‘We took the first 12 minutes off’: Nick Nurse on Raptors’ bounce-back win over 76ers

The Toronto Raptors eked out a win over the Philadelphia 76ers despite a slow start to the game. Nick Nurse joked about it after Sunday’s win.

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Video Transcript

- How did it go?

NICK NURSE: It went OK. We probably didn't throw quite as much stuff as I thought we would have. But we did some pretty good things, especially being able to switch there light. We got-- we can kind of put a big body in Scottie on Harden and a big body in Precious on Embiid and switch that to [INAUDIBLE], keep the ball in front a little bit, best you can.

That probably was key in the fourth. We did a pretty good job of getting it out of Harden's hands in the [INAUDIBLE].

Yeah, I mean, I think they got-- ball bounced our way tonight for sure. I thought they had a couple shots, you know, that probably those guys normally make bounce out tonight, so fortunate bounces.

- I know you probably like to close a little better than you did. But the defense, the final three quarters, definitely in the fourth quarter. I assume that's exactly what you wanted to see against a team you might see if you reach the playoffs?

NICK NURSE: Yeah, I mean, certainly, we had to step up and make our free throws, right? We had a couple other-- I thought, yeah. We got a bunch of shots right at the rim that we missed, too, throughout the second half, I thought, which, you know, you can't afford to miss that many of those, usually, in a game without paying for it with an L.

Yeah, it's good. I mean, I love being in these close games. It's so good for these guys, like Scottie and Precious and Gary, that just have never been in them. And they need as much of them as they can. I realize they could go either way, and it isn't much fun when they don't go your way. But they're really good for us, nonetheless.

- I mean, [INAUDIBLE] the biggest thing to take away from both Friday and today--

NICK NURSE: Yep.

- --is that you get opportunities like this against, you know, even though the Lakers are struggling, playing LeBron--

NICK NURSE: Yeah.

- --playing against Joel Embiid and James Harden.

NICK NURSE: Yeah, yeah, we play, you know, guys, you know, top players in the league. And, again, I thought the Lakers played, like, absolutely to their potential all over the place. And that's good.

I kept saying that in the game against the Lakers the other night. You know, you see some worried looks on their faces in the timeouts. I was like, it's all right. It's good for us, man.

You know, we went to overtime. This is good for us. Let's just keep playing, man. We're gonna learn a lot out of this.

- You seemed to have a little bit more energy, outrebounding them, obviously, by a ton.

NICK NURSE: Yeah, well, we took the first 12 minutes off. We were just rested for the last 36. So, yeah, the last three quarters, we did-- I thought-- I give our second unit a lot of credit because they changed the game.

I thought Chris, Thad, those guys came in. Precious stayed in with them. And Armoni, those guys, they got about three or four offensive rebounds in a row that I thought sparked all the energy that really boosted our team. And we kind of carried it through for the game.

- Any other questions? Go ahead, Jen.

- Thank you. Go ahead, Doug.

- Hey, Nick, congratulations on the win. How do you think your team's handling the physical nature of these games in these last 10 days? It looks pretty well. It doesn't seem to be a very physical team, but they're not backing down, and they're hitting as much as they're getting hit. Is that right?

NICK NURSE: Yes. I was just-- I was gonna say there, yeah, I think our physicality is exceeding the other team most nights. So that's a good sign.

- Yeah, especially for young-- especially for, you say, young guys who haven't been through it are playing hard and physical--

NICK NURSE: Yeah.

- --right?

NICK NURSE: And this is the first night in a long time that Scottie didn't absorb those hits and still finish. You know, he probably had six or maybe even more-- let's say 6 right at the rim, where he got knocked a little bit. But he's been making all those, and tonight, they all rolled out. So he normally is gonna play through those and score those. So he did a good job with that.

Pascal, at one time, grabbed the team, grabbed them, and, you know, just said to them, you know, this is physical out here, man. They ain't calling-- they ain't gonna call it when we go to the room, so you got to score.

And they're gonna call-- you know, we may make some fouls down here. But just keep, you know, nothing easy. Keep getting in their way, and keep trying to contest, and keep taking it to the rim hard. I thought it was a good job by him leadership-wise.

- Great, thanks, Nick. Safe trip over to Chicago.

NICK NURSE: Thank you.

- Thanks, Doug. Go ahead, Michael Grange.

MICHAEL GRANGE: Hey, Nick. Those last couple of possessions down the stretch, I think Scottie had Embiid one-on-one in the post, and you left it that way. Achiuwa had Harden one-on-one in the perimeter. You left it that way. How confident are you-- obviously pretty confident--

NICK NURSE: Well--

MICHAEL GRANGE: --to let those guys, you know, pretty much [INAUDIBLE].

NICK NURSE: We were in a situation where we couldn't give up a 3, right? I think we were up 3 maybe one or two of those times and then up 2 in the last one. So we were in our no-3 defense in the key. So you got to play one-on-one. You got to stay home and do the best you can.

Again, I thought Chris stood in there and took him. We took, I think, maybe three charges on Harden tonight. That's huge because, you know, he's got all the options, right? He's got the stepback, and he's got the rim, and he's got the floater. And we were trying to take away the first two the best we could and kind of forced him into that-- well, went to the float game, and we made some plays on it.

That's really the defense. You got to stay at the rim, because if you come up, he's gonna dump it to somebody behind you for a dunk. And you got to stay there and wait and do the best you can. I thought-- some key plays by Chris there, taking charges-- I think somebody else took one too. I can't remember, but I think we got three of them.

MICHAEL GRANGE: Appreciate it, Nick. Safe travels.

NICK NURSE: Yep. Thanks, man.

- Go ahead, Aaron.

- Hey, Nick. You [AUDIO OUT]. Was that to stagger his minutes away from Embiid?

NICK NURSE: No. It was because I didn't like that lineup. I didn't like it to begin with. I didn't really want to start that way anyway, you know. But I ended up doing it. With Freddie out, we've been kind of mixing it up and doing some things. And since it was such a poor start, I didn't want that to happen again.

There's just something not quite right about those two guys out there together yet. We've got to get to work and figure that out. so they can play, that Khem and Precious can play together. But there's something we got we got to work on with that and polish that up and iron that out a little bit.

- What is it that, I guess, allows Precious to succeed without Khem on the court? Just more ability--

NICK NURSE: Yeah, I think, you know, when Precious is playing the five, he's gonna have a center playing him. So he can play underneath some. He can be in the dunker spot.

Somebody can pick and pop more against a big. He can play in the corners more against the rim protecting big. And that's an advantage. And if he's got a four guarding him, usually, those guys know how to play that stuff a little differently. And it just looks all different out there.

I think you probably, you know, maybe a couple of years ago or whatever, when we used to run Chris at the five, and that was his big advantage when he was kind of a undersized five man. And he'd pick and pop those guys and things like that. So, again, we just got to do a little more work on figuring out some spacing and where those guys are gonna go when they're out there together.

- Thanks, Nick.

NICK NURSE: Yep, you're welcome.

- Last question. Go ahead, Adam.

- Hey, Nick. Your team hit 40 wins on the season tonight. Does that number have any, you know, special meaning for you, just in the way your team's been able to put together, you know, what's looking like it's gonna be a winning season?

NICK NURSE: Um, yeah, that's a good number. I guess I didn't even really realize it, to be honest with you. But, yeah, that's good. I think, I mean, what have we got, 10 or 11 games left? I think we just got to keep picking off a few more.

I think that, you know, I don't really put a lot into it. I know it's important because we'd really like to make the playoffs. I think our team needs that experience. My bigger concern, I think, all the time, is, can we go out there and play, man? Can we go out there and look these really good teams eye to eye and go compete and believe we can win and execute to win?

And if we believe we can and we compete as hard as we've been competing, we're gonna get our share. We're gonna deserve to get our share of wins. And that's more-- it kind of takes care of itself.

- All right, thank you. Safe travels.

NICK NURSE: Thank you. All right, everybody. Thanks.

- Thanks, Nick.