Game Quotes: Cavaliers at Pistons

(On game): "One of the worst games we’ve played in a long time. I give the Pistons a lot of credit. They played 10 times harder than we did and were ready to play from the start of the game to the finish. We looked like we were a step or two slow on every play especially on the defensive end."

(On what he said to his team after the game): “I said tomorrow we have another one so forget about this one and we better have a much better effort tomorrow night."

(On not using depth as an excuse): "No, no excuses. We can all say this was the fifth game in six, but everybody has the same schedule so no, there are no excuses."

(On his game): "I needed it a lot for my confidence coming in seeing some shots fall, but at the same time we wanted to get that win. We felt like this was a game we could've came in and got, but started off a little flat."

(On three-point shooting): "The only thing different was I didn't hesitate. I just felt confident every shot I took and I didn't think twice about it."

(On forgetting about tonight's loss): “The good thing is we’ve got another game tomorrow, so we just have to forget about this game today and learn from the mistakes at the same time, but we can go out there tomorrow and play with a lot more energy and effort."

(On finishing the season the right way and Brandon Knight): “I think if you trace Brandon’s play, I feel like Brandon’s play picked up against Miami, you saw a slight up-tick there. Obviously the Orlando game wasn’t good for anybody, but from there on out he’s played well. His distribution, obviously tonight was one of those nights where you have a great rhythm shooting. The thing that was nice to see is those shots, how the guys found them as well; making the extra passes, the ball swings, but he just had a great rhythm and flow and had a really good night. But, I thought defensively, he had a very good night and more importantly I thought our group did a good job. Cleveland is a little bit undermanned at this point and is missing some guys. I thought our guys really kept their focus, especially after halftime to be able to raise it to another level. That was a good effort.”

(On playing Cleveland after Chicago): “For Chicago you know you’re going to get up for that, but when you have team that has a comparable record where neither team is going to the playoffs, you always want to see how your guys come out. I thought our guys came out with grit, energy and played a complete basketball game.”

(On tonight’s game): “We just wanted to come out, after last game, it was a hard fought-game, just wanted to make sure we gave the same effort, continue to make plays. Even though the season is winding down, we wanted to set the tone for next year and the off-season and continue to build on that.”

(On defense): “Definitely, we just wanted to make sure we came out and keyed in on (Antawn) Jamison, one of their best forwards is always going to play hard, and do it collectively as a team. I think we did a great job of having great energy on the defensive end, which led to easy offensive baskets.”

(On scoring a career-high 28 points): “A lot of it came from my teammates finding me when I was open, realizing I had missed a lot of shots and just coming to me and putting me in a position where I could be successful. A lot of it, like I said, came from my teammates keying in defensively and allowing each and every one of us to get a lot of easy looks on the offense end.”

(On trying to win the rest of the season): “It means a lot us. We want to finish strong and we still have a lot of time to continue to get better. We want to win these last games. We’re still focused and we’re just trying to continue to get better and get some momentum going into next season.”

(On Brandon Knight): “I think the game is slowing down for him. It takes a little time to get acclimated to the NBA game. I think he’s getting to that point where he’s comfortable in the game; it’s slower. The first few months in the league everything is moving 100 miles per hour, so I think everything is slowing down for him and that’s just it right now.”