‘It doesn’t help’: Nick Nurse on woeful free-throw shooting

Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse discusses the offensive struggles and defence against the Cavaliers. Follow Yahoo Sports Canada for all your Raptors coverage.

Video Transcript

- What are your thoughts on the Scottie? We talked about Corvin. You're excited to see [INAUDIBLE] how he'd be in that position.

NICK NURSE: Well, I thought he had a good game. He played really well. I thought he played hard and played both ends and did a good job. I think he scored and passed it and rebounded it all from that position. So I thought he was good.

- I know the last couple of games, you were OK with the shots selection. You were OK with the shots. And you stop following. Is it the same case tonight?

NICK NURSE: I probably need to look at the tape. But it felt like, OK. I mean, we took probably a few in the first half that we took deep. And there was multiple guys there to block the shots. I think they had six blocks in the first half. So some of those had to go out. I don't think you can try to score over two guys blocking your shot, and a couple of them, it's not like they're just barely tipping them.

They were fairly well covered. Those are probably possessions we'd like to do again. But you got one shot blocked in the second half. I thought the guys were assertive and did get some out of there. I mean, you guys saw. It was hard to get a whole lot going from the perimeter. It's tough to kind of lose 33-18 at the line.

- [INAUDIBLE] any breakdown in communication?

NICK NURSE: Yeah, there was a lot of really good defense out there. And then there was a lot of just a couple indecisive moves. But for the most part, I thought we challenged them pretty good, a couple of key buckets down the stretch. I thought we had kind of two on the ball. And they were driving. And somehow both guys kind of ended up not on the ball right at a critical time, so. But I think for the most part, defensively we weren't too bad.

- When those conversations seemingly kind of go break into huddles and miss your time out, how do you bring the team back to settle?

NICK NURSE: Well, try to fix the mistakes, talk about whatever the learning moment is, try to make an adjustment, maybe switch a match up, maybe just draw up here's what it looked like and here's what needs to be different on it. But again, I thought for the most part we just had a couple of stretches where things really didn't go our way, like, abundantly in short stretches.

And we kept fighting our way back in there. We certainly got off to a great start in the third and then another little really well below average at both ends for two or three minutes. And then we're fighting again. But we just kept battling. And that's a credit to our guys to keep playing. I thought they gave everything they had tonight. Could have made a few better decisions on some communication things. But that's probably always the case.

- [? Klipstein, ?] we'll go to virtual questions, please.

NICK NURSE: Thanks, JQ. We'll start with Doug.

- Hey, Nick. Good to see you again. I think you went the last 6:48 of the third quarter with no baskets. What do you see in that stretch that is sort of keeping you from getting anything even around the rim or in the basket?

NICK NURSE: Yeah, Doug, I'll have to take a look at that specifically. But I certainly know it felt like it was tough. And I think that the hard part about it, Doug, is the turnovers are super low. So it's not like you're saying, oh, man we turned it over a ton. We couldn't get any kind of shot up.

It wasn't a whole lot of deep shot clock possessions, again. So chances are we got some fairly good looks that we're just going to need to make more of a percentage of. But I need to look at it a little more closely. There's probably some cuts and some extra passes and things like that that are always there that way can look at as well.

- Yeah, that was my next question. The cuts and the extra passes and creating space, when you got guys out there not used to playing with each other or in those positions, how hard is that to learn on the fly in a game?

NICK NURSE: Well, as you and I have talked about many times this year, it kind of keeps changing, who's going where. And in basketball, when it's a couple of guys, two guys, it could be a domino effect where three or four guys are moving positions. So I think it looked a little clunky the last couple of games on top of not a ton of energy with cleaning it up slowly here with this group.

I thought, again, the only things that I saw really stick out are some blocked shots that we took it right into the teeth in the first half. But we pretty much stopped doing that. We either put them in the rim in the second half or we got a few of them out and made the next action play. So it's making adjustments on the fly and trying to keep some spacing and try some line ups and all that kind of stuff.

- Great. Thanks, Nick. Safe trip up to San Antonio.

NICK NURSE: OK.

- And next we'll go to Josh.

JOSH: Hey, Nick. I wanted to ask you about Gary. Still not a great shooting night, but it seemed like he made a concerted effort to attack close outs and use the mid-range a little bit more. Is that something that you guys talked about before the game? And are you hopeful that that will get him going a little bit?

NICK NURSE: I think he had a good night I thought. I know it's only 7-19. But to me, at least another four or five of those go in and out. So we got some good clearance. Thought he got bumped on two or three others. He did get a couple of free throws. But I thought he could have had a few more. I thought he made pretty good decisions. And it felt to me like when he shook his guy down and stepped back that he was going to make them tonight, which is certainly progress for sure.

- Thanks, Nick. Safe flight.

NICK NURSE: Yeah. Thanks, Josh.

- And next we'll go to Michael.

- Hey, Nick. Anything you make about the struggles you guys are having at the free throw line? I think you missed 9 or 10 tonight. And it's been a little bit of a pattern lately. Do you not even put your head to that because it's just one of those things?

NICK NURSE: Well, it doesn't help. It certainly doesn't help. I mean, I think we always analyze it, Michael. We always take a look at everything on each one post game and see if there's anything we need to work on. I mean, I'm just guessing and watching. We look at Pascal's, he did get to the line a lot. He probably was a little flat on his. Again, just needs to make a conscious effort. Again, I'm just going by what I think I'll see on the readouts and stuff. But yeah, we continually monitor it and try to work on it and make adjustments and practice it.

- Thanks, Nick.

NICK NURSE: Yeah, thank you, Michael.

- Last one here for you, Coach. Go ahead, Aaron.

- Hey, Nick. Wondering where you make of Scottie's playmaking skills in the transition as opposed to in the half court.

NICK NURSE: Well, I think I really like him in transition. I think most people, most guards when they're in the open floor, there's just so much more space to see probably a little bit. I think he's doing a good job of that. I mean, I think it'll be a really good learning experience to just sit down and show him some tape and walk through what he's seeing and what other possibilities are there.

And it's probably some type of inside, outside vision, finding where there's less help, taking the ball where there's less help or only one man help removed or some of those kind of things that maybe he can see on film. And I think in the half court he's pretty good. He may, at this point, overlook some things sometimes. He'll see a match up on the post he wants to get. And he really wants to get it down there. And whatever happens happens.

And it doesn't quite go down there. I think those things, you kind of got to look and then get on to the next thing. But again, that's all part of learning. But I thought he did a good job. He did a good job of running sets and executing play calls and keeping things organized. Wasn't easy. They were switching defenses a lot, too. That's a challenge for a young point guard to see. But he did a good job.

- Thank, Nick. Safe travels.

NICK NURSE: Thank you.