'I had some costly turnovers': Barnes after Raptors loss to Kings

Raptors forward Scottie Barnes discusses Fred VanVleet trusting him to hit threes, turnovers that helped catapult the Kings' 4th quarter run and the importance of staying positive as a franchise.

Video Transcript

- Scottie, your playmaking was really sharp tonight. And what were you kind of looking for? What were some of those reads, especially to start the third quarter? You got [INAUDIBLE] a couple of times, and--

SCOTTIE BARNES: I think it was just from me being aggressive, going downhill. It was just dropping defense, and kicking out. Dunkers, it was just easy. It was just taking what the defense was giving me. But I had some costly turnovers towards in the fourth quarter. That was big for them to go on their run.

- Fred had a pass to you. He had caught the ball above the arc and then threw it to you in the corner for a 3-pointer. In the fourth quarter, I don't know if you remember that play. What does it say about his trust that he's willing to make that extra pass to you as a shooter in the corner?

SCOTTIE BARNES: I think Fred trusts us all of us on the team. He see the defense, drive, and kick it out. I feel like he trusts us to make those shots and he wants us to take those shots. I feel like we like corner threes as well as a team. So I felt like that was-- he made a good play and a good kick out. I just shot the ball, and I made it.

- When a team struggles like you guys have been lately, the question is always, what's the mood like? How are you guys handling this? You think you're handling it well?

SCOTTIE BARNES: I feel like we're just-- as a collective group, as a unit, as an organization, we're just trying to stay positive. This was a very winnable game. I feel like we should have won this one tonight. But we're just trying to stay positive, get back at it tomorrow. We're going to see what we can do to fix things and just get better every single day.

- Everyone's kind of talked about how you guys have these really bright moments, and then lots of good moments, and it's kind of been an issue of consistency and every game, bringing the same effort and the same execution. What do you think it is about this team? Why do you think you guys are having some issues with consistency, especially in the effort department?

SCOTTIE BARNES: Say that question again?

- Why do you think the team is having some consistency issues when it comes to playing really hard and really focused every single game?

SCOTTIE BARNES: I feel like we play a good two to three quarters of good basketball, and then we just let up in one of the quarters. It's just about us. I feel like we just got to stay together throughout the process. Cleanup really just starts on defense. We get those things right on the defensive end, take out those mistakes to keep possessions, I feel like we'll be better.

- Is it a fatigue thing with the defense, or is it sometimes the schemes being too complicated? Do you have any kind of ideas about why those defense breakdowns are happening?

SCOTTIE BARNES: I don't know. I've got to go watch the film, so. I can watch the film and see. We just got to keep developing and keep getting better, try to take out when teams have long runs and just be able to counter it with our own.

- When it comes to film you've done in the past after a game, maybe a bad defensive one where you guys let it go for a quarter or two. What have you seen in the film then that led to those, I guess, longer stretches of poor defense?

SCOTTIE BARNES: Say that again?

- When it comes to past games where the defense hasn't been that great, when you went to the film after those games, what are you seeing as trends pop up?

SCOTTIE BARNES: Saying we give up-- I say we help teams get threes. I feel like that was a big thing with the last two games. They had a lot of threes today. How many threes they had? They had a lot of threes today. We just got to be able to stop the drives. I feel like that's one of the main key things, be able to stop the drive so they get deep in the paint. Be able to get kickout threes and rotate and rotate and rotate it.

And then it just leads to open three and open three there. I feel like when we just guard the ball, we're very good. Keep trying to help each other on the rotations. I feel like that's when we're at our best. But when they're driving right off the bat and getting kick out threes and it just gets bad. And they making shots, just wide open shots, NBA player's going to make wide open shots.