Nick Nurse spoke to the media on Sunday and addressed a number of issues from Game 1, and adjustments heading into Game 2. The full video is below, along with the transcript:
On whether the team will look to speed up the pace:
Looking back at it we actually had like 23% of our plays in transition, pretty high number especially against that team. We could push it a little bit more here and there but you can kind of always say that so I thought we did okay there.
On the Raptors defensive effort, shot selection, and DJ Augustin:
With a minute to go in the game they had 99 points – against us you think that’s probably good enough to win. I think we had a lot of good looks. I think we had a lot of really, really good looks. We forced a few early that we probably like to have back. I would say maybe a half-dozen possessions where I would have said that was too quick and we probably could have looked and searched for a little something a bit better, but you know for the most part, we’re going to take a lot of those shots again. I think if you go back and look at this thing I would say we did a very good job on Vucevic – their all-star right – he was rattled. We made a couple really bad mistakes and let him pass out of it a couple times when we didn’t need to late where they banged a couple threes. Those were just mistakes by us. We did a great job on Ross as well, 2-11. We did a solid job on Fournier. He was at 16 or something but he was fighting like hell to get get good looks.
DJ Augustin exploded in the first half on us. Exploded. That was the one guy we didn’t handle very well. Made some adjustments at half and again he had one point in the second half leading into his five in the closing moments so yeah, I liked how we game-planned and defended for the most part. Again, these games come down to those half-dozen offensive [possessions] that we want to have back, and maybe at least a half-dozen more defensive ones that we got to shore up as well.
On Kyle Lowry’s game:
I just think he was leading the team pretty well, he was fighting and battling pretty well. I thought we were getting pretty good looks, he was getting us into sets that were that were providing those looks, he was making his defensive plays, he got a charge, he had a nice little strip on another double-team. He was fighting like hell keeping guys off the boards. There were a lot of positives as far as his play and you know, I say to him you gonna have to take these shots man. Five of his six threes were in rhythm…I mean they were wide open and those are shots he’s gonna have to take and and he’s gonna continue to take them.
On Fred Van Vleet’s -16 plus/minus:
I mean he played pretty good, he shot the ball, made some big shots for us you know looked pretty good out there. I just think he was among the group that had trouble keeping the ball in front a little bit with Augustin. He was on him a couple times, I mean one time he was pressed up on him with the shot clock going out and Augustin made it. One time he got twisted around, got caught underneath the screen and Augustin made another one. There’s six of those I think in that stretch, it was like 34-27 and then all of a sudden it was 57-41 or something like that, and that was probably where you get the majority of his minus on the night on the plus/minus.
On Patrick McCaw:
They took the little splint off and they still got the tape on there but he practiced today. I don’t think he’s quite game ready yet but should be soon, should be soon.
On Terrence Ross
Every time Terrence Ross comes flying off [a screen], we’re worried he’s going to make it. We made him take stuff some tough shots, he threw one off the backboard and threw some quick ones up. I thought he was very fortunate on the one [where he got fouled], got the three-point call on because he kicked his right leg way out, it was just like no path for anybody to run. He was very fortunate to get those three but other than that I thought we did a decent job with him.
On potential adjustments:
There’s some adjustments to be made….you think you’re clear on what you’re doing and the guys have a grasp of it but you don’t know until you go out there and see it, and you got to kind of move from clear to crystal clear, and just make sure again that you know you turn those six offensive possessions that you didn’t like, maybe cut that in half. And five or six defensive mistakes, cut that in half and then hopefully the in and outs go out and in.
On key stats that the Raptors have to turn around:
They doubled us in FTs and that’s a bad stat to win the game, and they made more threes than we did and that’s that’s another bad stat to win a game in this day and age. If they’re going to make more free-throws and more threes, then we’re gonna have to battle, and again saying all that stuff, if Marc Gasol’s [shot] doesn’t go in and out and DJs does, we’re talking about something totally different today but we’re not. So we got to play better and shore it up, and get tougher and move the ball a little bit better, and screen a little bit better, and rebound a little bit better.
On rebounding:
Rebounding, yeah, we had moments again. I think most of that came with the second unit for us where we gave up a couple second shots. They are pretty long and athletic and those guys go charging in, they just kind of have a little game plan, that’s the way they’re gonna play, throw it up off the glass and play ping-pong with it. So we got to shore that up a little bit but we know that they’re a solid defensive team, they’re very well coached, they got a lot of length and athleticism, and it’s a good team.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izv-ONt-eXk
