How the Raptors picked apart the Heat's defence

Nick Nurse discusses the keys to Toronto countering the assorted doubles Miami was throwing at the Raptors.

Video Transcript

NICK NURSE: What have you got, Doug?

- Your defense was as good as it's been for 48 minutes in a long time. That third quarter was particularly good.

NICK NURSE: Yeah, I thought, listen, I think, going into the game, the challenge was our size versus their speed and perimeter shooting, and I think that, from about midway through the first quarter on, not every time, but we really flew at guys to challenge shots. We got a piece of a couple 3's. We made a couple of guys reload, and still landed and rechallenge.

Like, we did a good job of making them miss out there, and we did a pretty good job communicating. I mean, we lost them a couple of times, but there was a lot of stuff happening out there, slipouts, and speed, and stuff to keep track of, but we did a good job of keeping track of it most of the time, and you're right, I just felt like we had a lot of possessions where they were really searching for a shot, right? I mean, they'd get one, but it would be pretty tough at the end of it, and it felt like we created a decent number of turnovers. 16, not bad, but a little low for us, but still a decent number, right?

- We've seen Scottie have big fourth quarters, but not too many big first quarters. What do you think about the way he started the game, and why do you think he was so successful that way?

NICK NURSE: Well, I just think that, again, the advantage we had, probably, at some of the wing positions was size. And I think I give our guys credit. They found some mismatches. Obviously, Miami had schemed for what they were going to do against them. We kept completing passes to the size advantage, because they were coming pretty hard on the baseline traps, and then we were completing them out to a number of different ways, guys cutting down, shooters around the bend.

So I just think that maybe he got a good start there, just with some inside stuff. I thought he had a really good, energetic game. He just had his head up, and was moving with the ball quickly. Obviously, the 12 assists are huge. He was finding a lot of the people out of kind of, like, the next pat. You know, we'd get it out of the double, and it'd come to him, and he'd find the next cutter, a lot of times, going to the rim. Very, very good job of vision with him tonight on finding guys for easy buckets, setting guys up.

- And teams obviously throw a bunch of schemes at you, throw a lot of zone at you/ is Scottie's passing heightened in that situation?

NICK NURSE: Yeah, and his size is as well, right? I mean, you guys probably saw that little segment where we ran the same play about three times in a row, and it was hit Scottie at the free-throw line, and he was wheeling and dealing from there. So his size lets them be open. Even if they're kind of put a guy with him, he can still kind of throw it up and he can catch it, and then, if they do that, then you certainly have two on one on the back side, which is what we had, and I think our guys were ready for those. We were so hot from 3. We decided to get hot there for a couple of possessions in a row.

- Precious seems to like playing against his former team. Is that as impactful as you've seen him in a little up?

NICK NURSE: Well, it is in a little while. Obviously, we were hoping that. We gave him an early sub tonight, right, and, plus, the match kind of suit that way a little better for him tonight, with an athletic, smaller-sized center, so he can play that. Yeah, I thought, listen, he hit a couple big ones. I mean, jeez, when you have a night like that from 3, and he's one of the guys that makes two, it's a huge lift. It seemed like he had a bunch of offensive rebounds, but I guess they were both back to back on the same possession there. But nine rebounds in all for 24 minutes is a pretty good rebound rate too.

- We've asked you you a lot about when Pascal and Scottie play well together at the same time. What allowed them tonight, or what allows them to play well simultaneously as teammates, I guess?

NICK NURSE: I mean, I think that it all boils down to some good spacing, cutting, passing, catching, finishing. You know, I think, again, we were pretty good in our cutting, pretty good in our locations of our spacing, our relocations of our spacing, and those guys, I thought, did a good job of getting off the basketball. I mean, 17 assists between them, probably a few between each other, back and forth there. So that's it, really, just good vision and good spacing.

- This was maybe OG's best game as a pro reading doubles and reading the shape of the defense with a dead dribble, I would say. What do you think made him so successful?

NICK NURSE: Well, again, I just kind of opened with this, is that we were getting it to some good matchups. They were running a pretty hard double teaming scheme at those guys, and I think, you know, when you know it's coming so quickly, you know you've gotta get off it, right? Like, even the catch gets-- they kept kind of speeding it up even, and even when Kyle was in there, he was really getting there from all the way over on the other side, almost underneath him, as the catch was being made, so those guys knew somebody had to be open.

And, again, I thought we did a really good job of hitting them from the pull-behind guy, being open, the low cutter, the late cutter. So our guys did a good job of reading the schemes, and, again, the willingness to get off it quick is always a factor. If you can kind of get off it as the double teams come, and now you've got two guys out of position, for sure, yeah.

- 12 of Scottie's assists came after the first quarter. How much do you think that aggressiveness with his scoring in the first helped open that up?

NICK NURSE: Yeah, I've always said that, right? If you're a pass-first guy, and you want to pass, you're going to have to score some, right, so that they have to put two or more on the ball, and then you'll be able to pass, yeah.

- And for Jeff, getting those reps, going up against Kyle Lowry, what can that do for him, just in terms of learning?

NICK NURSE: I don't know. I mean, Jeff, again, was really solid. He had a chance to have another really big game with a couple open 3's, but he didn't-- I thought he was going to make that one as the shot clock ran down. But I just, again, thought he did a good job of-- and what he does is he keeps himself in front of whoever he's guarding. He even ended up on Herro a couple of times, and I thought cut his drive off, and met him with his body, and I think he might have made one really tough one on him too, but he really kind of stopped him right there and stuff.

But, again, his physicality and his side-to-side defense is really what I like to see out there. And, again, just doesn't make a lot of mistakes, right? There's very few turnovers. It's good play for him. It's solid overall, and it's good on the defensive end.

- Thank you everybody.

NICK NURSE: OK. Thanks.