(On Jerry Sloan): “I have the utmost respect for Jerry Sloan. He is a class act and I love his demeanor, the way he coaches his team. Whenever we go against his teams, I know we’re going to be in a tough game with the outcome able to go either way.”

(On tonight’s game): “You have to give Utah credit, especially their young point guard Maynor. He was aggressive in the first half and was a handful for us. He kept it close when we had chances to create separation. In the second half, we stepped up our aggression offensively and that was evident with the 21 free throws. Defensively, we were a lot better. They shot 65% in the first half and only 43% in the second half.”

(On Jamario Moon): “It was good to see Jamario for the second or third game in a row come off the bench and impact the game. He hit some big shots, especially when we were struggling and defensively, his length allowed us to put him on a guy like Kirilenko when LeBron was out.”

(On J.J. Hickson): “I didn’t call a play for J.J. He is filling his role and playing off others. He has to be guarded because of his athleticism and can drive the ball, shoot the ball and post-up. Our guys have confidence in him and he’s producing. The trust is obviously building and he’s earning it. He’s making mistakes, but he’s going hard. Those are the mistakes that you can live with.”

(On playing well enough to win): “They played well and really executed. Eric Maynor made some tough shots in the lane. We contested a lot of shots but it was just really good execution by them.”

(On trying to take the game over): “Yeah, the game got kind of close. I was able to get in the lane a couple of times. I found A.P. (Anthony Parker) for a three and I was able to make some free throws.”

(On the game tying three-point attempt): “I figured they would try to run some type of pick and pop play with Okur or curl off one guy and throw it back up top.”

(On making good decisions while playing): “Like Coach said, I’m just making basketball plays. I’m being smart on the floor and taking the open shot. I understand my role. I think that is a big part of it, (that I) understand my role. Knowing that I have LeBron James and Mo Williams out there, I just have to space the floor and take advantage of it when I do get my shots.”

(On taking advantage of wide-open shots and opportunities): “Of course I am going to take full advantage of those opportunities until they start respecting me. I think that when they start respecting me, that will open up my one-on-one game and it will force teams to have to guard an extra player on the floor.”

(On forming a close relationship with LeBron and what he has learned from him): “It means a lot. I have learned a lot of things on and off of the court (from LeBron). I think that one of the biggest things that I have learned is to be consistent. I think that I have been consistent since I have been starting and I am just trying to take full advantage of the situation.”

(On the three-point FG attempt by Kirilenko): “I thought it was a play that he should have taken the ball to the basket because I just said in a timeout that they (Cavs) don’t want to foul you. You have to at least try to come away with something. But, those things happen, they happen too frequently sometimes and that’s what costs you games. I thought his play down there when he was guarding LeBron was a close call, a charging foul that he got called for blocking. Anyway, that’s the way it goes.”

(On the game and the Jazz comeback): “The first quarter looked like we didn’t think we could win. We had an attitude about not thinking that we could win. But, we finally started playing and started competing a little bit, and they (Cavs) slacked off a little bit in their game. At least we got back in it. Eric (Maynor) did a terrific job getting us into our offense and getting on top of the basket. He gave us opportunities and we were pretty good.”

(On going to Okur as the first option on the last 3-point shot): “Not necessarily. We didn’t have enough time to get anybody specifically. We tried to get him the ball and he got a shot at it. You’re playing Russian Roulette with that anyway. You don’t know how they are going to play us too. You try to get somebody open and hope to have a good look at it.”

(On LeBron James big three-point play): “You’ve got to over and take the charge. We reached in and fouled him. You try to get your body over in front of the guy. It’s easier said than done. He does the same thing to other teams.”

(On his three-point FG attempt from the inbounds pass): “In the huddle, we kind of set up the play. I really didn’t realize that we didn’t really need the three, but it was kind of our play. When we practice, we always have that set up. I should have been thinking a little bit better. I was kind of moving automatically how we do it in practice because it’s kind of ‘hit the big guy, he just gives you the ball back.’ It’s like an automatic three. I just made an error not looking at the time.”

(On losing after being down by 16 points): “It is tough, but I think when we got the lead by one point, we kind of lost our focus for like a half-a-second. LeBron got those free throws to give them back the lead. At that point in the game, you should be focused to prevent the free throws. But, I think we did a pretty good job playing the second night in a row with a kind of short lineup. We’re not satisfied, but I liked the way we approached the game. We played a team game.”

(On the three-point Kirilenko shot situation): “We had a couple of different options, but they did a good job on us. So, I came back and got it, got it to A.K. and if he hit it, we go up by one, if we missed it, we’re down by two. He made his own decision. It was a good shot because there was nobody on him. But, then we had to foul and it was a free throw game after that.”

(On the loss): “It was tough, we fought all the way back. They had a big lead on us, and we stayed with it. We fought together as a group of guys, we tried to come back and win this game. We had a couple of plays that went their way. It’s hard to sleep with this one because we thought we had a chance to win this one.”

(On Andrei Kirilenko): “I thought our guys the indications of the score are not how well we played at times. Then, the final indication of the score is how bad we played at times. We played really well early there’s no question. When our bigs got into foul trouble, the momentum changed just from the standpoint that we could not be as aggressive around the basket. It took us out a little bit with some of the things we were doing offensively. We just weren’t as aggressive. It was tough to get the ‘mojo’ back.”