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| Friday, December 18, 2009 Final Score: New Orleans 98, Denver 92 Hornets Post Game Quotes
On the game: “I was really proud of how hard we played and how well we played. The execution of our offensive schemes and defensive schemes (were great). A lot was made of the emotion of this game beforehand. Obviously, it was something that everyone is well aware of. We won tonight because of execution as opposed to emotion.” On individual performances tonight: “We felt that the game would open up for us if we were able to play it through our bigs and play it off the weak side. We felt like the rhythm shots would be there for us. We kept at it. It didn’t really crack for us entirely in the first half. There were things there that we thought we could go back to. Chris’ outstanding play…really gave us a lift. That was a terrific team we played tonight. It took one of our biggest efforts of the year.”
On beating Denver tonight following last year’s embarrassing playoff loss: “It’s hard to say that you weren’t thinking about last year while you were out there, but we definitely were. Even at the start of the game they came out there and almost got a 20 point lead on us. We definitely owed them. That was a big win.”
On what made him so successful tonight: “We just started getting shots and I got a little bit more aggressive. In the half court.They can really defend our ball screens, but when we got out in transition, I was able to get into the lane a little bit.” On attacking Carmelo Anthony: “With a guy like Melo, it’s tough to stop him with one person. You can’t. I don’t know one guy who can stop Melo on a consistent basis. We just tried to trap him and make him as uncomfortable as possible all night.” Nuggets Post Game Quotes
On the game: “This was the first time a team has gone after him (Carmelo) every time. They doubled him on every opportunity and I think a lot of that had to do with Chauncey not being on the court. And then you can throw in Aaron not making his shots and JR not making his shots. It was our gameplan that they were going to take away certain things and we were going to do certain things and we didn’t get those things done. We had a lot of opportunities to win but Chris Paul and his greatness was very evident at the end of that game." On Chris Paul: "He is very offensive-oriented. He is looking to shoot as much as pass and that is what makes him so hard to guard. He made some crazy end of shot clock situations. We held them to 19 points in the fourth quarter and Paul might have had a lot of that. Defensively we were good enough to win the game. It wasn’t our defense that cost us."
On the game: “Tonight, we missed Chauncey, of course. Once they figured out he wasn’t playing, they made it their strategy to keep the ball out of my hands, which turned out to be a good scheme. It’s always tougher playing on the road. We’re going to bounce back. We get to bounce back in the next game. When we saw early in the game how they were going to double-team me, we missed a couple and stopped shooting [well].” |
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