Nick Nurse praises Raptors role players after blowout of Spurs

After Toronto's 15-point win over the Spurs, head coach Nick Nurse expressed how proud he was of Dalano Banton for stepping up, while crediting Scottie Barnes along with Precious Achiuwa for his recent stretch of play. Follow our Raptors coverage all season long on Yahoo Sports Canada.

Video Transcript

- [INAUDIBLE]

NICK NURSE: Well, I mean, I think we've seen him do this before, where he's not quite been involved, or aggressive enough, or whatever. And then come out and get super aggressive. We did-- we did get a couple good reads on some play calls that got him going downhill towards the rim. But mostly he just decided to start imposing his size and will over the top of them. And got himself going.

- [INAUDIBLE] off the ball a lot.

NICK NURSE: Yeah.

- [INAUDIBLE]. Yeah. I mean, we're going to have to do that some, again. He's seeing a lot of blitzes, so instead of making him play through to every-- a lot of ball screens, and see two, and get in, and have to get off it. And don't know if he's going to get it back. We tread around a little bit more off-ball action for him. And it's good, it gives us some spacing along the corners, and opens up the middle of the floor a little bit with him and Gary in each corner. We've certainly been missing that a little bit.

- [INAUDIBLE]

- Thanks, JQ. We'll go to Josh.

- Hey Nick, what kind of lift did those three guys off the bench-- Precious Delano and Thad-- give you guys to start the fourth quarter? How important was that in terms of putting the game away?

NICK NURSE: Well, it was really big, Josh. I didn't think we were getting much off the bench in the first half, so they did a really good job. But most impressively was their defense, you know? They caused a couple of shot clock violations and just were really flying around out there, and that was jump-starting them into some opportunities and transitions. So-- but no, they really played great. Really proud of Dalano stepping up there, 20-plus minutes. Made some really good passes. I thought that pick and roll lob to Precious was a key moment where the game was kind of wobbling a little bit, and they made a big play, the two of them. I thought he pressured defensively and was part of the group that really guarded their first stretch. good defensive effort second half for us.

- It took Fred a little bit of time to find his rhythm-- understandable after the long layoff-- but did you think he's looking more like he did before the break? Sort of after the time off, and the rest on the knee?

NICK NURSE: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he was-- I thought he was awesome tonight. And you know, the only thing that wasn't really going early was a three ball, but his two ball was. He was getting into some mid-rangers, and he got to the basket a few times, which I love seeing. When he's getting to the basket, you know he's feeling pretty good.

- Awesome. Thanks, Nick.

NICK NURSE: Thank you.

- Thanks Josh. We'll go to Michael.

- Hey, Nick. When Scottie's taking those face-up moves and walking his man down to the paint, how much of that is him making the read, and how much of is that-- you guys, you're making a call and taking advantage of-- if they're not going to double them, you're going to make them punish-- you're going to punish them, maybe, closer to the room.

NICK NURSE: Yeah, I mean, he does a lot of that. He's got the freedom, you know. I keep telling him to just be aggressive. And you know, taking it inside, and using his length over the top. Again, there was a few play calls that we have found to get him downhill a little bit too, which helps. But we're working together out there. But he's just being aggressive and finding those-- most of those plays on his own.

- The-- and just like-- it looks like he's really-- his balance and his footwork, he's going to his left hand as often as his right. Is that something that's going on behind the scenes, or-- what's the story with that?

NICK NURSE: Well, yeah. I mean-- our assistance and player development guys certainly are putting in a lot of time. And so was he, working on some different ways to-- we call it moving it around. You got to sometimes move it around to contest, or whatever. I know he likes using that left hand, so he's worked on it. And he's now bringing it out a little bit.

- Appreciate it, Nick. Thank you.

NICK NURSE: Yeah. Thanks.

- We'll go to Louis next.

- Hey, Coach. In the beginning of the year, it seemed sometimes like Precious didn't know what was asked of him in the offense. He seemed awkward at times. Is it fair to say that that is completely behind him, with how he's looked recently?

NICK NURSE: Listen, he played a lot of good games here lately. I just think that, again, for me-- I'm going to sound like a broken record here. But when he's got energy, and is running hard and playing hard, I think a lot of good things happen for him. Right? Just a lot of good things. He's really moving his feet on D, and I think with the team we have on the floor, he's going to get some looks from the corner three. We've been much more happier on his finishing drives. Or at least getting himself a little more organized in there. I think he's probably getting hit on some of those. That's the next step if we can get him to play through those and score anyway without needing a call, or getting a call, here and there. But a little more organized and cleaning up his game. It's either catch and shoot, or it's a hard drive all the way, which we like.

- Do you see him running to the correct spot more often?

NICK NURSE: Yeah. I mean, we've-- listen, I've been complaining about this a lot. It's not-- it's not easy to stay organized when you got guys in and out all the time, right? And the addition of the Thad-Chris-Precious lineup has got those guys a little confused about who's doing what. So we've really been working hard on trying to get those guys to understand where they're going when they're out there together. So, yeah, I think that's all part of us continuing to get us organized, and he's a big part of that.

- Thank you.

NICK NURSE: You're welcome.

- Last one for you, Coach, goes to Aaron.

- Hey, Nick. Scottie obviously can take advantage of smaller guys in the paint, but I think he started the third quarter off by going at Poeltl. What does it say about him that he can sort of either mismatch-- he can find it against a big guy and still score in the paint against a guy who's pretty big?

NICK NURSE: Well, he's-- he's pretty big and long, right? You're gonna have to be pretty big to outsize him, you know. But, again, he's got a little bit of a herky-jerky rhythm to-- when he lets go of it down there. I think that's really the key. He'll-- his release points are kinda different at different times. And I think he catches them, even the bigger guys, with their hands. They're not quite expecting him to shoot some of those. He'll take them all the way, or he'll stop six feet short, or eight feet short, or four feet short. And he'll-- whenever he feels like he can get it off safely. So I think that's an interesting way of scoring. When you're not really using the same exact footwork and rhythm every time, I think it makes it harder for those guys to challenge.

- And you mentioned Fred's two-point scoring ability. Do you feel like that's taking a big step this year in his ability to create something inside?

NICK NURSE: Yeah. I mean, it's a concerted effort on his part from the summertime to this year that-- you know, that there's some coverages in certain teams. You play where that's the play. And we've tried to get him more involved in doing some of that stuff, and he looks-- he's getting better. He's worked really, really hard at it. It's not, like-- I think it's a fairly new part of his game, but he's worked really, really hard at it. And he's starting to see some of the dividends from that.

- Thanks, Nick. Safe travels.

NICK NURSE: Thanks, everybody.

- Thanks very much, Coach.