Toronto Raptors Media Availability | Postgame vs Dallas Mavericks | February 28, 2024

Toronto Raptors Media Availability | Postgame vs Dallas Mavericks | February 28, 2024

Just talking about Luca saying looks like he’s 35 years old but he’s only 25 years old but he just he just runs the game at whatever Pace he wants to right uh he’s it’s at his Pace it’s on on his terms uh you know a lot of times very

Athletic and quick players they’re trying to do too much and he’s so good at reading the angles reading the timing uh he comes close to the paint he’s playing off of two feet he’s using all of those shot fakes and he he gets you know 90% of time he he makes the right

Right decision obviously uh I thought that we uh overall I don’t think we did good enough of protecting the paint tonight uh allowed them uh way too many offensive rebounds uh couple of plays that we missed a layup that we missed wide open shots that leaded easy easy

Points and transition on the other side we just could not get enough to to get over over over the hump there uh first half uh especially that uh uh second quarter I thought that we did better job of moving the ball and playing together to be honest with you we had 34 assists

Tonight but didn’t feel like 34 assists you know I I I didn’t really like our ball mov and energy that we had on offensive Ed as well the uh lot least really brought something to that team and when you when you guys are facing a really good shot blocker active shot

Blocker like that did you like how you were challenging him at the rim and U would there have been options to consider um well players like that they always have a have a huge impact on a game um as game progressed I thought that we made good adjustments in in a sense of

Playing off two feet using more shot fakes kicking out b ball more out for for for shots we adjusted as as the game progressed but uh uh definitely he was he was a big game picked especially in the first uh first half Luka just turned 25 sh really young

You guys saw Victor here a little while ago putting up crazy numbers what do you assess of and you got one on your team what do you assess of the young players in this league in the Next Generation well uh you know all of us we’re going

To we’re going to get older we’re going to look at we’re going to look at this age and we’re going to be like amazing the this era of NBA is just amazing that the talent of the players like just think about like if somebody told you

Five years ago that somebody who is s told is going to show up in this league and that he’s going to be able actually to move and play like point guard and to all of that be like you know are you kidding me now we have a player like

That in the league like you know somebody asked me before the game about luuka what he can get better at nothing you know uh it the the talent level in this league is just amazing and we’re really blessed to live in this area to

Be part of the of NBA this time um we just got to got to enjoy it and uh you know learn those guys and how how we can best you know uh continue to develop them whole league you mentioned lcas passing and and it seems like so many of

Those assists were like there was a lot of uh like they’re long passes like he’s making them from uh across the floor from one corner of the half court to the other is there really a way to defend that when he’s know got every part of

The floor kind of is in his sights uh you can make it really hard you know you you can make it harder like you got to have very good hand activity you got to be looking like for all those windows one thing that you know because of his

Size he’s always making those passes over the defense so anytime if your hands are down it’s going to make it very very easy so we got to make it really hard with having high hands we were able to get a couple of the deflections in that first half you know

To get a couple of Steels you can just really really try to make it make it hard but the more size you have and the more you can cover the ground there the better but um I thought that his passes tonight as well like what he did he end up with with assists

Uh 16 yep when you look at both halves of the game uh you guys came out really strong and even LED at the half um but what was the kind of like the difference in the second half of the game like where was the breakdown that you see initially uh

I thought that we had a couple of breakdowns on defensive end uh just uh not being as aggressive as we need in our coverages or um there were a couple of M momentum changing plays as well U we I thought if we created a couple of wide open threes we missed they were

Able to run quickly on the other side like doesn’t doesn’t look big at that moment it just gives you know uh gives Energy Fuels the other team um you know and same thing is for us when we getting stops where we able to rebound that fuels our offense as well I thought that

Was the biggest difference there and uh you know with with Kyrie and and Luca they had such a Poise like in important moments to to you know to make the right play you mentioned before the game that the rank came in a good time for a lot

Of guys it looks like Emanuel is one of those guys what what’s the biggest difference you’ve seen in him since you guys got back from the Break um just uh more aggressiveness uh more more uh uh more Pace you know especially those uh first three games I thought that he had

Great Pace pushing the ball in transition bringing the ball uh faster making quick quicker decisions that was that’s the biggest thing that I’m noticing and uh I I told our guys our challenge is going to be now we got to bounce back from this like we got to

Learn from this we’re going to have a good film to study and then get better better from and we have another great team coming over here in 48 hours and we got to bounce back you know we got to get back with our energy and fight and

Find find the niche that we need Scotty is a three-point sh was really odd to start the year but for the last two months or so it’s fallen off quite a b what do you attribute that to um he’s uh still young player that goes through

Those up ups and downs uh what I do know is that he’s putting a lot of work in uh that he’s getting all the Reps that he needs and I’m very confident he’s going to bounce back very soon uh a couple weeks ago you were saying that you

Wanted Emanuel quickly to make like you know upwards of 10 attempts up from three per night and he’s kind of hitting that now more consistently so what do you think the next steps are for him to kind of I guess continue to progress in the way that you guys want him to uh

Playmaking uh just uh finding that fine balance of aggressiveness and looking to score but also being able to recognize situations when his teammates are open and uh when he needs to make right plays sometimes uh lot of times he’s going to be facing uh two players on the ball and

He needs to be able to find his teammates find Open men that’s recovery in the history of ankle recoveries uh yeah I mean I think it was one of those things where um just trying to be cautious because it was the same ankle that I I recently hurt um looking

Back at it I maybe could have even finished the the paces game like it was it was more of a tweak so um yeah but I’m I’m glad we we did it that way we won the game anyway um and that way we’re you know make sure the the ankle’s

Good before I got going again as a big man what does you know Luca’s pace and his patience like what how tough is it for you to remain patient when he’s you know there and and sort of tring everybody at over help it um or is

There something else I mean no I don’t think it’s necessarily for Bigs only it’s like for everybody on the court like just like his his change of pace is is difficult because even when you know it’s coming and like you stick with his Pace like he’s he’s very good at his

Pace so like then you’re playing into his comfort zone and like it’s tough to touch him because he’s um he knows how to how to sell the fouls how to get the contact and and so um you end up in a position where you’re you’re kind of

Playing his game for most of the game instead of being able to to kind of force your your game or your game plan on onto him so um yeah I think um for a lot of this game we were kind of struggling um with their style of of

Offense especially in the half court and and we couldn’t really get adjusted to it so uh yeah that hurt us it’s uh been two months now since IQ and RJ came can you feel a difference in the chemistry building now that it’s kind of I guess uh settled a little

Bit I always say this like the chemistry and stuff like that is just a constant process like it’s not there’s not really one day where all of a sudden you have it figured out like it’s just every day you play together every day every rep

You get a little bit better so in in the beginning obviously there’s like a a bigger growth curve I I want to say because like you’re you’re getting the obvious stuff out the way and then the more you play together the more reps you get the more you work on like the little

Nuances and stuff like that so um yeah um I think um the at least for me personally like I I like my chemistry and the way we’ve been playing like with both RJ and quickly so um I’m happy about it this might be a lot of the same thing as that

But the starting lineup I think only nine games together because of various injuries but you guys have been playing really well even tonight you were practically even with them and in the fiveman uh when you guys were out there as a fiveman unit is there something about that group that really works is

There something that you’ve noticed that that makes things go or or is it just that exactly what you were just talking about um I mean I think we’ve put a lot of effort into um building that chemistry very quickly and and I think naturally it’s a a unit where we we have

A lot of different ways of of being efficient being able to attack defenses so um obviously kind of Scotty being our the head of our snake but is no nobody really out there that’s like okay is who Super Ball dominant or um that the F the defense can like absolutely focus on

Because all five guys out there um are very much involved and and can can hurt you at any moment so um I think that’s been one of our biggest strengths building that chemistry defensively is also really important and that starting group has been good defensively overall

I guess how much more difficult is it to build out that chemistry on the defensive end versus offensively when you’re constantly sort of working on the game plan I mean to be honest I think it’s about the same thing uh it just depends on what you want to focus on uh

In practice what you um kind of drills you want to run like what what um where you’re trying to get together the the quickest um I think for us that the focus has been on both um we’ve been doing a lot of Defense drills we’ve been

Putting a lot of different sets into our offense like kind of changing our identity a little bit again so uh uh yeah we’ worked on both I’ve also noticed that you just look more comfortable guarding in space like if there’s a switch and stepping out to the guard feels like you’re much more

Comfortable now is that is that something like you’re actively working on or just something you’ve always felt comfortable um I mean I mean it’s something I’ve had to do to a degree throughout my whole career like I’m I’m just I think the more or the longer you

Are in the NBA the more you’re able to read players like you you get to know players more and more like you um at some point you’ve you’ve seen a lot of the tricks um and like you you’re starting to catch on so uh yeah like

Said I’m just trying to do my best out there when I get switched on the guard like trying to make him take it as tough a shot as possible RJ you’ve been here now two months um obviously it’s a little bit different cuz you’re coming home than you know Emanual quickly but

How have you felt that um things have kind of changed since you got here as opposed to now like do you feel a bit more comfortable do you feel like things have kind of progressed a little bit do you feel like the chemistry the team is building definitely more more

Comfortable for sure you know um being able to you know have practices especially the the break you know we got a couple good practices in that helped a lot um we just you know we had a lot of new pieces even since I since I got here the team is completely different again

So just trying to you know get used to to playing with everybody and know me personally I know I’m getting comfortable how important was that break I mean it probably came in a good time for a lot of guys but for you in IQ specifically like you were on the road a

Bunch before you got here on the road again when you got here was that just like a good time to kind of reset and refresh a little bit yeah it was great I literally stayed here you know just just stayed here got some family time and um

Just uh you know make sure I was I was right and ready to to come back you’re feeling the difference over the last week or so absolutely dark mentioned monu in terms of just the just the ability make plays what do you I mean like what were the

Conversations like when it kind of brought up the idea of yeah just trying to uh trying to really look at just his floor game you know his his playmaking abilities obviously you know being a lefty similar um um and it was you know was I felt good about it cuz you know he

Coach said that he he really liked Manu growing up so I guess that was good for me he was your favorite player too no Brown was my favorite player you get that mono peripheral try is he somebody that you’ve been studying or watching for a while or or is this just like a

Recent I watched him a lot when I was a kid yeah um and especially obviously in the finals um against Miami man I was it was good good to watch him the starting five uh numbers have been really good coming into this game even tonight when

You guys didn’t have your best game you as a group you were something like minus two over a lot a lot of minutes what works about that group or why does that group seem to be working so far we’re very balanced um I think quick is just quick has so much energy

Just all the time running around everywhere um making plays making shots um setting everybody up and then you know Scotty just you know he’s Scotty he’s doing everything out there um y’s really good he has his floater he’s Duncan he’s getting assists Blocks he’s doing a lot of things too Gary’s crazy

Sniper um any anytime you pass the ball to Gary I think it’s going in um and then you know myself I just try to do what I can um out there to help the team so I think you know that group together we just we play very well off of each

Other you guys have a couple bigs that see the floor really well and yak and Kelly what’s it like playing with bigs that can pass the ball man it opens the game up you know completely for us uh and uh especially it encourages more cuts and stuff cuz you’re actually going

To you know get a look um I play allar game a b thanks for watching the Toronto rappers YouTube channel check out our latest video And subscribe for more in a crow [Applause] wide

Head coach and Players speak with the media following the Raptors 136-125 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday.

00:00 – Darko Rajakovic
06:57 – Jakob Poeltl
12:05 – RJ Barrett

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