(On the final shot of the game):
“I felt we came out ready to play. I don’t want to get fined, so I’m not going to say anything about the clock starting late on the last shot. They have to figure out a way to do something about that. Bottom line is it doesn’t count or you have to take it out again. Looking at it again in the locker room a couple of times, the shot shouldn’t have counted. The clock started too late.”
(On the Cavaliers’ intensity):
“If we play that hard every game we give ourselves a chance to win. That was just the message today. We have to come out with that attitude every night. It doesn’t guarantee that we win the game. But at least, it gives us a chance. And we had a chance tonight.”
(On the bench’s effort):
“I got to the point, at halftime, where I said ‘I’m going to play three guys off the bench.’ I’m going to keep the rotations pretty simple, and keep our starters on the floor. And our starters played well. Our bench guys were struggling, so I cut down the rotation.”
(On a takeaway from tonight’s game ):
“We definitely had the effort on both ends of the floor throughout the whole game. Both teams made runs. It came down to the wire, and [Brandon Jennings] hit a tough shot. And that was the game. I commend our effort, especially on the defensive end. That’s what we need every single night; to start off from the beginning. Hit teams first, be the aggressor. And we’ll live with the results in the end.”
(On the final few offensive possessions of the game):
“Coach was running a simple high pick-and-roll. I was making plays out of it. That’s about it.”
(On what the Cavaliers can take from this game):
“We have some things to work on both ends of the floor, execution wise. Our effort was tremendous. We live and die with the effort we give out there. We definitely want to win more games. The loss is a little bit bitter, but the effort was great.”
(On tonight’s game):
“[The final shot] was a tough shot. At least tonight we gave ourselves a chance to win the game. We played harder than last night. I believe it was a good game for us. We played against a very good team that moves the ball, plays good defense. We were right there to win the game. It’s tough to swallow, but we have to think about the next game.”
(On the effectiveness of the pick-and-roll with Kyrie Irving):
“I’m used to playing pick-and-roll. I played a lot of pick-and-roll with LeBron [James] back in the day. When you set a screen for a smart player like Kyrie, all you have to do is roll to the basket, and he’ll find you. He found me tonight.”
(On last two plays of game):
“The guys were sharp in their execution. With .7 you aren’t sure that you are going to get a good look, you’re not going to get a great look that’s for sure. The guys ran the play well, Brandon came off and he was able to just get squared off enough to get enough air under it to give it a chance and he knocked it down.”
(On spark of energy in second quarter):
“We needed it. We came out flat-footed…[Cleveland] had a ton of energy. They got up into us and kind of put us back on our heels and we were able to find some energy in our second unit.”
(On his game-winning shot):
“Once I got the ball with seven tenths of a second, if you [are] just one second late you are kind of beat on it. I just got as high as I could. I knew once it left my hands and I saw it was straight, I knew it was in.”
(On tonight’s game and looking forward):
“Since I’ve been here we haven’t started off 2-0. It feels really good. The confidence is real high in the locker room right now. You know we have it tough on Wednesday against Memphis. Celebrate tonight and then get ready for Memphis.”
(On team’s depth):
“Yeah, definitely. We struggle a little bit with the “bigs” with fouls, but we have so many guys out there on the team that can protect the rim. It’s a little more leeway that we have; it’s good.”
(On pumping up the crowd after fouling out):
“Oh man, I love it. First home game, you know. We need to start a tradition again, you know at home. Get our friends behind us. That’s good momentum, that’s great momentum. Something that we have been missing for a bit and we need to get it back.”