Postgame Quotes, April 25
Magic 89, Pistons 80
“This really, obviously, a great win for us. I thought our team showed just an amazing amount of mental toughness after the start. They came out, Pistons shot the ball well they were making everything, balls were bouncing off the rim back to them. We lost three balls out of bounds off of rebounds. I thought our guys were getting frustrated. They just hung in there long enough to get back into the game. Once we got back into the game to right the ship I thought we were okay. T-Mac, I thought, did a terrific job of picking his spots—when to try to go, when to try to get other guys involved. Darrell Armstrong was a savior tonight. But I thought there were a bunch of little good efforts. Sasser right before halftime getting up into Rip Hamilton I thought was one of the key moments of the game for us. Pat Burke had a terrific run for us. Gordie, I tell you, the shots in a row gave him a lift. He’s really tough on himself. You know he’s young, he’s learning. But I’ll tell you those shots are big for us.”
“I can’t say enough, this is three games in a row, that I think defensively we’ve been phenomenal. Offensively, we’ve been up and down. But this is the third game in a row where everybody has set down on defense, dug in, got great stops, got some big rebounds when we needed them. As much as T-Mac needed help offensively I think as a team defensively I’m probably more proud of our team.”
On T-Mac’s 20 shots and minutes: “Well I have no choice, right now. I don’t like that, I will say that—the minutes, especially because we play so quickly on Sunday. If this was a Sunday/Wednesday game it would have been easier to do. There was really no point I thought I could take him out. At one stretch, the beginning of the fourth, we had him on the floor but we were trying to go away from him—to try to give him rest that way. That might be a way we have to use and get him rest. Twenty shots, twenty-five shots, I don’t actually know what his number is. I always look at percentage more than anything and he is right at the 50% mark. So, you know, you would always take that. Twenty-nine points, seven rebounds, five assists, guarding Chucky Atkins down the stretch of the game, guarding Rip Hamilton in different stretches. We used him all over the floor tonight.”
On Doc saying role players would respond, how did you know: “I just know they’re not going away. We’ve had opportunities all year to go away. When Grant Hill went down, right after the trade. There’s just been a lot of opportunities for this team to decide to cave in and you know they’re just going to keep plugging. I’ll tell you, at halftime, Gordan was struggling, down on himself. Our guys have down a terrific job, I don’t want to call it policing each other, maybe motivating each other, not the coaches the players. I thought they did a terrific job going into halftime, Darrell kept yelling, ‘we believe in you’. And you just kept thinking, just one shot go in for this guy. And once that happened he was pretty good.”
Did he change up defensively against Hamilton: “Yeah. You know we started switching when he came off bigs. We started jumping out switching a lot. T-Mac, really, we used him as a rover tonight. He basically ran off his guy, switched on, Gordie kept running back to the other guy. I thought they did a terrific job of that. I thought we lost them a couple of times and we shouldn’t lose them. Other than that, the guy, if you leave him open he’s making the shot. He’s a deadly shooter really has a great in between game. He’s a guy, right now, that we still, even though I thought in the second half we did a nice job on him, we still have got to do a better job of shutting him down.”
On Drew Gooden: “He’s going to play hard. That’s the one thing you know with Drew Gooden. You don’t know if he is going to play well every second. You don’t know if he is going to be under control every second. But you know he’s going to give you everything he has. I thought a game like tonight is exactly what we needed.”
On possibly going 3-1: “I’m not worried about that to be honest. I’m just worried about getting our guys some rest tomorrow, watching some film. As crazy as it sounds, even though they only scored 80, I thought there was a lot of little areas where we can make adjustments defensively to improve our team. And just get ready, our team has had the motto all year one game at a time. I think, Brian, right now probably fits us better than ever to have that thought. But it is a big game, obviously, if you can get that, then you’re sitting pretty good.”
When Gordan’s one shot went in what were you thinking: “Get him another shot as quickly as possible, really. He’s always been a street guy and I thought T-Mac the next play drove and kicked and he got another shot. Darrell got him another shot. It’s players realizing a guy has been struggling. They also realized they had a guy that was
Pistons Head Coach Rick Carlisle
I think we got off to a very good start and they had a good handle on the tempo of the game and then in the second quarter it shifted dramatically. If you look at the scoring by quarters, the second quarter was our undoing. We started off 29-19 and then they go 29-17 and it just went from there. At half time they were shooting 57%. It’s just too much. You’re not going to beat a team like Orlando if you can’t hold them down to somewhere in the low to mid 40s…ended up shooting 48 for the game, which is a losing number for us. We’re going to have to get better defensively and we’re going to have to execute better offensively cause we struggled to score in the last three quarters.
(On Hamilton) Hamilton is getting a lot of attention after going for huge numbers the first two games. So, they’re throwing different guys at him and trying to wear him down. But I thought Rip was aggressive and was forced into some difficult shots at times up against the clock. But, he’s an important guy for us and he’s got to stay aggressive.
(Even in that first quarter they [Magic] only got 19 points, but shot at 53%…) Well, that’s true. In a way maybe it was a false sense of security for us. The tempo was to our favor. They were able to turn that in the second quarter.
(How do you plan to help your offense, you guys struggled to get good looks at the basket, all your shots were tough?) It starts with defense. When we can hold teams down to a reasonable number, which is in the low 40s, generally our offense is better cause you get some opportunities to get on a break. Tonight we only had six fast break points to their 18. Their defense was active in making things happen and ours needs to be more active. We need to keep them from making as many shots and get some transition opportunities.
(You’ve been outscored in the second quarter every game and that’s the bench quarter. You have such a good bench, what do you think is the big factor there?) I’m not 100% for sure what the big factor is. I know that their people off the bench are very aggressive and we’re going to have to counter that. We’re going to have to do a better job in second quarters without question.
 |
“I can’t say enough, this is three games in a row, that I think defensively we’ve been phenomenal. Offensively, we’ve been up and down. But this is the third game in a row where everybody has set down on defense, dug in, got great stops, got some big rebounds when we needed them. As much as T-Mac needed help offensively I think as a team defensively I’m probably more proud of our team.”
On T-Mac’s 20 shots and minutes: “Well I have no choice, right now. I don’t like that, I will say that—the minutes, especially because we play so quickly on Sunday. If this was a Sunday/Wednesday game it would have been easier to do. There was really no point I thought I could take him out. At one stretch, the beginning of the fourth, we had him on the floor but we were trying to go away from him—to try to give him rest that way. That might be a way we have to use and get him rest. Twenty shots, twenty-five shots, I don’t actually know what his number is. I always look at percentage more than anything and he is right at the 50% mark. So, you know, you would always take that. Twenty-nine points, seven rebounds, five assists, guarding Chucky Atkins down the stretch of the game, guarding Rip Hamilton in different stretches. We used him all over the floor tonight.”
On Doc saying role players would respond, how did you know: “I just know they’re not going away. We’ve had opportunities all year to go away. When Grant Hill went down, right after the trade. There’s just been a lot of opportunities for this team to decide to cave in and you know they’re just going to keep plugging. I’ll tell you, at halftime, Gordan was struggling, down on himself. Our guys have down a terrific job, I don’t want to call it policing each other, maybe motivating each other, not the coaches the players. I thought they did a terrific job going into halftime, Darrell kept yelling, ‘we believe in you’. And you just kept thinking, just one shot go in for this guy. And once that happened he was pretty good.”
Did he change up defensively against Hamilton: “Yeah. You know we started switching when he came off bigs. We started jumping out switching a lot. T-Mac, really, we used him as a rover tonight. He basically ran off his guy, switched on, Gordie kept running back to the other guy. I thought they did a terrific job of that. I thought we lost them a couple of times and we shouldn’t lose them. Other than that, the guy, if you leave him open he’s making the shot. He’s a deadly shooter really has a great in between game. He’s a guy, right now, that we still, even though I thought in the second half we did a nice job on him, we still have got to do a better job of shutting him down.”
On Drew Gooden: “He’s going to play hard. That’s the one thing you know with Drew Gooden. You don’t know if he is going to play well every second. You don’t know if he is going to be under control every second. But you know he’s going to give you everything he has. I thought a game like tonight is exactly what we needed.”
On possibly going 3-1: “I’m not worried about that to be honest. I’m just worried about getting our guys some rest tomorrow, watching some film. As crazy as it sounds, even though they only scored 80, I thought there was a lot of little areas where we can make adjustments defensively to improve our team. And just get ready, our team has had the motto all year one game at a time. I think, Brian, right now probably fits us better than ever to have that thought. But it is a big game, obviously, if you can get that, then you’re sitting pretty good.”
When Gordan’s one shot went in what were you thinking: “Get him another shot as quickly as possible, really. He’s always been a street guy and I thought T-Mac the next play drove and kicked and he got another shot. Darrell got him another shot. It’s players realizing a guy has been struggling. They also realized they had a guy that was
Pistons Head Coach Rick CarlisleI think we got off to a very good start and they had a good handle on the tempo of the game and then in the second quarter it shifted dramatically. If you look at the scoring by quarters, the second quarter was our undoing. We started off 29-19 and then they go 29-17 and it just went from there. At half time they were shooting 57%. It’s just too much. You’re not going to beat a team like Orlando if you can’t hold them down to somewhere in the low to mid 40s…ended up shooting 48 for the game, which is a losing number for us. We’re going to have to get better defensively and we’re going to have to execute better offensively cause we struggled to score in the last three quarters.
(On Hamilton) Hamilton is getting a lot of attention after going for huge numbers the first two games. So, they’re throwing different guys at him and trying to wear him down. But I thought Rip was aggressive and was forced into some difficult shots at times up against the clock. But, he’s an important guy for us and he’s got to stay aggressive.
(Even in that first quarter they [Magic] only got 19 points, but shot at 53%…) Well, that’s true. In a way maybe it was a false sense of security for us. The tempo was to our favor. They were able to turn that in the second quarter.
(How do you plan to help your offense, you guys struggled to get good looks at the basket, all your shots were tough?) It starts with defense. When we can hold teams down to a reasonable number, which is in the low 40s, generally our offense is better cause you get some opportunities to get on a break. Tonight we only had six fast break points to their 18. Their defense was active in making things happen and ours needs to be more active. We need to keep them from making as many shots and get some transition opportunities.
(You’ve been outscored in the second quarter every game and that’s the bench quarter. You have such a good bench, what do you think is the big factor there?) I’m not 100% for sure what the big factor is. I know that their people off the bench are very aggressive and we’re going to have to counter that. We’re going to have to do a better job in second quarters without question.
