Toronto Raptors Full Media Availability | Post Game vs Trailblazers | December 02, 2025

Toronto Raptors Full Media Availability | Post Game vs Trailblazers | December 02, 2025

How important is it to keep losing streaks short in this league and coming in and off a couple of losses on the weekend? Was it a priority to make sure you took care of our home court tonight? I’m not even going to lie. I don’t get into the streaks as much. I try to just focus on uh one day at a time, one game at a time. Um one workout at a time. I try to just keep it all um in the moment as much as possible because the season can be so high and low. Uh so for me, it’s about staying even killed. Honestly, every game’s different. What are you what are you learning about yourself and the group that you’re playing with as the season goes on? Um, what am I learning about myself? Uh, just the ability to be able to lift up others other guys, be positive, and try to just bring like life and energy into other guys. Um, OA did a great job today. Uh, he didn’t score a lot, but just the way that he played with energy, effort, uh, all the guys off the bench, great. Um, he was hitting big shots in the fourth quarter and we’re going to need everybody. So, uh, just trying to keep encouraging everybody, um, cuz we going to need everybody. In your your place in the team, are you getting more comfortable running the offense, getting your shots, playing with this group? And is that process coming along well enough for you? Uh, yeah. Uh, every night I just try to be aggressive and, uh, with with being aggressive, try to look for my teammates as well. Uh, try to make the game easy for myself and for my teammates, make simple plays. Basketball is a simple game, so try to uh try to do that. When RJ While R.J. has been out, obviously, I mean, the offense just hasn’t quite been as dynamic. Not a huge surprise given how good he is. Great. What What have you learned about the difference between you guys functioning well on that end and not when he’s while he’s been up? Uh, like you said, the difference is we’re missing somebody that averages 23 25 points a game. Uh, can get to the free throw line. uh one of the top five players in transition. Uh and also plays defense. Uh he’s been playing really this year really good defense. Uh so uh we miss R.J. a lot. Uh and with R.J. being out, other guys have to step up. Good opportunity for the other guys to you know uh get going. Oi’s getting a little bit more minutes. He’s playing great. Um everybody has to step up. Everybody has to kind of take on that load as a as a unit. Uh and we’ve been doing a good job of that. Is the ball moving as well as it needs to be without him? Uh, I probably say, you could always nitpick, say it could it needs to move a little bit more. Uh, I think at the end of the day, uh, that’s who we are, but we also got to, you know, be aggressive, get in the paint, uh, touch the paint and take what the defense gives us. In clutch time, you rejected a screen, defense stepped up, you threw a lob to CMD for layup. Um, by my account, excluding transition, you have more assists for layups this year than all of last year. Is assisting those really easy shots for teammates um something you’re trying to add more to the offense this year? Uh I don’t know if that’s been my goal. I’d probably say my goal has been uh when I’m getting in the lane trying to do a better job of uh with like more physicality uh getting in front of my defender, putting him in jail. Uh that makes it a lot more tougher for that for that guy that’s at the rim to make decisions cuz I think my floater is pretty elite. Uh I feel like throwing lobs is pretty elite. I’m pretty good at that. And then also just reading that corner man, trying to get uh those guys in the corner threes. So, uh honestly just taking what the defense gives me, making the game really simple, really easy, and then just going back and watch the film to to be better. Do you feel more comfortable on the middle of the floor being there for extended periods of time? The middle of the floor like when you’re in the paint with bodies all around you, being more physical. Yeah. Yeah. Uh I feel I feel really good. Uh like I said, just trying to work on it and just try to be really efficient. I think that’s the the main goal. You and Yak have always had really good chemistry, but you know, when he’s setting those step up screens for you to get inside the paint and make reads, uh, how easy is it to play with a guy like that who’s like so willing to set those screens? It’s unbelievable, man. Um, I got to give a shout out to Yakob. The the screens he’s he sets are just like he’s one of the best screen setters I play with. And he’s uh such a unselfish uh player. Uh, putting his body on the line defensively. He does so much stuff for us uh on the defensive end that probably don’t show up in a stat sheet. So, you got to give a lot of credit to Yakob. And then just like the screening, uh, it’s a it’s a act of unselfishness, uh, for your teammates. So, uh, we appreciate him a lot. I mean, how important is it to get a win like that after, you know, dropping a couple on the weekend and get your momentum back? Uh, this was a big time win for us. We really needed it. Um, like you said, dropped those two back to back. Um, really should have felt like we had that first one. Um, but, you know, way to get back in the win column and finish out the game. When you look at, you know, how many different people contributed, I guess that’s kind of that’s kind of the games you guys end up winning, right? For sure. As soon as Jamal checked in, game changed. Of course, they start off the game hitting uh I think like four or five threes. Uh but second quarter, our defense changed. Uh but you know, Jamal set the tone, got like a steal or offensive foul right away on him. Um but we need everybody. Uh Grady played great off the bench. uh scoring, getting downhill, getting to the dribble pullup. Uh like I said, they need everybody. Everybody contributed. How’d it feel to get that defensive player of the month award? Uh it was great. Um you know, it all comes with winning. Um so I’m just happy we win. Scotty, we’ve talked a lot about how with RJ out, guys on the bench, getting more minutes, seeing the roles change. How has it affected you in your role to have RJ out? Um, I don’t know how it affected my role, but you know, you know, we miss him out there. Um, the stuff that he does for our team with the attacking the rim, being able to get out in transition, lean a fast break. Um, you know, his catch and shoot shooting is tremendous. You know, he brings so much to the game. Of course, we miss him out there. Uh, but you know, those guys off the bench and Jacobe coming into that role has been doing a great job of stepping in, playing the defense, hitting shots, and he’s been taking on that challenge as well. Scotty, how happy are you with your offensive process so far this season? Seems like you’re picking your spots really well, whether it’s a three ball, attacking inside, transition, all of it seems to be coming together perfectly. It just all starts with being aggressive and, you know, driving the ball, getting downhill. Um, after that, you know, just letting the game come to me, not really forcing things. You know, we run a lot of sets and, you know, I’m usually uh, you know, just trying to play off the catch whenever the ball comes to me. Uh, but going downhill, driving it aggressively, and then just finding reads after that. Uh before the game, coach mentioned how happy he’s been uh seeing you develop an understanding of opponents and being willing to take on, you know, different challengers, whatever their size may be, and understand the league. How do you think your process has kind of grown in, you know, studying your opponents and understanding your matchups? I would say probably studying my opponents, uh, you know, really watching film since I I my first year of college. Um, you know, I think that was the first time I really actually like being able to study film and had those the tools that and the access to be able to study film. But, you know, I’ve been guarding best players since I was a kid. Since high school, middle school, I always been taking on that challenge. That’s been my defensive mindset. Uh, no matter who’s out there, you know, I’m taking on that challenge. Defense these days. Grdy, he’s he’s improved a lot moving his feet. Uh, giving us two slides. you know, he’s doing the effort what’s needed. Um, getting steals, being active, not letting people attack him. You know, that’s what we need from him. That’s how he knows he’s going to be able to be out there on the floor. Um, so, you know, he willing to take on that challenge this summer. Uh, he still works on it every single practice. Um, so being able to take on that challenge and having that mindset to push yourself. Uh, not a lot of people want to go into practice and just work on defensive slides or try to work on rotations, body up, you know, that takes a lot of physical uh, activity out of you. Um, so you know, but he’s he was willing to work on it and challenge yourself uh cuz he knew he wants to be out there out there on the floor and help us win. So kudos to Gritty. We we uh we I asked you about the rebounding before the game and you end up getting more offensive rebounds than them. I mean, what does it say about the maybe the grit or the deter determination of your team to to win that little battle? That that that was a big battle for us. Uh obviously we talked about it before the game and we knew who who are we facing and they’re really really match up when it comes comes to that. So, uh, we put a lot of work into it. Um, over over the course of the game and, uh, we kept them to nine offensive rebounds, which is big big thing against them. When Jamal fed, uh, Brandon for the basket, they basically won the game. Is that a kind of emergence of Cabel’s game you see is seeing the court and seeing the plays develop in front of? Uh, he is. And, uh, what he’s doing really good job is making sure that he gets to the paint first. you know, he he does really good job of uh rejecting in 101 or pick and rolls and driving with little force and then he commands uh that attention in the paint and uh him play making from there is something that that’s uh really taking a big step for him. Is this game tonight kind of the perfect example of the way a guy can positively impact a game without shooting the ball? Uh talking about who? Jamal. Jamal. Uh Jamal. Where’s Jamal? He didn’t shoot the ball. He just didn’t make shots. Uh, no, big time. Like, uh, his energy in the first half and, uh, he really got us going in that first half. We had a slow start there. They they caught fire. They were shooting the ball really well. And when Jamal came in the game, it really gave us energy and, uh, couple of steals that he had. Uh, really sparked our offense as well. It’s a great example, but uh uh I don’t want to get him spoiled. I want him to make shots next time. Even before Grady hit the three, I think it was in the fourth quarter, he was doing a lot of the other things that you talk about him doing even when the shot isn’t falling. Is that what you’re looking to see from Grady on both ends of the floor? And let’s be honest, when we talk about Grady, Grady is the player that he needs to score. You know, he needs to see the ball going through. He’s a scorer. He’s a great shooter. And that’s that’s very important part of his game and we want him to take shots and we want we we’re building him to have that type of confidence but at the same time he understands and we understand that for playing in this league and staying in this league for long long period of time. You got to be two-way player and he’s doing so many little things that that it’s hard to put it on on on the box court. He’s trying to defend. He’s has active hands. He’s getting steals. He’s rebound the ball pretty pretty well. So he we are seeing a lot of progress there as him becoming complete two-way player. Why did you decide to go back to Yakob when you did with the five fouls and three minutes to go and came in he got a basket got two big rebounds. What what makes it in the the process to go back to him then instead of later or earlier? Right. That’s that’s always tough the tough decision to make if he goes in there and he uh makes a foul. You ask me like why would you put him in the in the game there early? Right. It’s uh um Yaki is a player that has a lot of experience. He knows how to close the game. He is as I talked about him lot of times he’s stabilizing for force for us. Plus at that point they were switching all every pick roles one through five. So that the hope was for him with the bigger body to do better job of setting screens rolling play in the pocket be closer to the rim so he can finish there. And he did a great job of of being forced and catching the ball and and making shots. At the same time, we found a appropriate matchup for him on the other side of the floor where he can guard as well. Emanuel’s outside, so I’ll do I know screen assists aren’t like the the craziest, most awesome stat in the world, but Jakob is near the top of the league when it comes to screen assist. How important is he when it comes to, you know, opening up the game for Quickly, for Scotty, for BI in terms of the screens that he sets forth. Um, he he’s the guy that can do a lot of things, but at the end of the day, he really wants to help the team, whatever that means for the team. If that’s setting screens and freeing up his teammates, he’s going to do that. If he needs to get the ball in his hands and from him him to playmake and find guys on cuts, he’s going to do that as well. Defensively, we know what he brings to the table. So, uh he’s very very important player for us. We need him on the court.

Head Coach and players speak with the media following the Raptors’ 121-118 victory over the Portland Trailblazers on Tuesday.

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