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Carney’s Fourth-Quarter Treys Push 76ers Past Bulls
Philadelphia 76ers 110, Bulls 106
March 14, 2008 | United Center | Chicago, IL
Recap |
Box Score |
Video Highlights: Play

Boylan |
Quoting Bulls Interim Head Coach Jim Boylan
“It was a difficult loss for us tonight. We had trouble playing with the lead. Coming down the stretch we did not seem able to find a way to contain their penetration. They are a one-on-one team. That is what they did. Simple screening and attacking one-on-one, and getting the seem. To give up 40 points in the fourth quarter at home is unacceptable. We need to address that. We have not been successful playing with the lead all season. For the most part we have given up a lot of leads and it has cost us.”
What happened defensively?
“They just started to beat us off the dribble. They just kind of wore us down. Their penetration became very easy. No matter what we tried we were not able to contain them, especially Williams. Williams is very quick and once they went away from Iguodala, they went to Williams and that went very well for them. They hit some threes and they are not necessarily a three-point shooting team. That's been our Achilles heel all season. Teams seem to be able to get good looks against us.”
On the questionable offensive foul calls at the end:
“You guys watched the game. They were tough calls and once we were sliding down hill it was tough to stop it. On the last one Philly had a foul to give and they were trying to use it and we were called for an offensive foul.”
On Thabo's success:
“I have to keep his minutes down to a certain number. Thabo played well and I thought he got a little tired towards the end. We were subbing offensively and defensively and I tried to use him as judiciously as possible.”
Were the problems in the fourth quarter due to unfamiliarity of the players?
“No, I don't think so. For us it seems to be that we have success, we have a formula that works during the course of the game and suddenly we get away from it. We start to become a little tentative. That seems to be what happened tonight. Instead of being aggressive and taking the ball to the basket like we did in the first three quarters, we became tentative. Any time a defensive player jumped out at us, we took the ball outside. We lost our aggressiveness. It was a very disappointing loss for us; a tough one to swallow.”

Hughes |
Quoting Bulls Guard Larry Hughes
“I thought we played well for stretches, really for about 36 minutes. We've have difficulty playing well for 48 minutes. That's especially tough giving this one away. We had a double figure lead going into the fourth, it's tough. I'd really have to go back and look at the tape to see what happened. Obviously we didn't get many stops defensively.”
On his offensive foul:
“He said he didn't foul me. Everyone was yelling 'take it, take it' meaning try to draw the foul. When you get an offensive foul when you are trying to take a foul, it's tough. I didn't think I was overly aggressive.”
On letting games slip away:
“It's tough, but it's not just this game. Playing well and then going on to lose it is tough. It's tough. Games are getting tight and you can't lose games like this.”

Gooden |
Quoting Bulls Forward Drew Gooden
On suffering a difficult loss:
“It is, knowing that we have a home court advantage. We have to take advantage of those opportunities. It's like we got caught in quicksand in the fourth quarter. I thought they played really hard. Defensively they switched to a zone and were effective. Offensively they either knocked down a shot or hit an open guy.”
On letting opportunities slip away:
“We're not going to turn this into a coulda, woulda, shoulda... That's not the case with this team. We need to forget about it and move on. This is the NBA and we'll have more games. But at the end of the year, this is one of those games that you look back at and say we should have had that one.”

Cheeks |
Quoting 76ers Head Coach Maurice Cheeks
“It's a four-quarter game. This was a heck of a win for us. This is a team game and was definitely a team win for us tonight. Everyone contributed. Everyone who got in the game was in it and helped us to win. Kevin, Calvin, Rodney . . . all were big for us. Everyone who stepped on the floor gave us a boost tonight. Even when they weren't out there, the guys were pushing each other and were challenging them to go for the win. Williams and Carney made big plays and Kevin Ollie stepping over and getting the charge on Gordon was huge.”
On their 40-for-44 free throws:
“Yes, it was really big for us. Reggie Evans making his allowed us to really stay in the game. I think I called a timeout when we were down about 16. Then our free throws kept them from getting a big run from there.”
On their playoff hopes:
“We're not worried about any placement now. We're just trying to get in the playoffs. We have a lot of young guys who are all contributing. We're just trying to keep playing the right way now. Tonight, a lot of the guys just kept pushing for whoever was out there on the floor. I kept hearing someone saying, ‘We're still right there, we're still right there.’ The next thing you knew we were tied. We went to a press and I think that confused them. We also started to make shots and that's what turned it around. We knew Chicago would get off to a good start and we just had to respond like this to get back in it.”

Miller |
Quoting 76ers Guard Andre Miller
How does your back feel?
“I feel pretty good. It's more just conditioning than anything. The back will take some time.”
What do these wins tell you about the Sixers as a playoff team?
“We're taking it just one game at a time. We're showing that we can win on the road. We're finding ways to win. That's a good thing. When the odds are against us, we find a way to win. It's definitely good when you can do that on the road.”

Iguodala |
Quoting 76ers Forward Andre Iguodala
On the comeback:
“This has happened twice this year, the Portland game and then tonight. Guys kept fighting the whole way through it. That's one good thing about our young guys, they're in the game. Whether we're down by 30 or up by 30, they're trying to come back. When we're really down, they're really playing hard. Everyone's trying to make something out of their minutes. And that's what happened tonight. Tonight was crazy, they just didn't make shots. We got some stops, they missed some open shots. We connected on everything and got into the penalty early. It was kind of like a snowball effect.”

Evans |
Quoting 76ers Forward Reggie Evans
On his contribution:
“There are so many ways to contribute in this game. You don't have to contribute on the court. I had to keep my spirit in the game. I was telling the guys, ‘Let's go, let's go, let's go.’ I knew we could beat these guys. I have so much confidence in this team.”
What triggered the fourth-quarter run?
“Going into the fourth quarter, the Bulls' coach tweaked his lineup a little bit from the first half. He didn't play [Aaron] Gray, he played [Tyrus Thomas]. They went small ball. So I thought it could be a golden opportunity for us. I said let's go ahead and get some runs and get some transition in and make something happen. That was our biggest thing, they changed their lineup. We went small ball and we ran with them.”
On Aaron Gray seeming to give him trouble:
“Yeah, he played good, you know? We did not do well in the second to third quarter. Once they changed up a little bit and Coach put Andre back there took Calvin out of the game, it made a major difference in the game.”