Nov. 26, 2008 at Toyota Center
Pacers 91, Rockets 90
PACERS COACH JIM O'BRIEN
(on the game) “It was a great win. We went small in the fourth quarter to try and get Yao away from the basket. Then it was hard when Houston substituted to get Yao back in and our team defense was excellent down the stretch. It was a great win on the road.. We played a physical brand of basketball and we fought with everything we had.”
(on his team’s play) “We turned it up a notch in the fourth quarter. We fronted the low post and had a hand in their face and did a good job of challenging their shots. Their (Houston)
defense has been like ours was tonight. It was good to change the trend.”
PACERS GUARD T.J. FORD
(on the win) “It was a big win and we really needed it. It was a confidence booster and hopefully it will carry over to the next game. We were able to get stops when we needed it and that was key down the stretch.”
(on coming home to Houston) “It’s always fun to come home and get to play in front of friends and it is even better to get a win. That’s two wins in the last two years in Houston.”
PACERS FORWARD TROY MURPHY
(on his 3-point shooting) “I was able to get loose and the guys found me at the top of the key. Our lineup change helped get me open outside.”
(on the game) “We needed to get a win like this and hopefully it propels us. It was big to get this win on the road. We’ve had a lot of games when we have lost leads and it was good to hold on at the end.”
PACERS FORWARD DANNY GRANGER
(on Indiana’s play) “As a team, we always have good defense. In the first half Houston beat us up on the boards."
"I used to have to practice against Ron (Artest) and it’s never any fun defending him or having him defend against you."
"Murphy’s threes gave us a big lift. It was great team defense down the stretch.”
ROCKETS COACH RICK ADELMAN
(On the loss ) "It was just a disappointing loss. We just made too many mistakes. Offensively, we didn't finish the game and it's too bad. It's a game we should have won but Indiana kept coming at us and they made the plays and we didn't."
(On this loss vs. the San Antonio loss) "I don't know if they are similiar. I think that they made a couple of shots. Yao was guarding (Troy) Murphy and sometimes you've got to go out, you can't stay back when you're playing a shooter. Let your teammates help you, but those are things that happened. Even then, we should have finished the game. If we would have done enough offensively, not made mistakes then we should have won the game but we didn't. So, we have to learn from what went wrong and try to correct it next game."
(On Luis Scola) "He was very active. He got alot of offensive rebounds for us and did a nice job."
ROCKETS FORWARD RON ARTEST
(On the loss ) "It's all on me. I didn't step up like I was supposed to but that's the good thing about games early in the season. You have a chance to run off a couple of wins but I missed alot of shots today. I missed some layups where I should have finished. I definitely take the blame for this one."
(On the last sequence) "I gave it to Yao. Yao was right there and ten out of ten times he will probably make that."
ROCKETS FORWARD SHANE BATTIER
(On his minutes played) "I felt okay. My other ankle is hurting more. I sprained that late in the third quarter but overall I feel okay."
"I'm still unaware of my movement and my body and obviously my shot wasn't very good tonight. I was overall pleased with the debut."
ROCKETS GUARD RAFER ALSTON
(On the last few seconds of the game) "We didn't compete like they competed. They came down and played hard defensively, came down and executed offensively and won the game. We came down with low energy, loafing around on defense. We came down fouling, not getting to our man, not understanding the strengths of our man and they scored and scored and scored."
(On the mental aspect of the loss) "The only mental part is not concetrating and not focusing in. That's the part that's been going on all season. The good part about that is we have more wins than losses. We are going to make the next step,start concentrating, focusing in and approaching each day with a sense of urgency."
ROCKETS CENTER YAO MING
(On the Rockets not protecting their late lead ) "We finished our game too early ourselves. We did not finish the game. The entire game it looked like it was under control. We get a lead and sometimes it's a double digit lead. Sometimes it's five or six points but you see they come back. In the last five or six minutes, you forget that it's the fourth quarter."
(On the loss) "To lose a game like this just makes my stomach hurt."
(On the last play) "Ron got the ball to me and I tried to make the layup and I missed it. We could have done a whole lot better before that shot to win this game. You can't just rely on the last shot."