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Game Quotes: Cavaliers at Orlando Magic - Dec.26

(On if the 4th quarter defense was key to the win...):
“I thought the last three quarters, we went 22 or 21, 21 and 14 and I think we gave up 41 percent from the field in the last three quarters, so from the point that the first quarter ended until the end of the game, I thought we defended extremely well. That, and our good decision making and our good caretaking of the basketball were the reasons we won the game.”

(On Dion Waiters’ night...):
“Dion has been doing a great job in his matchups defensively and has been doing a very, very good job helping when necessary, getting his hands on the ball, deflecting and being engaged at all times. I think he’s done a great job defensively.”

(On if there was a change in LeBron James after the double technical...):
“LeBron comes to play. It might have fired him up a little bit, but for me, he’s pretty great all the time.”

(On Tristan Thompson’s performance on Nikola Vucevic down low...):
“I thought he did a fabulous job. Nik is an outstanding post player in my opinion, and we did not double him a lot. We helped a little bit and we really depended on Tristan, and at times Kevin, to try to hold him up and make his shots difficult. They both did a great job with him.”

(On Kevin Love being waived off to sub in the game...):
“The way that Orlando was playing, they didn’t make a particular substitution, and we matched up so well defensively, we decided not to go with it. Certainly to Kevin’s credit, he actually kind of recognized it and supported that.”

(On how):
“That’s happened a few times to us here in the last three or four days – we lose our starting center and probably our best inside defender, and certainly one of the mainstays of this team in Anderson Varejao to a season-ending injury, and then in a day and a half, we’ve got to go down and play a tough, emotional game in Miami. Then we come here, Kyrie warms up – he just didn’t feel loose enough, and we didn’t want to risk it. We decided to give him an extra day to rest, and he can’t play. And sometimes that awakens things in other people and makes them more aware and more focused. I thought that we really executed well on offense. I tell you what – we had more good shots today that we missed than we’ve had in a long time. I mean, wide open looks. We really moved the ball well and guys played the game right at both ends and that’s not because Kyrie didn’t play, it’s just because everybody took responsibility.”

“We stayed in the game. Mentally we knew off of a back-to-back that our legs weren’t fully going to be there but we kept grinding and kept the continuity going and eventually at the end of the third quarter and fourth quarter we showed out and played well.”

“There was one point where he (Coach Blatt) looked at me (during fourth quarter) and I just said to keep them. They matched up really well especially Tristan on Vucevic. I thought he was doing a great job and right after that he had a couple of block shots…he had that ‘and one’ where he finished the three-point play. I thought that was huge for us. Tristan gave us a lot of energy. Guys were getting great shots whether they made them or not throughout the game. We were just able to close it out. I thought Coach did a great job and the guys that were in did a great job.”

“He (James) really picked up his game after that (elbow from T. Harris) happened. I think it kind of woke him up in a way. That is the best player in the world and that is not something you want to do.”

“It (Coach’s decision during fourth quarter to hold him out) was all about the matchups. Had it been different it may have been a harder pill to swallow but Tristan was doing a phenomenal job on Vucevic forcing him into tough shots and blocking shots. They went small and it wasn’t hard for me at all. I was up pretty much every play.”

“We just picked up the intensity. It was a tough back to back and an emotional day yesterday. We knew the young guys over there were going to be ready for us and in the first half they were. In the second half, we just slowed down, calmed down and went on the attack defensively.”

(on whether elbow from Tobias Harris fueled him): “Absolutely, but it is still the competition. It wasn’t the shoulder or the elbow, it was the words that he said. That got me going. I was actually in chill mode tonight but chill mode was deactivated after that. I don’t bother nobody man. I just stay to myself.”

(on Love sitting out fourth quarter and cheering on teammates during comeback): “It just shows what his (Love) mindset is coming to this team. He is selfless and we need everyone to be that way. If an All-Star of his caliber and his resume can do that, than we all should be.”

“I have zero problems with Tobias Harris. I don’t have any problems with him. I don’t know what he has with me, but I have zero problems with Tobias Harris.”

“I think tonight we took a step forward. Kevin Love sacrificed in the fourth quarter. He didn’t play. He was helping, cheering, slapping hands every time we went to the sidelines we took a step forward. I hope everybody saw that.”

“It (Varejo injury) is just tough. You take me deep every time you ask me about him. Like I said, everybody has to step up and play even stronger roles with a guy like that being out. I heard the surgery went well so hopefully the recovery goes even better. We all wish him the best and we can’t wait until we get home to him.”

“He (Waiters) has just been patient. Dion is an attack guy and Dion loves the ball. He loves the ball and we know that. On this team there are so many different options and if you remain patient, the ball will find you. The ball will find energy. You don’t have to seek it out. I think he has done that over the last couple of weeks where he is being very patient. When he has gotten his opportunities, he has been able to attack but I think that is the biggest adjustment he will have to make and he is on that path just being patient. It will come to you.”

(Offensively that was about as efficient as you’ve played for three quarters and then it changed in the fourth. What was the reason?):
“I think overall you still want to maintain the integrity of your offense that you have for the first three quarters of moving the basketball, just trusting and getting it to the open guy. I thought we were trying to be aggressive getting to the rim which is a good thing, good idea. We only had 12 free throw attempts tonight so we tried to continue to be aggressive.

(Talk about the decision of David Blatt keeping Kevin Love out for the fourth quarter and how that affected your decision making as far as having LeBron playing power forward):
“It’s unique. Your power forward is bringing it up, and he’s orchestrating the offense and he’s getting to the rim and he’s got shooters spaced around him and (a) dynamic roller setting the screen, pretty tough to guard.”

(After the Celtics game you talked about wanting to find a better balance offensively and defensively…how do you think that was tonight?):
“I think overall production-wise we got some contributions from a lot of guys so we were able to kind of mix and match our bigs because of Kyle’s foul trouble but I think it produced pretty decent offense efficiently and then defensively I thought we did some good things also. So, overall I liked it.”

(Vooch (Nikola Vucevic) had a career-high seven assists but with Tristan (Thompson) on him should it have been a little more of a low post game?):
I think overall he just has to take what he wants and so sometimes he’s going to have his jumpers, sometimes he’s going to be able to back guys down, just timing, scoring, what do we need at the time. I thought early on in the game he was setting the table by getting guys open shots.”

(You matched Tobias’ minutes with LeBron’s. What does that say about Tobias?):
“I think that he’s really grown. I think what it really says is that he’s a competitive individual and the more guys we have like that the better.”

(Cavs outscored the Magic in the fourth, do you see tonight’s fourth quarter struggles as a continuation of this team’s difficulties and maybe getting tight down the stretch):
“I don’t think we got tight at all down the stretch. I think a big part of this league, if you watched all five games yesterday, is at the end of the game in the fourth quarter having the ability to put the basketball in someone’s hand and that someone makes the play. How many possessions at the end of a game was the ball in LeBron’s hand and he made the play for himself and for his teammates and we’re still growing and understanding who we want the ball in whose hands and how to finish once the ball is in that person’s hands.”

(On defending LeBron James):
“He’s a terrific passer. He made a lot of good plays all night. He’s a tough cover. He’s got a lot of intangibles that make him hard to guard, especially the way I think he gets other guys involved on his team.”

(On the adjustments Cleveland made in the fourth quarter):
“It’s been happening pretty much every game we play at home in the fourth quarter. The last five minutes, we just get away from what we’ve been doing all game, which was moving the ball, getting the ball to the guys that are open, and making easy shots. We took some bad shots in the fourth quarter, we rushed a lot of shots, and that’s why we lost.”

(On his altercation with LeBron James):
“I’m not going to back down from anybody. That’s my game; I’m going to give you 100 percent every night, no matter who it is. I know we got into a little talking, that’s all part of the game. It’s just to fire my team up, that’s it.”

(On the team having the ability to finish in the fourth quarter):
“We definitely do. If you look back at all of our games where we have lost, they’ve come in the fourth quarter and they’ve come from us just not executing what we do. If you just watch the film on the game, you see two different teams from the first three quarters into the fourth quarter; especially the last five minutes of the game. It’s disappointing, it’s frustrating, it’s just happening over and over again and we’ve got to stay disciplined; that’s the biggest thing. We’ve got to stay disciplined.”

(On the team’s ability to close out games):
“Most definitely. We’re going to be in this position over and over this year. We’ve already been in a ton of games where they can go either way, and unfortunately we’ve lost a lot of those games. For this team to develop and move forward in the right direction, that’s kind of been our Achilles heel: the second half. We’ve just got to do a better job of managing the game and doing whatever is called for, whether it be on the defensive end or whether it be ball movement and getting an easy basket. Those are going to be the things that determine how well we do from here on out.”

(On the 23-point comeback win against Charlotte in their last game):
“It was kind of stressful to be down by 23 and fight all the way back. It just showed us, and especially some of our young guys, that in the NBA, the game is never over until the fat lady sings. That was something that we learned, and I think that we grew from that, so hopefully we don’t get ourselves into situations like that against teams that we feel like we have good chance to beat. We can’t get down 23 (points) on other people’s home court. Hopefully it’s not the case tomorrow.”