- Well, now. We had people talking about a million different things all over the place today. There was talk of the last road trip, the upcoming road trip, the two-game homestand this weekend and of course, the race to playoffs.

- Chris Bosh practised again today and said he feels, “110%” for the game tomorrow. Fantastic news. He also sounds like he’s chomping at the bit to get on the court and help his team get back on track.

- Hedo Turkoglu participated in practice today, doing more than Jay Triano had expected. It’s now about waiting to see how his ankle responds when he wakes up tomorrow. Jose Calderon was also a go, with Triano expecting him to play on Friday against the Knicks.

- A lot of great quotes from Jarrett Jack on making the playoffs and how important the postseason is to him and his family. The Jack’s are one bball loving fam.

- Perhaps my favorite moment of the day was when Jack was asked whether Reggie Evans is a dirty player. Without hesitation, Jack responds, “Yup.. And we like it.” He then continues on by saying Reggie does the important things like boxing out, etc., and he’s not doing anything wrong. Now, Jack’s a diplomatic guy and Reggie’s pretty great, but I think we can both agree that there’s been plenty of photographic evidence that lets us know, on occasion, he’s had his hands where they shouldn’t be through the course of an NBA game. #justsayin

Bosh

- How are you feeling about the game tomorrow?: “110 %. I’m ready to play. I’ve rested enough. My ankle feels great. I’m ready to get out there and help this team win some games.”

- Were you able to see anything from your time watching?: “I’m seeing what mistakes I can help correct. It’s not too much you can learn about your team 60 or 70 games in. Right now I’m just seeing where I can help on defence and on offence, mostly on defence because that’s where we’ve been struggling the past few games.”

- How important are these next two games at home before you go out on the road?: Two at home: “We’re to the point now where every game is important. They’re very important games. Every game we play from now on is important. It’s a small pack, five through nine in the Eastern Conference. You never know how it’s going to go week to week. We’re going to have to start paying attention to the standings. We’re going to have to play very close attention to each game. And we’re going to have to bring a certain focus

- What about Demar? He’s been struggling to get it going lately: “Just concentrate on what he needs to do, focus every day on what he needs to do. He needs to play good defence. He needs to be in the right position. He needs to challenge his guy one-on-one in the open court when he gets it. Just continue to play his role. Sometimes when coaches correct him it’s frustrating for him because he wants to do the right thing but sometimes he’s just a step off. It’s going to happen. We need him to play well in order for us to do well.”

- How tough is the first season as a pro as compared to playing in college?: “It’s very long. It’s very long. In college, they’re getting ready for the playoffs right now, they’re getting ready for the tournaments, March Madness. We’ve got six more weeks and then the madness starts. It’s different and it’s to be expected. You’re not going to come in hitting the ground running. It happens to all of us.”

- The pressure on Andrea Bargnani when you were out, how different does it make the game for him?: “It’s a little different. I’m sure it’s a little different for him. It takes time. It takes time to get used to things like that. It took me about two years. When you have a certain player out, sometimes your roles change. He was probably one of the primary scorers. He already is, but now he moves up a bit. It’s tough sometimes. We don’t have to worry about that anymore.”

- Do you think it’s your job to make the game easier for him?: “Yeah, that’s my job. When I signed up for this, that was under my description: make it easier on everybody, make everybody better. That’s my job, and I’m used to it now. I’ll continue to do it. I think we had a great practice today and I tried to challenge everybody as far as the intensity was concerned, as far as defence was concerned.”

- So you’re a great teammate?: “I’m a great teammate. I hope so. Don’t ask Jarrett. (laughts). But if you ask anyone else or ask me, I try to be a great teammate. I just want to push these guys. 23 games left: we need to win more than we lose. We need to win more than the seeds below us if we want to have a better shot at advancing.”

Jack

- Chris said you wouldn’t say he’s a good teammate, but….: “He does an exceptional job on and off the court. I don’t know why he would pick me out, that’s unbelievable (laughs). He does a great job of being vocal. Make sure guys are being focused, giving them the added support they might need when they might be down. I think I speak for everybody when I say, we’re glad to have him back.”

- You’ve been very aggressive when Chris was out, will you continue to do so with him back in the lineup?: “I’m just going to be aggressive, regardless of it means me taking a shot or making the defence collapse so I can get an opportunity for somebody else. I think when I play aggressive that is when I play my best and when the team plays its best. That’s my only objective.”

- Getting Chris involved early?: “I think we all know how necessary it is to make sure he is involved in the game early. It establishes a post presence for us. It doesn’t force us to be perimeter oriented like we may have been when he was gone. I think getting him involved opens up the game for everybody else.”

- How does it feel to know you’re 23 games away from making the playoffs for the first time in your career?: “It’s unbelievable. I’m smiling because of where we are right now, but I know there’s still a lot of work left to be done.  A lot can happen in 23 games. I feel like I’m looking at my goal in the face. We’ve just got to keep staying focused and if we’re able to get to the playoffs, well, we’re getting to the playoffs. I’ll be very, very excited.”

- How often do you think about what you can do to help this team even more?: “Every day.  Even my mom is like going crazy just texting me, “Playoffs”. We’re a really basketball oriented family. We take the game very seriously. We always watch playoff games. My mom, my dad, my brother. We’re always in front of the tv watching basketball. For me to get the opportunity to be a part of the NBA playoffs, it’s a dream in itself.”

- More on making the postseason: “For me, it would be  surreal experience to actually go through a playoff series. In the summertime, a lot of guys go on vacation, go to Hawaii, me personally, I go to playoff games. That’s like my vacation, that’s what i love to do. I’ve been in New Orleans, supporting Chris Paul when he was in the playoffs. I live in Atlanta so I went to a lot of their games. Washington when they had the battles with Cleveland in the first round. I went to the finals last year with Cleveland and Orlando. Those things get me going, even the atmosphere is fun, so I can only imagine to be a part of it.”

- What was your rookie year like? For DeMar, how different is an NBA season from the length of a college one?: “My rookie year was playing every night, your head was spinning almost. I really wasn’t used to that, wasn’t used to the travel. It was like man, we’ve got a game today, game today, game today. Different time zone today, we’re gone for 10, 11 days at a time, it was just a wild experience. My rookie year, really, really flew past. Even trying to think back now, it takes a lot to remember a lot of games.”

- More on rookie year: “In Portland when you walked into the facility, they had the calender with all of the games on this big wall with all of the games. I’d walk in like, man it’s March, we’ve got, 30 more games. What is going on? But, that kind of helped me adjust to the season a littel bit. Getting to see that every single day and knowing how many games we had left. It’s weird, calling Coach Hewitt and he’s like we’re getting ready for the playoffs, ACC tournament and I’m like, man, we’ve just got four games in five nights, it’s the same old, same old. You kind of get used to it.”

- What’s the closest you’ve gotten to the postseason?: “Portland, my third year. The amount of parity that goes on in the Western Conference. I remember one time we were fourth in the west and we lost one game and dropped completely out of the standings which was unbelievable, but that’s pretty much what they have going on right now… I think that was the year that Golden State won 50 games and they didn’t make it. Denver won 51 and they were the eighth seed. Winning 50 games and you don’t make the playoffs? Most people would think that’s a successful season but in the west, those wins are tough to come by.”

- Do you think everyone will be able to shake off the ending of that road trip and get back to playing the way you had been rolling before you lost Chris?: “I think so. I think we’re back to playing with the high intensity level that we did for awhile. i think we had a few games where that focus kind of went to the wayside a little bit. I think tomorrow we have some added incentives to get back going, playing well in front of our home court fans before we’ve got to go out west.”

- Is it something you guys have spoken about, or is it sort of something that doesn’t need to be addressed?: “I think we know that if we want to be a playoff team we can’t have slippage the way we have had the past four games. We have a great opportunity to get back on track right here at home and then we go out on the road for the next four games after that. That’s a great way to get back on track.”

Bargnani

- Having Bosh back in the lineup: “It’s great to have CB back of course. He is our first option offensively and it’s great. It’s going to be much more easier to play for me, too.”

- The turnovers and approach to the games on the roadtrip: “I think the Houston game, the Oklahoma game it was a mentality problem. We’re going to lose those also with Chris because the way we were playing, no energy. They could have whatever they wanted. Our approach to the game was terrible.”

- Do you think guys tried to step up and do too much to make up for Chris not being there?: “Yeah, probably. Probably everybody got a little selfish and me first. We don’t have to do that.”

- How important is it to get these next two?: “Well we’ve lost four games in a row so for us it’s extremely important. I don’t think we’ve ever lost four games, maybe in the beginning, I don’t even remember. It’s very important.”

- Why do you think you guys are so much better at home than on the road?: “Our fans. Our crowd really gets us excited when we play. I think that’s the only reason.”

- Standings tightening up: “Now is the time, if you don’t win, you are going to be out of the playoffs because the ninth spot is four games away. It’s the time to win, otherwise, you’re out.”

Triano

- Have you given any thought to sitting DeMar more?: “None. That’s something that’ll happen throughout the course of a game. If I don’t like what he’s doing, if I don’t like what Antoine or Turk or anybody, I’m going to sit them down. That’s just trying to make these guys accountable. What good is it going to do to sit him out? We need his athleticism. We need his body out there. He’s given us a lift in a lot of games, and we’re hoping he’s going to continue to do that.”

- Rookie wall? Can you help a player prepare for it?: “I don’t know if there’s any way to prepare for it. You can’t go to summer school to prepare for it really. You’ve just got to go through it. We as a team have to help him and make sure he stays focused. Our veterans have done a good job of that. Reggie did a good job of taking him aside yesterday and I know Chris talks to him, and the coaches talk to him all the time.”

- On Bargnani becoming the focal point of the offense when Bosh was out: “I think it’s going to help him down the road because it’s something new. It’s something he’s has to adapt to. If he ever becomes the focal point of our offence on certain plays, he has a better opportunity to pass the ball out of double teams and move the ball. I think that experience alone makes him better and will help him down the road. I’m pretty sure he’s going to happy to see Chris back in the lineup and drawing attention. It will free him up a little bit.”

- How was Turkoglu today in practice?: “he did quite a bit, more than I expected. Now it’s just a matter of how his ankle responds to him playing half court and full court today. If he responds well he’ll be in the lineup tomorrow. If he doesn’t he won’t. Jose, I don’t anticipate any problems. We’ll have to look at him tomorrow, but he went hard right through and we had to take him out because we didn’t want him to overdo it.

- On the significance of making the playoffs for a player like Jack who has never been there before: “Jarrett’s a basketball junkie. He’s a fan of the game. I’m here on Saturday and Saturday nights and late some nights doing work, and he’s in the other room watching every game he can watch. I know he loves the game of basketball. I know he watches the standings. He’d be a fan of the NBA if he wasn’t in it. I know he’s watching everything and would be excited to be in the playoffs. We hope to get there and show him what this city is like during the playoffs, because it’s completely different than the regular season.”