(On tonight’s game)
“Obviously, it’s a good win for us. This Charlotte team, they play extremely hard. They never gave up. They did a heck of job coming back. Our guys never seem to make it easy on us. We have to find a way to have a killer instinct, where when you have a team down like that, don’t relax and allow them to get back in the game.”
(On Kyrie Irving)
“He was great. He carried us, especially offensively. He made big shots. He was able to take Jeff (Taylor) off the dribble and pretty much get anywhere he wanted to. On the last shot of the game, we told him, we just want to take the last shot, flatten everybody out. We don’t care who’s guarding you, get to your spot and take the shot. He was able to do that.”
(On Kyrie Irving’s game-winning shot)
“I think he has the ultimate confidence in himself and his ability to get anywhere on the floor he feels he can get to. Obviously he has that killer instinct to be able to take the last shot. He doesn’t mind being the goat if he misses. He doesn’t mind that whatsoever. It takes a lot of guts to take that shot.”
(On Ramon Sessions)
“I still love him. I would have liked him a lot less if they had won. He’s a gritty player. He can get to the basket and create some things and get to the free throw line. It’s a lot of the same things he did for us.”
(On making the game-winning shot with one second left)
“Those moments I live for, to have the ability to make it and have the trust of my teammates and the trust of the coaching staff going down the stretch. It’s a blessing honestly. I got to hit the shot and got to get the win in Charlotte.”
(On scoring 16 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter)
“I kind of got in a zone and kept it going. My teammates kept feeding me and trusted me to continue to make the right plays.”
(On former teammate Ramon Sessions)
“He helped me a lot (last season). He more or less led by example for me. When I was starting and he was backing me up, that was my veteran and he taught me how to work hard. Ramon is a real quiet guy, but he gets the job done to the best of his ability every single day, and that’s what he taught me.”
(On tonight’s win)
“The game is a game of runs, so we knew that they were going to come out and make a push in the second half. We made some mistakes, but give them credit for staying in it and playing hard and making some shots. Ben Gordon was good tonight and (Ramon) Sessions was good, but Kyrie (Irving) made shots down the stretch and then obviously he made the game-winner doing what he does.”
(On the team’s mindset when the Bobcats were coming back)
“This is my eighth season, so I’ve seen it and I pretty much tell guys not to get rattled. Just stay in what we do. Teams make runs. We’re going to miss some shots and they’re going to make some shots. In the first half, we were getting what we wanted and making shots, and then they did it in the second half. You’ve just got to stay in your place.”
(On Kyrie Irving’s play in the fourth quarter)
“That’s every fourth quarter. That’s what he does. He’s been a fourth quarter guy since he’s been in the league. He just has a mental thing, another level or another gear that he has, and he makes big shots.”
(On tonight’s game)
“We waited too long to do what we did. Once we closed the gap at about the 4:00 mark, it was a matter of trying to get stops and execute offensively. We did pretty doggone well in that, but the lesson learned here is that we can’t come out flat as a tack and give up those kind of points early. At halftime, they had 63. Again, to be able to reel them back in and do what we did was impressive.”
(On Tyrus Thomas’ return to the lineup)
“He was active defensively. He made some open twos. He stayed within his role. He gives us some activity on the defensive end. He’s disruptive. For the time that he played, and that was about the right time, we had him on a measure, he did fine.”
(On the team’s play)
“My attitude, on game one and tonight, is not one of discouragement. Yes, we’re frustrated, but when you’re in a development phase, patience is of order here. I understand others’ impatience. I totally get it. The second point is that the frustration and whatever the criticism is should be focused on me, no one else. We just have to wait for that to come. I can see improvement.”
(On the team)
“We’re a young team. We learn every game. We learn every practice. That doesn’t change our age. You have to be through enough battles together and our chemistry has to be consistent. You can’t put a timetable on it. We’re improving. We know we’re improving.”
(On his final shot)
“I kind of had to launch it up there. That’s not really my range from there. When it was in the air, it was on line. Whenever you see that, you always get excited, but then it hit the front rim.”
(On Tyrus Thomas’ return to the lineup)
“It was good. Tyrus is always going to bring energy. He’s a guy that’s going to shoot that mid-range shot, pick and pop. Then he’s going to bring his defense. He had a really big play at the end of the game with Kyrie (Irving) and that charge. He’s going to work himself back but it’s good to see him out there. We’re happy to have him back.”
(On tonight’s game)
“Cleveland played well. We fought in there and gave ourselves a chance. In this league you have to try to get those gaps closer together towards the end of the game. We had a big gap towards the end, but we were able to cut it down. If that last shot would have fallen, it would have been a different story.”
(On the team)
“During the season there are going to be a lot of ups and downs. We are a young team. Those lessons may carry on for the whole season. You never know until you play the games. It’s one of those you just have to learn and you have to continue to stay together and just get better.”
(On playing with Ben Gordon in the fourth quarter)
“BG (Ben Gordon) had a good game going. I came in and tried to do what I could on the offensive end and try to run the team as best as possible. We rallied, but we fell short.”