The Toronto Raptors held their playoff media availability session on Thursday and spit out a few fighting words against the Washington Wizards.
To start, Masai Ujiri commented on Paul Pierce’s interesting comments. He stopped just short of dropping the F-bomb this time.
“I honestly don’t have enough money to respond to him. I think if I did have enough money, like everybody knows exactly how I would respond to it and how the whole of Toronto would respond to it.”
Ujiri also said the team’s performance in the postseason will influence his thinking in the offseason.
How much will the playoffs influence the Raps’ offseason? Masai: “100 percent it influences everything in my opinion.”
— James Herbert (@outsidethenba) April 16, 2015
Next up were DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, who sounded confident about the postseason. Both players sidestepped the Pierce jab. DeRozan played off the regular-season record against Washington and echoed Ujiri’s comments about Lou Williams for Sixth Man of the Year.
DD on Lou for 6MOY: "Oh yeah, for sure. Hands down. No question"
— Raptors Republic (@raptorsrepublic) April 16, 2015
Lowry then spoke confidently about facing John Wall, citing that he “can’t wait” to play his fellow All-Star Game starter. Lowry also heaped praise on DeRozan, going as far as to say that DeRozan didn’t even try during the Hornets’ game, yet he still managed to drop 16-6-4.
Lowry on facing Wall: "I can't wait"
— Raptors Republic (@raptorsrepublic) April 16, 2015
Finally, Casey paid a lot of lip service to the Wizards. He cited that the Wizards have strong defenders, starting with Marcin Gortat’s rim protection and the ability of the Wizards’ defenders to apply ball pressure. But Casey also praised his own team for being able to present challenges, then paid an awkward compliment to his offense.
Casey says that there's a method to the madness of their seemingly ugly halfcourt offense.
— Raptors Republic (@raptorsrepublic) April 16, 2015
Casey then joked that he would beat Wizards head coach Randy Wittman in a game of 1-on-1, which, given the picture below, is probably true.
