“I thought our guys played a good basketball game. I thought they did a nice job moving the ball, moving bodies, trying to share the basketball, getting off the ball the right way. For us to have 25 fast break points, we were really locked into what we have been doing as of late, which is trying to get the ball up the floor, either on the pass or the dribble to look to attack before the defense gets set. That’s something we’ve got to keep doing with the bigs that we have and their ability to run the floor, with the guards that we have and their quickness because their guards are small right now. So, 25 fast break points is really good for us. On top of that to score 64 points in the paint was a testament to our team moving the ball and attacking the rim. It’s something that we’ve been stressing a lot to our guys is drive the gaps, drive the gaps, drive the gaps. And if the next guy doesn’t pull over, finish at the rim or look to kick to a teammate. Our guys did a nice job of attacking the paint, attacking the rim with those 64 paint points without a post-up presence. We had a lot of good performances from a lot of guys. Tristan Thompson with his double double. That was great. Dion (Waiters) was very efficient scoring the ball. Kyrie (Irving) was very efficient scoring the ball. All of our guys, their efficiency out there together was fun to watch, so it was a good win by us on the road.”
On whether the Atlanta game is big in trying to get to the playoffs:
“Somebody said that to me before. They’re all big. Let’s say if we go and we beat Atlanta, and we lose our next five? Every game we play for us because of the position we put ourselves in, is a big game. Tonight was a big game for us. We have to come and try to play the right way and see if we can get a win.”
On how to keep a team with so many expectations down the stretch focused on the moment:
“We feel like we’re putting our own expectations on us. So, I don’t know what the general feel is out there, but we know that we want to go and play the right way and try to win so it’s easy for us. There’s nothing tricky that we have to do. We just have to keep getting ready for the next things that’s in front of us. Go out and practice hard. Go out and play hard. I think it’s just as simple as that.”
On the team’s chemistry with Kyrie Irving’s return :
“It was encouraging. One of the things we talked about with Kyrie is, hey our pace has been real good. Our pace in the half court’s been good. Our pace in the full court’s been good. The throw-ahead pass has been very, very good for us, let’s keep it up. And then defensively let’s don’t let up. I thought Kyrie (Irving) came in and he got right in step with the rest of us. He helped us get the ball up the floor quickly and looking to attack. Just another weapon that we have that has a high skill level.”
On how he would rate their playoff hopes:
“I don’t know. I’ve never been great when I’ve gone to Vegas. I don’t try to guess that. I just know that where we are, we’ve got to play good basketball and we’ve got to go try to win. We put ourselves in this hole. The only thing we can do is our part, and have a chance.”
“We are still in the hunt (playoffs). We still have a chance. We just have to take full advantage of it.”
“Every game is going to be tough despite what others say. We just had to come in here and be mentally focused and locked in. We should come in here knowing we should get a win. We need to play hard and leave it all out there.”
“We are in the driver’s seat right now. We control our own destiny. At the end of the day, everybody knows what is at stake. We are coming in here focused and locked in. We have great leaders in here…J-Jack, Lou, and to everybody else. We just have to go out there and execute.”
(on getting Kyrie Irving back) “That just gave us more energy. We are excited for him to be back. It opened up the court for me a lot. At the end of the day, I am not that main person for people to focus on, there is a guy right there that can do everything. It helps me out a lot.”
“We (he and Irving) are playing together. Moving the ball…hitting the open guy and we have been doing a great job as a team. It is not just about me and Ky. Everybody individually is doing a great job. We are working hard and playing together. We are just having fun out there.”
“We were getting looks. The ball was moving and I felt we had them scrambling and they really had to pick their poison. I was getting some good looks and they were going in.”
(On ball movement) “That has been a theme. It helps us on defense too. When we are moving it, we get that camaraderie and that feeling where everyone is feeling good and you work that much harder on the other end as well.”
“It (playoff berth) is not completely in our hands, but if we can control what we have in front of us it puts us in a lot better position. That (game Friday vs. Atlanta) is the next one up and is perhaps our biggest game of the season given the circumstances at this point.”
“I was really excited to be out there with my teammates. We just had a great rhythm. I wasn’t trying to force it. I was just trying to let the game come to me and play off of my teammates as best as I can. It was fun to be out there.”
“My job is to make my teammates better. When I was watching film before of myself, sometimes I press too much…but now coming back and the way our team is playing…it is great for me. To being able to knock down shots when I can or attack and make plays for my teammates…that is my job. I am accepting my role to be the leader of this team and make my teammates better.”
“They are fun. This is the first time in my career where these games especially this late in the season are starting to mean something. We are playing against teams that are fighting for spots as well, so it makes the games that much more fun. We go out there and compete. Guys have to step up. These are big time games coming up.”
How difficult was that first half? They were using smalls to attack the rim and their bigs were the ones shooting from the outside: “They had a little bit of both, you give those guys a lot of credit. They were really intent coming into this game and Mike really had those guys ready to play and they were the aggressors and that’s what it boils down to, two 35-point quarters, the first and the second quarter, and we dug ourselves a hole, but give those guys credit, they really played well. Spencer (Hawes) shot the ball well and so overall their penetration, give them credit.”
What do you think of your team’s effort, especially defensively in the first half and were you satisfied with it?: “I think overall, you have to give the Cavs credit. They came out with a intent on really being aggressive whether it was getting into the paint, they had really good ball movement and Spencer made shots early. So, when you can have bigs make shots early you start to react a little bit. But I give them a lot of credit.”
Is the points in the paint thing the most frustrating?: “It’s interesting, at halftime we talked about, I think Spencer was the only guy who made jump shots. I think Dellavedova made one jump shot in the first half and so whether it was our turnovers coupled with them getting out in transition. They were really good tonight.”
Did you have any sense coming into the game that your team wasn’t prepared to be as aggressive as it was? “I think coming into the game we’d been pretty aggressive as a team. I think we’ve had a great physicality about ourselves there’s games throughout the course of the year where you just don’t have it. When it’s coupled with a team like the Cavs when they had it tonight, just wasn’t a good mix for us.”
On Doron’s effective play: “I think overall he was, really first of all, sprinting the floor to get to his spots, so he was ready. His shot preparation was really good tonight. I think our penetration, our bigs rolling to the rim made them react a little bit and he got some open shots. He’s done a good job of getting better every day in practice and good minutes for him tonight.”
On the deficit and who to play: “I’m looking all the way until that horn sounds and so that’s the part of the game that you have to be focused on whether your down or not and I said that in the fourth quarter, that I was not going to look at the scoreboard. So, I wanted to see who’s going to be disciplined enough to play every possession. We had some good possessions where we were the aggressors and really you’ll keep hearing me saying that for a long time of who’s aggressive, who’s playing with physicality. I think over the course of a game, the most physical and aggressive team usually has a nod whether it’s making the opponents relent, whether it’s establishing a precedence in the course of the game. Physicality and being aggressive usually pays off for you.”
On Charlotte matchup upcoming (Friday), playing better on road: “It will be a good test for us. Charlotte will be waiting for us. The fact that we beat them here, we’ll play into that. And also they’re really good at home and playing for positioning right now, so we’ll get a good shot and hopefully this game we’ll be able to respond from. I fully believe that our guys are going to be ready to play and look forward to playing and to competing.”
On the Cavaliers causing confusion in the Magic’s defense: “We’ve got to give them credit. They got to the rim fairly well, they shot the ball well tonight, they played hard tonight.”
On the tough loss: “It’s tough. You’ve just got to move on to the next game really. You can’t let them beat us twice.”
On the team’s defensive effort: “Like I said, give them credit. They shot the ball really well tonight. We’re going to have nights like that. We could’ve done better defensively but we’ll get better at that, we will work on it.”
On Spencer Hawes scoring from the outside and the guards attacking the paint: “Our defense is to stop the guard from penetrating and getting to the lane. If he kicks it back to the big, it’s kind of a mismatch to try and get back out to him and he was hitting. It was basically in his favor the whole time to pick whatever he wanted to do.”
On the Magic giving up 64 points in the paint: “Terrible, terrible. It’s self-explanatory, it’s not how we wanted to play and that shows us that there’s no effort.”
On the Magic “surprisingly” not making a run: “It’s surprising to me, yeah. It’s tough as a player. I know for myself, I want to be out there and I want to help my team in certain situations but sometimes you just can’t control it.”
On playing hard in the fourth quarter after being down by 26 points: “I know personally, myself sitting the whole third (quarter) and getting in during the fourth (quarter), it was just work. Anything I can do for my team to help us to try and chip away. It was just a lot to keep us going so it’s tough.”
On Spencer Hawes scoring from the outside and the guards attacking the paint: “It wasn’t confusing to us. I just think we didn’t do a very good job defensively but you’ve got to give them credit, they came to play tonight, they played very hard, and they executed very well. They really took the game to us, we didn’t respond very well. They were very aggressive, and we didn’t respond the right way.”