here’s m in a crow wide

[Applause] open

Player and coach speak with the media following the Raptors’ 135-106 loss to the Houston Rockets on Friday.

0:00 Immanuel Quickley
4:35 Darko Rajakovic

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