The Toronto Raptors defeated the San Antonio Spurs, 119-104. Fred VanVleet recorded 26 points and 6 rebounds for the Raptors, while Scottie Barnes added 20 points and 8 rebounds in the victory. Dejounte Murray tallied 25 points, 9 rebounds and 12 assists for the Spurs in the losing effort. The Raptors improve to 35-30 on the season, while the Spurs fall to 25-41.
Postgame Quotes:
Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
(On the way the team finished tonight’s game…)
“…Having Dejounte [Murray] out for that period right after that, didn’t help. They did a great job on the boards, we turned it over too much; 22 points off turnovers, and they were tough to stop. Their one-on-one was pretty good, and our defense was average in that regard. They deserve the game, but I thought we played hard and did some good things. We’ll have a film session, tomorrow and try to learn some things from the game. They’re a good basketball team, well-coached, very talented, and we could learn a lot.”
(On playing a full 48 minutes…)
“Nobody plays 48 minutes well, but the competitiveness was there the whole time. We just have to play a little bit smarter in certain situations and take care of the ball better.”
Spurs Guard Dejounte Murray
(On how teams guard him...)
“Every team puts a bigger body on me, and I’m figuring it out. Whether it’s going or being more patient off the pick-and-roll or whatever, but I don’t worry about that. I try to play defense. On the offensive end, I have no worries because I react. I know how to react right away.”
(On learning from the Raptors..)
“You can learn each and every night. Whether you are at home on an off day watching other teams play, or watching yourself, watching film, playing in games, watching film from games like tonight, which we will do tomorrow, and you can always learn. See what you did good, try to go attack that even more, and see what you did bad, and try to clean that up as a team. As an individual, whether it’s staying in front or hitting the open man, or somebody was open. Little stuff like that. There’s always a chance to improve.”
(On how he stays optimistic...)
“For me, I live in the moment. I work hard every day, I try to learn each and every day, and I try to give what I went through to the rookies, second-year guys, third-year guys, or guys who just got traded here or however it works. What I went through step-by-step; the good and the bad, the whole roller coaster, the ups and downs. I try to give that to the guy next to me to see them succeed, because if they succeed, we succeed. For me, it’s not hard. I love the game. I love my job. It’s not about money for me. I come here, because I really love it. I’m frustrated, angry when my team loses games, and I try to find ways to be better myself and help the team. Whether I see something, because I watch a lot of film and basketball, I’m going to stick to it. I’m going to continue to get better and learn, and it’ll flip. And when it flips, you’ll look back at these times and smile and appreciate them even more.”
Spurs Guard Keldon Johnson
(On Dejounte Murray coming back to play...)
“He was a true leader. He’ll do whatever it takes for the best thing for the team and for us to win. It didn’t surprise me when I saw him come back. I expected him to come back. That’s Dejounte. We know he got to be either really hurt or something really bad for him not to play.”
(On Toronto keeping them out of the paint...)
“They closed out short a couple times. At least with me, I got to the basket. I think they are a really good defensive team. They’re real big and active. Me and my teammates, we still got downhill. We missed some easy shots, some wide-open threes and things like that. Obviously, it’s hard to win when you’re missing wide-open shots. We fought, we are going to adjust, and we are going to get back to it on Friday.”
(On his optimism for the future...)
“I’m excited. Obviously, I want to win now. I think everybody on the team comes out to play every night to win. Our job is to go out there and play, do what we need to do to win. The front office, we trust them. They’re proven and will do what they need to do for us to be in our best situation going forward.”