(On Mo Williams’ play tonight): “I thought that Mo played a big game for us. Mo was aggressive driving the ball and he was aggressive in looking for a shot. To play 31 minutes like he did and to have six assists and zero turnovers was phenomenal. His drive and kicks were terrific and his shot selection was great. He was aggressive at the right time and he ran the team at the right time. He was terrific tonight and he was great defensively.”
(On trust): “One of the things that we have talked about the last couple of years is the word chemistry. If you use that word, a lot of people have a lot of different thoughts for that word. For us, that word is defined as trust. We have got to show trust amongst the coaches, trust from the players to the coaches, trust from the coaches to the players and the players have to trust one another. It’s a tied ballgame…everybody knows we want the ball in LeBron’s hands to go make a play. In the huddle, LeBron said ‘Hey, let’s run this particular play to Mo Williams to go create. I’m going to make the cut to the basket. If I’m open, Mo will find me. If I’m not open, Mo will deliver the ball to the right person’. I don’t know if we have ever run that play before in that situation…Lo and behold, they went out there and they executed the play to a ‘T’.”
(On LeBron trusting his teammates and calling that last play): “Those are the types of areas where if I didn’t say anything, nobody would know that LeBron made that call. But, those are areas where the guy has grown in. He has grown in a lot of different areas and that was one of them tonight that I wanted to share that with you guys because it tickled me to death that he made that call…It was great that they went out and executed.”
(On if this win helped the Cavs further prepare for the playoffs): “I don’t really put a lot of stock in it because the playoffs are still a few games away. Tonight, I thought this was good for us. Milwaukee probably feels the same, but I don’t know. I know we blew some assignments. Milwaukee did a nice job against us tonight. They had a legitimate chance to win the game. Our guys had to fight, stay focused and trust one another down the stretch in order to get the win, and they did it. I think this game helped us, helped our confidence and helped that trust factor or trust level increase or go up.”
(On J.J. and Jamario forcing a key turnover late with the game tied): “It was just great defense. They just saw an opportunity to aggressively go after that basketball and trap that ball, and they did it. It was a big play that helped us get the ball back in order to knock some free throws down. Like I said, Mo was terrific. (That play) is designed to get him open and is our first option in that situation and if he doesn’t get open, we have a list of options to go down and look at. Bron did a nice job of setting screens on Mo to get him open, Mo did a nice job of getting open and AP delivered the ball. Because of that defensive stop, we were able to go to the free throw line and knock shots down in order to extend the lead.”
(On the last offensive set): “It’s a set that we run and we kind of save it, keep it in the bag. I knew it was a set they weren’t looking for, one that we hadn’t run all day. When Mo turned the corner and gauged the defense, I was able to cut back door and get a layup.”
(On the game coming down the stretch): “It was key for us to continue to attack. It’s a real good team they have and they continue to play hard throughout the game. When we got down we still continued to attack and we got to the free throw line 45 times. Even though we didn’t shoot them well, it gave us chances to add points.”
(On Mo Williams’ aggressiveness): “Mo played great. I think the practice that we had (on Tuesday) really helped and not only his aggression, but helped everybody’s. We were really in tune yesterday and we brought that energy today.”
(On LeBron): “He has a very high basketball IQ…(LeBron calling the final offensive play) lets you know the impact he has not only on the court but off the court, during practices and in timeouts as well.”
(On getting comfortable playing with LeBron): “He (LeBron) wants me to be aggressive. I’m getting comfortable with him, knowing his mannerisms and what he wants me to do as a player and just how intense he is as a player. The more and more I play, the more I get to know him and the rest of the guys and get comfortable.”
(On what he wants to accomplish in the last seven games of the season): “We have to be going downhill. We don’t want to take games off or get relaxed. We know we have to stay focused and stay aggressive. Coach has done a great job of resting us in-between games so that has not been an issue whatsoever. We have to keep that edge. That’s something that we have talked about lately and that is something that we definitely want to accomplish these last seven games.”
(On having the ball in his hands down the stretch): “It’s always good to be in that position and to have the ball and be able to close the defense out. I’m pretty sure that when they were in their huddle, they were going over the plays we usually draw up. I thought it was a good play. There was pressure on me to make the play, so I wanted to make the right read. I would either have a shot or there would be somebody open. LeBron did a good job of moving without the ball and was open coming down the lane. It doesn’t surprise me (how open he was). He does a great job of getting open.”
(On the Bucks tonight): “Give the Bucks credit. They’re playing good basketball right now. We withstood their runs...We made some big shots and stuck with it.”
(On making his free throws down the stretch): “I just have to lock in and knock them down. I don’t have the leeway to miss those free throws. I put a lot of pressure on myself to make free throws in those situations.”
(On J.J. Hickson): “He’s grown. He’s around a great group of guys who get on him constantly and praise him at the same time. He gets better and better every single game. I’ve been around him two years now and I’ve noticed that he’s not thinking when he’s out there and right now he is going in the right direction.”
(On the Bucks’ playoff potential): “They can beat somebody. You definitely don’t want to take them lightly. They’re well-coached and they have talent on that team. They play together and they play hard, and when you get that kind of mix in the blender, you can win some games.”
(On Bucks execution down the stretch): “We had plenty of chances. We had a layup for Boges (Andrew Bogut), a wide-open three, we had chances to put the thing away. We just couldn’t do it.”
(On Bucks close losses to Cavs): “It’s not that I don’t care about that right now. But, we should have won that game. We gave them that game. Nothing against Cleveland, they won and they deserved it, but we’ve got to make plays. We’re not paid to play, we’re paid to win. It’s a very, very frustrating loss. We need to play better than that at the end of games, we need to have more composure, we need to be able to drop a ball off to a big guy and dunk it because this is the NBA. And, we’ve got to make pro plays. We’ve got to learn from this.”
(On coming from 10-point deficit): “The second unit did a nice job all night. We did a nice job battling and getting back in the game. Kurt (Thomas) was good, Jerry (Stackhouse) did some good things out there, Ers (Ersan Ilyasova) was good again and they got us back in the game and more than gave us a chance. We were able to get Boges (Bogut) back in and get the lead. We just weren’t able to close it.”
(On defending LeBron James well): “Not bad. We were fortunate that he got into a little foul trouble in the first half and he had to come out. But, even a couple late, we were a little late rotating to him on his draw and his drive. But, if you can give LeBron a 7-for-17 (field goals), you have to take that. We were totally overmatched at the foul line the whole game and we only shot two free throws in the second half. Then, when they missed free throws, they got a few of them back and that hurt us as well.”
(On free throw attempt difference, how to compete with that margin): “You can’t, you’ve got to make threes and we had a couple of big ones. But, it’s very, very difficult, we’ve been at it all year. For us to have 41 wins and our opponents have made more free throws than we have attempted is almost a miracle. You don’t see that too often.”
(On taking the Cavs to the end and using that as a positive): “I think we stopped doing that a long time ago. Hopefully, every guy in there knows that we should have won that game. We played hard, you can’t fault the effort of anyone out there. But, the game was there for the taking and it’s not often you come into this building and the game is there for the taking. And, when it is, you’ve got to take. You’ve got to make a play, a pro play and tonight we weren’t able to.”
(On playing the Cavs to the end as a positive): “I guess, yeah, we played them to the wire. The stat sheet says 29 fouls to 12 for the ballgame. We had our chances to win the game. Obviously, we had some plays. I missed a shot towards the end and there was an open three. We missed a key stop on LeBron. There’s some positives out of this loss, but obviously it’s bitter because we knew we were right there to win it. There have been three games like this (vs. Cavs) and they are very well-trained to play games that come down to the wire like this and they know who to go to and who to look for. They’re a championship-caliber team and we’re still figuring it out. We know we can play with them, especially on their home floor where they are a dominant team. So, we know we can battle with them.”
(On not making plays at the end): “It’s frustrating and we had our opportunities. We just could not convert like we wanted to down the stretch. We were doing that in the past and closing games well, we just didn’t get it done.”
(On the Bucks vs. Cavs): “We feel like we can play with anybody. We feel like we let an opportunity go. We feel if we come in and play our game and compete, we can play with anybody and that’s what we’re looking for in the playoffs.”
(On not finishing well): “It’s pretty frustrating we didn’t close it out. We had the lead and they’re obviously a great team at home and you’ve got to give them credit. They make plays and they’ve played well here all year. Just a few things we didn’t get done and it cost us a game.”
(On his pass at the end that James made a steal): “We were trying to get John (Salmons) coming off for a three and he (James) kind of read it, stepped up and made a good play. But, it was a bad pass at the same time.”