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'It shows the kids that it's possible': Chris Boucher on Canadian NBA talent

Raptors forward Chris Boucher discusses the loss to the Pacers and the plethora of Canadian talent in the NBA that is getting a chance to shine.

Video Transcript

- Chris, what happened? I mean, you were sort of on and off. What sort of happened with the effort to contain their guards tonight down the stretch?

CHRIS BOUCHER: I don't know. I think they, I mean, obviously, they got great players. Guys that can make shots and all. I think we got caught up a couple of times in between switching and staying with our man. They do a lot of slipping, a lot of-- sometimes they set, sometimes they don't. And I think we got caught up into sometimes helping too much, and sometimes we didn't, so it was very.

Definitely a difficult game for us since they-- I felt like they had more energy than us. They were moving the ball a lot faster. They were going on transition. Even when we were scoring, they were just getting the ball and getting it out on the other side and they got great 2-point shooters so they made the shot.

- You guys have played games this year, obviously, where you're missing one guy, or two guys. How tough is it to be missing three and 1/2 guys in roles they're not used to being in?

CHRIS BOUCHER: I mean, obviously when you play a whole year with the same rotation kind of the same player. You know, it's not an excuse for us. We got to keep playing and all that, but obviously, you know, we're missing good guys like Scottie Barnes, obviously Gary Trent. You know, those guys could do a lot of things on the floor obviously. Precious, so yeah.

Clearly, I mean, we missed them today, but it's not an excuse. We could have won this game. Obviously, there's a couple of breaks that we had that cost us. I think there's a couple of fouls that went the other way too that didn't help us, obviously. You know, I can't blame the refs for that, but things happen.

- Games like tonight make you excited about the future of Canadian basketball?

CHRIS BOUCHER: Yeah, for sure I mean, obviously, you see Oshae and Ben Andrew. I mean, all these guys have been around. Now that I've seen them play, they're all, you know, talented guys and you know, you can see it all around the league, Oshae, Delon, everybody. You know, it's just-- it's really a great place to be for Canada as like NBA players and having guys that are really successful in the league.

- Is it surreal a little bit like especially lately over the last like week. It seems like there's another great Canadian, or two, or three in here every night.

CHRIS BOUCHER: No, not for me. I think that I've seen them being good the whole time. Just about opportunity and having a chance, but you know, when we go play in the summer, we all play together and all that. We all have, you know, pick up and all that. You can see how talented people are and it's just nice to see them take an opportunity. Like Oshae today who started, he took an opportunity and played well.

Andrew Nembhard, he's been doing that all year, so. Ben, you know, could have been rookie of the year and all, so. You know, it's really amazing to see all guys are making it in the league and they all got different talent. And it just shows that the kids that are watching that it's possible to make it, especially when you see a bunch of Canadians in there being successful.

- Chris, when you talk about that indecision defensively where these guys poor helping, or not helping enough. Why do you think at this stage of the season that inconsistency is still there on that end?

CHRIS BOUCHER: I mean, I would say that obviously, we play different teams all the time. Sometimes some guys are getting hot. Sometimes we're doing the rear at the right thing and they're hitting shots. You know, I still remember the game when we went to LA. I mean, Vanderbilt, you know, he hit two 3's and we're like OK, now we've got to actually change this rotation and stuff.

So I mean, sometimes some games is just, you know, guys got it going and you could do the right thing and then now they hit shots. And sometimes it's just, you know, miscommunication and I mean, we got to get better at that. Obviously, I think we are, having different guys on the floor and all that, and guys are still trying to figure it out, you know, how they defend and play together.

I think we had really great moments today protecting the rim, contesting the shot, and all that. They made tough ones. TJ McCullough made tough shots. You know, those are shots that we feel like we would take any day and he made them. So it makes it a lot harder when those guys are making the shots on top of the main guys.

- Thank you.

- Thank you, Chris.

CHRIS BOUCHER: Yep.