Nick Nurse, Raptors worked to get Pascal Siakam in rhythm vs. Spurs

Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse offers thoughts on Chris Boucher maintaining his energetic style over the last few games and Pascal Siakam having more bounce after the long road trip.

Video Transcript

- Go ahead, everybody.

- Nick, it was very professional when you said you needed your guys to realize what the moment was, and not fall prey to a letdown, and they sure didn't. That first quarter was a statement.

NICK NURSE: Yeah, those guys wanted to get off to a better start. They had a couple games in a row where they didn't, and talked about it a little bit this morning. I thought, for the most part, we knew transition defense was going to be huge. These guys get up the floor, and got a lot of guys that attack off the bounce. I thought the only letdown that we had was to start the second. They got out on us and scored a bunch in transition. Other than that, it was pretty solid, as far as getting back, and helping out, and et cetera. But you're right, it was nothing super spectacular, but it was a pretty professional job.

- --21 shots, very economical for him. What did you see from him tonight that made it so?

NICK NURSE: Well, we had one of those good things happen where the very first set we ran got him an inside layup. I always think that always gets a guy, if you can get a guy something at the rim, right off the bat, wide open, that always gets him feeling good. It just looked like he was in great rhythm on his mid-range stuff. Again, he came down early, and we ran a little flip-back play to him that he's usually going downhill on, but he stopped there going under so far. He slammed on the brakes and shot the 3. So that just showed he was really aware of what was available, and was willing to take them, right? And just good tempo and rhythm for him tonight.

- He looked tired at the end of the trip. Do you think that could be, because in Houston and Memphis, he looked a little bit worn out. Why do you think he sort of--

NICK NURSE: Bounced back?

- Revitalized, yeah.

NICK NURSE: Well, I think that rest, recovery, being home, and those things can do a lot of quick work sometimes. And I think just being home made him feel a little bit better. I agree with you. He was putting in some heavy minutes, heavy responsibilities at both ends during the road trip. But it was good to see him, I thought, back with a little more spring, a little more, just, again, tempo, rhythm. All that stuff seemed a lot better tonight.

- You've gotten a bunch of high-energy games from Chris recently. Is this the longest stretch of sustained energy that you've seen from him this season?

NICK NURSE: This season, for sure, yeah, I think so. I think it's good. I think, again, it was another game he wasn't in long, and he banged a 3-ball, and that, again, is just a big lift for him, big lift for us. He was really a force out there, which is why I played him about, I don't know, 16, 17 straight minutes to finish the game. He was just on a run of playing really well, blocking shots, on the glass, on the offensive glass. So, yeah, it was good. He's had three really good games in a row, for sure.

- Thanks very much, everyone.

NICK NURSE: Thanks.

- See you tomorrow.

NICK NURSE: Yeah, see you tomorrow.