Nick Nurse: Raptors ‘played their guts out’ in tough loss to Nuggets

Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse liked the toughness and heart his team played with against the Denver Nuggets, even though they came up short on the scoreboard. He also discussed how they defended Nikola Jokic and Pascal Siakam's continued hot streak.

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Video Transcript

- Nick, a hell of a game could have gone either way. What did you see the last couple minutes? You guys-- I don't know if you had a shot to win it like [INAUDIBLE].

NICK NURSE: Yeah, hung in there pretty good, I thought. I didn't think we were shooting the ball very well early. We were really moving it and getting great shots, and thought we'd produce some pretty good offense throughout the game if we kept doing that, and I thought we did.

- [INAUDIBLE]

NICK NURSE: So-- [LAUGHS] let's see. What were we talking about, Doug? Yeah, was a hard-fought game. Like you said, I think our guys played their guts out and fought really hard and gave themselves a chance.

- Nick, a two-man game like Pascal and Fred were able to play in those last two possessions, and you got good looks both. But that's because Pascal made good reads, or is that--

NICK NURSE: Yeah, I mean, usually, we don't know how it's going to turn out on the first one. And we kind of cleared out one side of the floor there, thinking that Freddy would be open, and he was. And then we tried to run it again, and we thought we'd get the counter to that and maybe get Pascal down the lane on the other direction on it.

And he started down there, and they pulled all the way in again off of Freddy and made him kick it out. And I mean, jeez, we got a great look, and OG battled and got a heck of a chance at a putback there as well.

- What did you make of the job that you guys did on Jokic? On one hand, he did a lot of damage in that first quarter. But again, just 10 points over the last three. What did you guys do to get the ball out of his hands a little bit?

NICK NURSE: I think we did OK on him, Josh. We were certainly battling him, making things difficult for him, I thought. He has the ball so much that he's going to get his points, and he hurts you on the offensive glass. He hurts you at the free throw line, obviously.

But I thought we did OK. I thought a lot of their guys-- they got a lot of production. You know, everybody chipped in. Seemed like everybody made a big 3 for them here and there, a couple shots in a row. So I think that kept them ticking over and kept them going.

- Khem seemed like he did a pretty good job on him in the second quarter there. What did you like from Khem on both sides of the floor tonight?

NICK NURSE: Yeah, he played better tonight, right? I thought he was aggressive and was in the game and fighting. He made some good reads offensively, made a couple nice, little floaters as well. So we thought we'd probably get a stretch of him in the second half as well down the stretch. And it seemed to be working OK. And then we got back to the crew there at the end.

- Anyone else?

- Oh, yeah.

- Oh, go ahead, Lewis.

- Hey, Nick. Unbelievable game from Pascal again. It seems like he's just doing this every night. At what point do you say this isn't a hot streak, and you can just expect him to put more of these types of games?

NICK NURSE: Well, 16 out of 22 is pretty hot, right? But you're right. I understand your point. He is really playing with some great composure, I think, in the lane. He's getting himself to some spots. I really like-- again, I always say, when he makes three or more 3's, he's probably going to end up with over 30 because he just has that confidence.

And I like that, that he's taking those shots. Because again, it's what they're giving, and he just takes them. Yeah, he's playing really good. Again, I think that-- and we said that the other day is that Freddy and Pascal are continuing to play better and inching their way into conversations of-- instead of just being nice little players that they're star players. And hopefully, they'll get some of that treatment here pretty soon.