Postgame Comments: Philadelphia 76ers 121, Bulls 99 | 03.26.08

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Boylan

On the first half:
“They really came out in the first quarter, and ran away with it. Our transition defense really was not that good; it looked like we were stuck in mud. We did not react very well to their push back at us, and we gave them a lot of easy opportunities, which is pretty evident by the 60% shooting at halftime by the Sixers.”

On playing with fatigue:
“Fatigue is apart of playing in the NBA, so you can’t use that as an excuse. Back to back games happen all the time, and you have to be ready to compete. Tonight we just didn’t have the thrust we needed to compete against a team, which in the last twenty games is the second hottest team in the league behind the Houston Rockets.”

On missed opportunities:
“In the first quarter we had a couple of shots and penetrations, but we didn’t rotate back with any urgency or speed. Instead we kind of ran along and by people, and they were able to accelerate, get the ball up the floor, and just attack the rim. This was obviously not what we hoped to do.”

Noah

On struggling at end of season:
“I really don’t know what it is. We have so much potential on this team. It’s not even the energy; I feel we play with energy, its just we don’t play together. We just have to stick together during hard times, and play together.”

On playing from behind:
“I think we got it down to about eight, and a couple of calls didn’t go our way, and they hit a couple of tough shots, and it went down from there.”

On trying to squeeze into the playoffs:
“It’s not hard or tough, getting into the playoffs has been the goal since the beginning of the season. We just can’t get it together. I don’t know what exactly it is, where it’s a mindset, energy, but we just can’t get it together. These are really important games, and we just need to play as hard as we can. Every game is make or break; we don’t have time to relax. It’s now or nothing.”

Cheeks

“Well, that was a great game for us. The way we came out and defended, opened the game up a little bit, getting in the open court, things that we’ve been doing for the past month or two months. I think at halftime we had 22 fast-break points and we continued that, but they got back in the game with a little dribble penetration and the high screen-and-roll, but for the most part, the way we played defense, the way we’ve been playing the whole time, our defense led up to a lot of open-court layups, a lot of open-court play. We’re just trying to continue the way we’ve been playing and I thought everyone who stepped out on the floor was conscience of defending, getting ourselves in the open court, getting a lot of open, easy baskets. Andre Miller, having 18 assists, playing the type of game that he played, I just thought that everyone that stepped out on the court was very, very good.”

On how comfortable he is with the Sixers shooting a lot of three pointers:
“Yeah, when they’re wide open and we’re up twenty, no problem (laughs). It’s just not the way we play. We play to try to get in the penalty, try and get into the paint and then if it (the three) is wide open after we’ve penetrated the paint and kicked it out, no problem, we shoot it.”

On how hard the Sixers are playing right now:
“No, it’s something we’ve been doing all along. I think our conditioning is such that we’ve practiced that. I think our practices have been where we always talk about practicing the way you play. I think our practices are like that; we try to get ourselves in the condition to get ready to play games like this and play back-to-back games. If you talk to our guys, it’s something I harp on. They even are a little upset sometimes when we practice the way we practice because we’re trying to get ourselves ready to be in the condition to play harder than anybody else. It’s something we’ve been doing pretty much all year long and I think when another team comes off a back-to-back, it is something that most teams talk about; try and take advantage of it. It doesn’t always happen, but it’s something you talk about.”

Miller

On the key to being a fast break team:
“Rebounding. Sam (Delembert) has been playing really good defense and allowing us to get rebounds and get out and go.”

On fast breaks:
“These guys look for each other. They get the ball to the open man and let him make a play. That’s the hard part of the game, trying to fast break because you have to run every time. You put 24-second clock the defense and you have to run down the court as fast as you can every time.”

Green

On what got the win tonight:
“Just making shots. Andre Miller did a great job and collectively as a team guys were hitting shots, getting to the basket, and getting to the free throw line. The first half gave us a good cushion in going into the second half. We tried to just sustain our lead and make sure that we played good defense and rebounded.”

On tonight’s win:
“We definitely like to get off early to a good start. Especially with a team that’s as good as they are. They can play any kind of way. They can run or they can slow it down. We didn’t want those guys to get off tonight. They still did a decent job, but I think that first half that we had great energy.”

On beating the top three teams in the Eastern Conference:
“I think this is a good confidence booster. Especially going into the games against on the West Coast games that we have coming up. We are playing against all the playoff teams. It’s definitely a confidence builder and it was a big win for us tonight. Orlando beat us twice already and we still have one more game to play against them. This is a confidence builder going in against Golden State. We know we can compete with them (the Warriors) but getting over that hump and winning a game is big for us. Going into the end of the season it’s important to just win as many games as you can. Tonight we played the way we wanted to play, we ran, we got up and down, and we got a win. It was big for us.”