- On the morning after a tough, tough 26-point loss to the Utah Jazz, the Toronto Raptors had shaken off the game and were looking ahead to Friday. When media entered the practice court, the team was in a huddle with Jarrett Jack in the middle, animatedly speaking to his teammates. While Jay Triano says this isn’t entirely uncommon, I can say I don’t recall seeing a player take over the final huddle at the end of practice like that before.

- Triano said that Hedo Turkoglu was sent home from practice because he is still ill. Marco Belinelli did participate although he did not scrimmage. Triano also said that Reggie Evans did something to his foot last night, but he hadn’t been told if/how it would limit him.

- Interesting comments from Chris Bosh on not knowing what to expect from the team every night. It’s telling to hear the star player say he doesn’t know which team will show up from game to game. At this point in the season, that’s pretty troubling.

- Antoine Wright spoke about the team candidly last night and again today when he spoke about what needs to change to be successful. It’s clear that everyone on the team is sick of saying it and hearing it and not doing it. Getting back on track against Denver isn’t going to be an easy task, particularly when the Nuggets come into the game tomorrow having dropped their last two road games.

Triano

- What did you do today to get ready for Denver tomorrow night?: “We did everything. We don’t think that we’re getting good ball movement, we don’t think that our help side defence has been very good. We missed a few boxouts again. Overall, I think our overall mindset, we have to be a little bit tougher. Last night, I can’t argue with the first couple of shots that we took, Bargnani with a 15- footer, Jose with a couple of wide-open threes, but when we don’t make those we seem like we’re defeated. The game in the NBA is 48 minutes long. There’s plently of time to bounce back .We just seemed to panic a little bit, missed assignments defensively when that happens. When we make shots, we seem to be very sound with our defence. It’s overcoming those mental lapses when teams make a little bit of a run on us.”

- Are those lapses the reason why your team allows themselves to get blown out?: “I think so. Especially at the beginning. I think our energy is good and we’re active. Where we’re supposed to be. We miss a few shots and then we hang out heads a little bit and then teams get big runs on us. We’re either in good close games or we’re getting blown out. That’s something, we’re going to have to be able to fight back .When we were successful and won 9 of 10 we came back from double-digit deficits in those games and we haven’t been able to do that.”

- Was it different to have Jack in the middle of the huddle, addressing the team at the end of practice?: “Different times throughout the year different guys have done it. I wouldn’t say it’s common, but I would’t say it’s rare either. I think it’s great that the players have a pulse and really care as much as the organization and the coaches and the fans who watch the games.”

- Was there a lot of venting at practice today?: “Very little. Different people have different ways to vent. I don’t think the video was anything that too many of the players wanted to see today, so I got mine out.”

- Do you know who to pat on the back and who to push?: “There’s not a lot of patting on the back right now. I mean really, there’s 12 games to go and we’re in a fight. We’ve just got to respond. We’ve got to play the right way number one. I think when we play the right way, the contagious part of that will be the effort, not wavering when things don’t go well.”

- Thinking about making any changes to the starting lineup?: “We’re thinking about it just for an energy perspective, maybe. We’ll wait and see the health of our players. I don’t really know how healthy some of our guys are.”

- Antoine said he didn’t think the effort was there last night: “I think that’s the one thing about our team right now. When we get down we don’t have that fight. It’s almost like we get down and we hang our heads. Sometimes when you get down and things aren’t going right, that’s when you have to have that fight. I’m sure that’s what he’s eluding to because early in the game the only thing that happened was we missed shots. We stopped them on five of the first eight possessions. We had wide open looks and we missed those. We make those and the whole temperament of the game changes a little bit. We start hanging our heads, they start running out… it just becomes a defeatist attitude almost.”

- Some of the younger guys on the team, who haven’t been to the playoffs, do they maybe not understand what is necessary at this part of the season?: “It’s something we talk to our younger plays about. It’s something the veterans like Antoine who have been in the playoffs before have talked to the young players about how things get ramped up. It’s a learning experience for some of these players. Guys are playing more minutes than they have on past teams or guys are in the league for the first time. All of this is about learning. You’ve got to get better, you’ve got to go through it. There’s no way you can talk about it, there’s no way you can practice in the summer time for something like this, you’ve got to go through it and our young guys are going through it right now.”

- Everyone healthy besides Turk?: “Reggie did something to his foot last night but I don’t know how bad that’s going to be. Marco’s back is a little sore. Marcus Banks had a sore finger, but most guys still practised.  We’ll just have to monitor those.”

Jack

- How was practice today?: “Practice was good. We worked hard, I thought we got better and we’re looking forward to tomorrow. I know everybody is looking at the loss saying it looked bad, it felt even worse. You’ve got to understand you’ve got to have a short memory in this game, know it’s over and focus on Denver this morning.”

- You were very vocal today: “We all were. Everybody just had a nice, hard day of practice. Like I said, I thought we got better. We’ve just got to focus on tomorrow.”

- How do you put the loss past you tomorrow?: “You’ve got to have a short memory in everything. In games, and more importantly, per possession. If you get beat on the play, so what. Let’s just take the ball out, run it back down at them and then on the next play make sure you do the necessary things to not let that happen again. We’ve got to cover for each other and have each others backs, but if you have a break down, which you’re going to have because nobody plays 100 percent basketball, there’s going to be mistakes in the game. You’ve got to forget about it and move on.”

- What were you saying in the huddle at the end of practice? Can you shed some light on that?: “Nah, it’s 11 games left. Let’s just lay it all on the line regardless of what happens. Win, lose or draw. 11 games. Whatever you got. Let’s just put it out there and not let all of this hard work that we put into this season go to waste. As long as we go out there and we play hard and everybody knows we play hard and you put everything you have on the line, you win, lose or draw. That’s all you can ask for at the end of the day from anybody.”

- Jay doesn’t show a lot of emotion with the media. Does he let you guys know what he’s feeling when you’re watching film behind closed doors?: “Yeah, he definitely lets his feelings be expressed as he should. He doesn’t spare anybody. He holds everybody accountable, no matter who you are, or what happened, he makes sure you know if something needs to be brought to your attention he makes sure you hear what he has to say.”

- How confident are you about coming out against the Nuggets tomorrow: “Very confident. I think when we play in our building, we can match up with anybody, home or away. I think we are going to come out here and play as hard as we possibly can and like I said, win, lose or draw, as long as we do that, you’ll be happy.”

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