Darko Rajakovic | Post Game vs Hornets | December 05, 2025

Darko Rajakovic | Post Game vs Hornets | December 05, 2025

D, do you think your guys looked a little bit mentally and physically worn down tonight after a long week? Uh, yes. Uh, five games in seven nights. Uh, physically we were worn down. I’m I’m really proud of our guys tonight. I I really thought that we tried. We tried, but when you’re trying and you’re missing layups and you’re missing wide open shots, you know, it’s it’s hard to keep keep it up. What I think that we did uh outstanding job is we did not quit. We continue fighting and fighting and fighting. We just did not enough enough in a tank tonight. So I guess a day off is pretty much get away from this kind of game for much. Just get away from day. Yes, that’s exactly what I told our guys mentally, physically. We got to get away. We got to recharge very quickly on Sunday 3:30 p.m. game. Uh so quick turn around over here. You know, schedule it is what it is. But uh we got to bounce back and find our find our energy levels back and compete. Was that what the reason go to shed in the third quarter was to get some kind of energy into your group? Yes. Yes. We we we tried to to get a little bit more to on ball defense there. Try to get a couple of steals there. Um you know um we had Emmanuel. He was he was uh good of of scoring. He was pretty much the only one that tonight he had a little bit juice there. Um but um um that was that was the main reason. Yes. Do you have an update on Jameson battle? Yes, we just did imaging. Uh so he’s clear he’s all all good. It’s going to be dayto-day at this point. Coach, before the game I asked you about the process and you talked about it’s about learning and not focusing on the wins and losses after a game like this and a string of offensive struggles, let’s call it. What’s the most important thing that your guys need to learn from this? Uh it’s that it’s a long season that uh we need uh the only thing that we do control is our work you know uh hopefully over here in next uh couple of weeks we’re going to have opportunity to practice a little bit to to really you know uh clean up some of the things. This this was a rough stretch over here with the number of games that we played and uh traveling and all of that but um always the answer is is work. So was a season low in scoring um you spoke about the fatigue a little bit there. Uh how much of that can you attribute to a lack of speed getting to your first action and some of the uh pace that you’re running actions at? Yes, I I think all of that is connected, right? Like we did not have that extra pop that you needed to to go by defense. Uh um all of our decisions were a little bit uh slowed down and as a result of that last night we had uh 39 assists. Tonight we had 19 assists. You know that’s the same team. Those are the same guys like this is the same group of guys that until five six days ago they they had like nice nine nine games winning streak. So that’s the good team. I I believe in my guys. We just need a little bit over here to recharge or regroup and we’ll be fine. Guys are worn down like they are like that. How do you kind of get around not having that pep in in actions and like what do you do to kind of counter that uh to still get get to your offense? It’s really hard. I wish I I would knew that. If you if you have some suggestions, let me know.

Head Coach Darko Rajakovic speaks with the media following the Raptors 111-86 loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Friday

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