Scottie Barnes: Raptors have been able to bond on long road trip
Scotte Barnes addressed the media after Friday’s loss to the Pacers. The Raptors rookie discussed what he learned from his first long road trip in the NBA, if the team bonded while away from Toronto, and his excitement to return home.
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Video Transcript
- Scottie, first question. Just what's a couple of your biggest takeaways from your first big road trip in the NBA?
SCOTTIE BARNES: It's a long road trip, you got to stay together. During these times, just keep just trying to get better, pack a lot of clothes. That's really it.
- Do you feel like the team has had that opportunity to bond a little bit, as well?
SCOTTIE BARNES: Oh, for sure. We're with each other every day in the hotel. Just keep communicating with each other. We're bonding, I will say.
- Back to the line nine times today seemed really, really aggressive. Was that part of your game plan? Did you feel you had a good match up? Or how'd you got the whistle? What was different for you?
SCOTTIE BARNES: I was just being aggressive. Take it to the right, just trying to finish at the rim. And just trying to go [INAUDIBLE] differently mismatches that's on the floor.
- [INAUDIBLE] Christine, we'll go to the online questions, please.
CHRISTINE: Sounds good. We'll go to Josh Lewenberg here from TSN.
JOSH LEWENBERG: Hey, Scottie. First of all, how are you feeling? I know you've took and played through a lot of contact tonight. You got hit again on the thumb. Are you feeling OK?
SCOTTIE BARNES: Yeah, I feel pretty good, I would say. It was just a little stinger but now I'm fine.
JOSH LEWENBERG: Did you learn-- I know you were asked about the takeaways over the road trip-- did you learn anything about the grinds of the league over the last 12 days or did this trip sort of reinforce some things that you already knew about the mental and physical toll that the league can take?
SCOTTIE BARNES: Of course, you just keep playing a lot of games over and over again. You got to practice and you still got to try to get your individual work in. So it's just you just got to keep going. I don't really feel it so much on my body, but I'm sure some people feel it. But, yeah.
JOSH LEWENBERG: How much are you looking forward to getting back to Toronto?
SCOTTIE BARNES: I looked, I see, I looked. I'm trying to think of a word, but I am super excited.
