Nick Nurse on what the tape from Celtics loss revealed

Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse discusses the loss to the Celtics and what he noticed after watching film of the game.

Video Transcript

- How many did you just hit?

NICK NURSE: I don't know. I don't know, I was just shooting a few.

- Didn't see any dunks down there.

- Josh, can you anchor this for a minute?

- Yeah, sorry.

NICK NURSE: I'm 0 for 1 career dunking in my lifetime. One breakaway, and missed it.

- That's all right.

- High school, or college?

NICK NURSE: High school.

- So are you shooting technicals for the team from now on?

NICK NURSE: [CHUCKLES] I wish-- if we ever get any. No, I'm just kidding.

[LAUGHTER]

All right, here we go.

- We got the Lakers tomorrow night. They're-- like, they struggled right out of the gate. But they got enough old guys that they know how to turn it around. What do you see when you look at them?

NICK NURSE: Well, they certainly have figured a lot out. They're playing very well right now. Obviously, their two superstars are playing at an incredible, high level.

And I always think that that lifts the people around them. You talk about what effects the great players have, is a lot of times, they do make the others around them a lot better. So I think it starts with those guys and just their pop, their energy, their skill that they're displaying now, their scoring. But they're still also making a lot of right plays and getting these other guys involved, and making them have really good opportunities. So I think those guys are taking advantage of it.

- Looking at a guy like Davis, who sort of been-- injury, up and down, didn't play a lot, played a lot. But these last two games, he's been unreal.

NICK NURSE: Unreal.

- What do you see? He's not shooting a lot of jumpers. He's dominating in the paint. Like, is that what you see?

NICK NURSE: Yeah, well, he's getting the ball in some really good areas. And when he does, I mean, he's really working hard prior to getting the ball. So he's getting it on a lot of angles. And when he does get it, he's going quick.

And again, he's just getting clearance, a lot of clearance over the top of people. And he's got tremendous touch and stuff, especially at the moment, you know? Like, everything he's doing looks really smooth and in the heart of the basket. And he's not the easiest guy to double-team because he does move so quick once he catches it. Because he's done the early work to get the seal, or the angles, or those kind of things.

But the hardest thing with both of those guys is they will hurt you from all over the court, right-- inside, outside, shooting. And they're both involved in tons of screen and rolls, and always setting and handling, especially LeBron. You've got a long list of things you've got to get ready for with those guys.

- Davis has kind of changed his shot dial-up. Now it looks like he's in more screen and roll close to the basket, not as much pick and pop. If that's the situation, you double before the catch almost, or--

NICK NURSE: Well, it's one of the ways that a lot of these good guys in the league get themselves involved, is by setting. You probably saw a little bit of it late last night, Tatum setting and finding some kind of angle on the switch to get the ball back quickly. Embiid does that, Giannis does that, LeBron does that, Davis is doing it a lot, too.

So it's kind of-- everybody talks about, oh, just put those guys and switch 'em, whatever. But the angles change. And it's not always that easy to make that switch. It's the next part of it.

You know, when you've got a scheme, it's now what happens on the next part of your plan? Where are you rotating from? Who's helping? Can you get enough of the passes redirected, or at least buy some time with them with some good hands up, high hands and things like that? So there's a lot going on out there.

Yeah, yeah, I think, again, look at last night's game. We played some really, really good basketball for really long stretches last night. We did, after watching the tape, just have too many just kind of unforced errors, you know?

I think we looked at the tape, and we had seven numbers breaks last night where we turned it over. Like, we steal the ball, and we're out ahead, and we've got numbers. And we're not even getting an attempt up there. And those got to be in the basket or at the free throw line, they got to be, or a wide open transition, touch the paint, kickout 3. So just those kind of things, when you play that well, are going to probably get you just on the wrong end of the scoreboard against a really good team, right?

To get back to your question, I don't quite know where we are now. But I think going into last night's game, we were two games ahead of where we were a year ago. And I know it doesn't feel like that to anybody because maybe expectations are so much higher or whatever.

But I would say I think we're really on the right track, where we're making some progress. We've had, and still do have, tons of impact guys out. We've had a rough year injury-wise.

So I think on one hand, you could look at it and say, we're doing OK. We're hanging in here through a lot of tough breaks right now. And I think if we just hang in there and keep improving a little bit, we'll get things squared away and be really tough to beat.

- Coach, when you think about the third quarter that Boston had, and then also when you look at the Lakers-- the start of the season, not so great. Then they're able to turn it on. What's the difference between teams that just know how to be comfortable with pressure moments and getting things done?

NICK NURSE: Well, I think that in the case of last night, I think you would probably expect that team to try to kind of get the game to halftime coming off a back-to-back, then decide they were going to amp up just a little bit and play a little better. But I mean, again, I'm going to go back to I rewatched the tape.

And it wasn't like we crumbled down there. We missed our first wide open shots of the second half. I mean, they were-- it doesn't get to looking any better. And we just didn't knock 'em in. And that, again, is going to put a little pressure on your D.

Then, some of the things that we were executing flawlessly in the first half defensively didn't quite get done. Just for example, like, we tried to make a cognizant effort to take Tatum and Brown's 3-ball out of the game. And we did that until that quarter, right?

And then they got a few. They were tough shots. But they weren't supposed to even get 'em. We're trying to execute a scheme where we force 'em off the 3-point line.

And we kind of let 'em dance a few times. And they made us pay, right? Again, just a little bit cleaner on a few more possessions, and there's a chance to come out of there with a W last night.