Toronto Raptors Media Availability | Postgame at Portland Trail Blazers | March 9, 2024

Toronto Raptors Media Availability | Postgame at Portland Trail Blazers | March 9, 2024

You just landed funny there Chris yeah I mean I bumped my knee to the ground I think so yeah it is what it is that the same knee you hurt at different knee yeah um it’s second night in a row here you provided a ton of energy and uh just

Take us through that comeback down the stretch in the fourth quarter what was going right for your group um I mean I think we wanted to play harder I think we have a you know we have a tendency to start the game a little slow but we

Usually come back and um I think we um find a way to you know get shots get open shots and play better defense and they had a lot of offensive rebounds and open shot that um we took out from him so I think it was just a better second

Half see sorry when you’re uh coming in like that I mean you you’ve kind of done it your whole career yeah what’s the first thing on your mind when you hit the floor I mean I’ve been through so many games where we’re down and get the

Chance to um you know do comebacks and all I think I the one with Kyle and we had one against Washington and we had a lot of this year spies and all I mean you come in the game you want to do something to change the game I think

That’s one I want to leave I want to leave a mark As somebody that could change the game and um I think as playing as a team we’re a young team we’re learning but I think we’re working extremely hard and we um you know we sticking together and obviously doesn’t

Show up with the win but I think with the performance sometimes the moments that we have it shows that we can have great moments you know you guys have had many games a game like this with multiple lineups obviously RJ last minute out what do you think has been a

Consistent thread for your team when you are faced with different looks at your lineups but are able to find some type of Rhythm some type of flow um I mean I think everybody works extremely hard since this summer so um everybody’s kind of ready um you know we work extremely

Hard on plays and all in practice and all so um I think everybody get the chance to kind of know what the plays are and stay in shape with the play groups and all so when when you come in the game um you know you just want to do

Either better than the person in front of you or just the same and uh I think one thing that we do in extremely well this year is just everybody’s in line learning process so everybody’s going to make mistake but we all also know that um people are making STS too have you

Been able to stay present through the throughout the season through playing and not playing and and having impacts on games like tonight I mean it’s not my first year that this happens I think it happens a lot um where I’m play I don’t play but um you know my conf is always

Staying the same I think my role is always the same um when I come in a game they expect me to bring energy and get rebounds and just put a little bit of Chaos in the game and that’s also you know something that I know I’m able to

Do so um it doesn’t really change much during through the year obviously you got ups and down but I think the one thing that I’m able to do now is sustain the the the moments where I’m not playing well the moment where I’m not you know on the floor I’m able to just

Stay above knowing that I already went through it before and ways that you’re able to play well off of Kelly what are you noticing about how he’s been able to kind of get other guys going and involve them on offense I mean Kelly got you know obviously on defense he got great

Hands and all that so that makes us that helps us in transition but he also is a great passer I think that helps us a lot um at 7 foot it’s kind of hard to deflect his passing and all especially um when he’s passing it over top and

Seeing Cutters but um like I said I’ve seen Kelly play for so long that it’s not you know it’s not surprising for me to see him hit all those pass and all that um you know he has his own pace and it’s kind of hard to know what going to

Do so that makes him really special take away that first quarter and you know overtime was kind of unfortunate it was another example of a very good effort kind of undone by a poor start and um um yes uh poor start I I thought that we were really creating good looks you

Know uh we missed uh some wide open shots and uh the biggest problem in that first half uh was really rebounding and uh we allowed them a 15c chance point points um Aon was just way too dominant for for us inside and uh but I thought

That as game progress that we did much much better job in in the second half just being more physical and uh you know Jaylen came in of the bench and ended up with with a 10 rebounds I thought that was good for us but uh overall came down

To our 20 turnovers and uh and U allowing them um a lot of Second Chance points how did you think see things breakdown and and overtime and just sort of the first field goal coming as late as it did um it it came down really to

Uh us defensively we did not do good enough job of uh executing uh what we were saying we did not want uh uh Simons to to to get his shots we wanted to get the ball out of his hands and get somebody else there to to score and then

Uh offensively I thought that they Portland brought a lot of physicality and there a game was prog and we were trying to figure out how to play against that phys physicality there um again in our time I thought that we took a couple of uh good shots um and uh they didn’t

Fall I mean I know that the sum is the win or the loss but when you look at like the final two minutes of Regulation and just what the guys were able to put together what were you liking about the communication that was going right in

Those moments no um as I said like I’m really proud of uh of our effort and we we never stopped competing we never stopped uh fighting for each other and I I give a lot of credit to our guys staying in the game and finding the way

To get back in the game and uh but you know when you start the game with with the Deep uh you know with a big uh differential there you just got to put way too much in the game later on and but I I thought also by the by the end

Of the regulation time that we were way tired going into overtime because we gave it all that we had there in that stretch in the fourth quarter just to force the over time aside from his leg what about just what how Chris showed up is that sort of what you needed from him

Kind of all along in terms of the emphasis on energy uh no doubt uh he did a great job uh tonight uh of being aggressive of uh uh just uh being on boards being activated with his hands uh just playing uh playing with with a lot of effort what happened there with his

Knee from your perspective and how did he like manage to stay ready to come back into overtime yeah I think he just uh landed uh in in in the bad position uh but he was able to to come back and then finish the game so I think he’s

Okay just in terms of uh Kelly oen what did you see from a playmaking standpoint because it kind of looked like he had to make some playmaking decisions to start the game and throughout for sure it was uh you know when the last moment we lost

RJ and that’s another Creator and and a scorer for us so the ball really went a lot through Kelly and we were looking to to create some of the chemistry there way between Kelly and uh and quickley and uh uh that really started clicking in the second half when when quickly you

Know I think in the second half he scored 25 points in the first qu in the first half only four and Kelly was big part of that just the way they they were working together uh angles of screen uh playing off of the his dhos I thought

That he did a good job there yeah what do you what happen RJ uh sickness last moment he uh he had uh yes yes he was feeling a little bit under the weather and then um you know just before the game he threw up and uh

He was not able to to to start for us tonight ahead of tonight you talked about Gary being a lot more active without the ball were you able to see that tonight in terms of the shots that he was able to create from moving around and kind of getting guys to where he

Needed them to go I thought so you know he he got uh 12 threes I think out of those 12 threes uh maybe one or two were of the dribble everything else came in a spacing and play playing off of each other um so he continues to to to

Improve in that area and uh finding his uh finding his looks on the court the CLE High minutes for great second start what did you think of his defense uh it had really good moments uh and it had the moments that uh you know rookie rookie moments of uh maybe a

Little bit miscommunication or understanding uh who is he guarding uh you know there is a lot of for him to learn and every single game for him is is uh is great because uh film that follows and everything that follows is just allowing him to study the game more

And to understand the game more even like the the small stuff like when they run a double drag and we were switching one through five he he was he was he jumped out way too aggressive that allowed the drive but when you’re switching one through five you got to be

More flat so you can allow the the next guy to switch down the line stuff like like that but um as I said uh this is amazing for him uh uh to start and to play uh 40 40 minutes um that’s that’s what he can all wish for and there’s a

Time out there that you’re talking to oai at the end of the bench I think maybe trying to help him defensively kind of figure out where his hands were was that that was exactly what that conversation was exactly because uh a stretch of the game there we we put him

To guard aen which is unnatural matchup but we were just talking about uh where is his Advantage when he plays a big against the big like that and where his hands need to be and how he can come up with deflections and steals you know just just know those points thanks for

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Head Coach Darko Rajakovic and Chris Boucher speak with the media following the Raptors’ 128-118 overtime loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday.

0:00 Chris Boucher
3:32 Darko Rajakovic

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