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Malachi Flynn on being ready off the bench: 'It's difficult but that's our job'

After dropping 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting in 25 minutes off the bench versus the Hornets on Tuesday, Raptors Guard Malachi Flynn spoke about how he's tried to stay ready and impress the coaching staff amid inconsistent minutes — and practice time — this season. Follow our Raptors coverage all season long on Yahoo Sports Canada.

Video Transcript

- OK, we're going to ask different ways. But how hard is it to stay ready and then perform when you get a chance at this stage?

- It's difficult, but that's our job. That's what we get paid to do. So you've got to just do it to the best of your ability. Does it help having a G League game on a Monday and then getting right back into the game on Tuesday or are the game so different [INAUDIBLE].

- No, it definitely helps just to get up and run up and down, get some cardio in really, get some shots up. So I think it definitely helped playing yesterday.

- Speaking of that cardio, what was it like during the second quarter. It's a lot. I mean, it's probably more than playing at least at this level in a while. You feel it from a conditioning standpoint?

- I felt good honestly. I think after that first win, you hit that first win probably three or four minutes in. And then after that, I feel pretty good. I think probably playing yesterday honestly helped too with that.

- How have you felt about this season?

- In what sense?

- You haven't always been in the rotation. You have a big night like this. But your minutes have been inconsistent.

- I think we've been doing good as a team. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and talk about just me individually. I think we've been doing well, especially these past couple of weeks, had some really good wins, a couple tough losses. But I think we're moving in the right direction.

- How do you make an impression? I mean, obviously, when you get into a game like this, you want to make the most of your minutes. When you're not playing, what can you do to stand up to the coaching staff and make an impression but also keeping in mind, I guess, [INAUDIBLE] team practice time?

- Just staying engaged, staying locked into the games knowing what schemes we're in. And then outside of practice, obviously, go hard in practice. But outside of that, get your own work in. Continue to do everything that got me here. So just some of those things.

- Was Fred in your ear, like [INAUDIBLE] quite a bit tonight?

- Honestly not too much, a little bit before the game just saying go out there, play, don't really worry about too much. So that's what I went out there and did, but not too much during the game.

- [INAUDIBLE] and especially Gary were having their offensive nights when you're out there, now that it takes the pressure off you, but it's more like I'm just deferring a bit more and running things as opposed to trying to get your touches as well?

- For sure, we got a lot of good guys that can score the ball one on one and as a team. So when those guys are going, I'm really just playing off them, getting open looks, getting my looks when they're there. So it makes it a lot easier when Pascal has the type of game he did today. And Gary was shooting the ball really well.

- Any other questions?

- Thank you.

- Thank you, Sir.