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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS v CAVALIERS

May 20, 2016

Kyle Lowry

Toronto, Ontario: Practice Day

Q. So much of your stat line you could really see the distribution. So far the first few games of the series, it's eight assists, nine turnovers. Is there something you can do in Game 3 to make that distribution more efficient than it's been in this series?
KYLE LOWRY: Not try to foul as much, be more aggressive, look to score more. But they're doing a good job of collapsing and getting the ball out of my hands. I'm making the right passes, just haven't made shots, and I think we'll make shots tomorrow. It looks a lot different when we make shots. Assists go up and turnovers go down, and then it looks a little better when we all make shots.

Q. The reaction to you leaving the court yesterday from the perspective of the States -- you're getting a lot of flak. Is that an overreaction?
KYLE LOWRY: It's whatever. I think it's an overreaction personally. But I've done it countless times, and not even -- maybe I went to go to the bathroom. I've done it before to go to the bathroom. It's just the magnitude of the situation, which makes it a lot bigger than what it really is. But understanding it now, next time I will clarify, Hey, I'm going to the bathroom or I'm doing this. I'll just make sure I'm clear on it so everyone knows.

Q. Do you take it personally that last night Dwane Casey's postgame press conference was essentially all about LeBron to the point where Casey had to be like, listen, I don't care about LeBron, I care about our guys.
KYLE LOWRY: Well, they did what they were supposed to do and took care of their home floor, and we have an opportunity to play two games on our home floor now. We have to do what we have to do on our home floor. I didn't see any postgame of what coach said, but at the end of the day, I'm going to ride with my coach. That's what it's going to be. We have to protect home. That's what we plan on. We have two at our place, so we've got to protect home.

Q. Do you think being at home is an advantage for you guys?
KYLE LOWRY: For sure. I think we'll be better at home. We're supposed to be better at home, so I think we've got to take advantage of the opportunity. We're down 2-0, but we haven't been on our home floor yet.

Q. What was it like for you to see the amount of fans coming out to Jurassic Park? Psychologically, what does that do for a team, even during the away games, when there are thousands of fans down there?
KYLE LOWRY: We love it. We want our fans to be cheering us on, supporting us, and we want to put up a good product out there for them to cheer for. That's the one thing about it, our fans, they've been supportive throughout the years, and we're giving them a chance to cheer for a team competing for a championship.

Q. You said you're confident that tomorrow you and the team will be more successful making shots. Other than being at home, what gives you the confidence?
KYLE LOWRY: When you look at the film, we've gotten great looks. We've missed them. We've missed some open shots. I just think we'll be able to make those shots.

Yesterday we watched the film, and I had an open three, and I'm confident that I will make that shot tomorrow if I get the opportunity to shoot it again. We have no reason not to be confident. We got here for a reason. We are in this situation for a reason. It wasn't by luck. We had to beat two teams. We had to play the regular season. We got here for a reason.

Q. Has it been difficult not having Jonas [Valanciunas] there for two games of the series?
KYLE LOWRY: I mean, we haven't had him for a little while now. It's always difficult not having your starting center as a dominating force in the playoffs. It's always difficult, so we wish we had him. But we can't make excuses because he's not there right now, so we can't worry about him not being there. We've got to go about it as if he's not going to be there until he's back. Of course we want him back, so hopefully he gets healthy.

Q. You guys haven't lost three in a row since the third week of the season, mid-November. What is it about this team in terms of the resiliency that you guys showed bouncing back as you've done throughout the playoffs? This is the first time you've dropped 2-0 in the playoffs.
KYLE LOWRY: We just go and play. We fight hard, and I think people are making more than what it is. Yeah, we lost two games on their home court, and it's their home floor. Now we have to bounce back and play our game and beat them on our home floor and take advantage of that. I think -- yeah, they beat us good on their home floor. Now we've got to go out and win games on our home floor.

Q. The team was talking about the officiating yesterday, but were you happy with some of the defending? Were you happy despite maybe what you thought of the officiating?
KYLE LOWRY: I think we played better yesterday in the first half until that run, and it's like when they get the double-digit lead, they kind of just keep building on that, and we've just got to find a way not to give them double-digit leads. I think we did a good job. We did a better job, but we can defend better. We can always defend better. We can do more. We have to play better overall, especially myself, and just in general our energy level has to be picked up.

I mean, we're going to be at home. We've got to play better. We have pride. We have faith in what we've done all year. That's what we're going to do is play hard.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the morale in the locker room right now? Obviously a disappointing first two games of this series, but are you guys optimistic right now? Talk a little bit about what it's like in the locker room?
KYLE LOWRY: Yeah, we're confident. Like we've said a million times, we're confident in what we do. We're confident we can win games. We got here for a reason. So I think we're pretty confident in what we can do.

Q. You sat in front of LeBron last night; is that as terrifying as it looks?
KYLE LOWRY: No, it's not. No. I took a charge or tried to take a charge. He's a basketball player. I've taken charges off many big fellows before. He's just a basketball player.

Q. You guys have played every other night now for a few weeks. What does it feel like on the body?
KYLE LOWRY: It's tough, but this is what we get paid for. This is what we want to do. This is what we enjoy doing. As a competitor, we want to play as much basketball -- you'd rather be playing games than practicing, I'll tell you that much, obviously. But it's been a grind. But it's been fun, the atmosphere, the attitudes, just the every day having to make sure that every game counts, every game counts. It's been fun. I enjoy it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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