Players reveal grit and strategic adjustments fueling their fourth-quarter comeback against the Raptors, emphasizing defensive intensity and offensive execution.
Desmond Bane on the fourth quarter effort and what stood out:
"I thought we was just competing. We switched everything one through five for pretty much that whole quarter and it was like guard your yard, take on that challenge, guard whoever's in front of you. They say party on the other end and I thought that was our motto that whole fourth quarter."
Wendell Carter Jr. on being called the unsung hero and what was working for him tonight:
"Just doing what was needed to get the win. It's kind of been the topic of just getting back in that winning column, dropping two, winning two, winning one, losing one. I just went into this game, no matter if I was scoring points, getting rebounds, blocking shots, I just was saying good screens for others. I just told myself come to this game, I'm going do whatever is needed to get this win tonight."
Wendell Carter Jr. on what went wrong in the third quarter and how they changed it:
"They were just getting out and running. We were crashing underneath. And then when we weren't crashing, we weren't getting back. Coming into the huddle, we talked about it. We figured it out and then we limited them to about six transition points after that point. I think we did a really good job of just locking in on what they were doing offensively that was hurting us."
Desmond Bane on the game being a dogfight as expected and how they got rolling in the fourth:
"It was exactly what I thought it was going to be. They playing physical, we're playing physical. There's a couple times where the Raptors was complaining to the refs, saying we're both physical teams, let us play. I thought that we matched it and exceeded it at times and that's why we came out on top."
Desmond Bane on his season-high three-point attempts and letting it fly:
"It was good. They've been on me about it. Trying to find ways for me to get more three-point attempts up. 10's been the goal for the last few games. Hopefully I can continue to hunt them and get them up."
Wendell Carter Jr. on the conversation and mindset going into the fourth quarter down double digits:
"Just attention to detail. That team they don't run many sets. They want to get out in transition. It was just as simple as that just locking in on that and making them play in the half court. I think we have a really good half court defense. When we're set, we're very hard to score on them. On the offensive end, just taking shots when you're open. For example, Dez getting up 10 of them, we want to get him more and more looks cuz that's one of the main reasons he's here in Orlando. We want him taking 10 plus threes a night. This is just a start of what we can do in the future."
Desmond Bane on the momentum from a win like this and building toward the next phase:
"We've been talking about building, continuing to build especially heading into All-Star break. Feel like it's a great time to get some momentum and get some rhythm. We've had good carryover even dating back to some of them games that we started playing, we started really having real dialogue before we went over there to that overseas trip. Just being intentional about what we want on both ends of the floor. We've been putting that into action. It hasn't been pretty for the full substantial games, but I think we trending in the right direction."
Wendell Carter Jr. on his five dunks tonight and leading the team in dunks:
"My teammates finding me, being aggressive in those moments. Yeah, that's really about it."
Desmond Bane on Wendell Carter Jr.'s dunks and physical play:
"We call him beast. That boy a beast. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Let him know, D."