Feb. 17, 2009 at Conseco Fieldhouse
Pacers 100, Sixers 91
PACERS COACH JIM O'BRIEN
“Since January 1, we’ve played good basketball at home."
"It’s a good win against an athletic team."
"The big shots down the stretch were Murph’s (Troy Murphy’s). We did what we had to do to get a W.”
PACERS GUARD-FORWARD MARQUIS DANIELS
“I felt good coming out tonight and I knew I needed to pick up my scoring a little bit to help take the load off of Danny (Granger). "
(On the fourth quarter) "I thought we were more careful handling the ball and finally our shots started falling."
(On the playoff push) "I know it’s just having to play one game at a time and stay focused.”
PACERS CENTER ROY HIBBERT
“I thought we got off to a really good start and on my part, I wanted to come out and play aggressively. I know on offense, if I know I can pass to get my teammates open, I know they’ll reciprocate."
(On playing some many games being a rookie) "I’ve never played so many games in such a sort time. Last weekend it was really good to take some time off and now I think we’re ready for the playoff hunt.”
SIXERS COACH TONY DiLEO
“We tried to make a comeback at the end. But really we lost it in the first quarter. We let them score too many points. We weren’t making our shots and that could have been because we are coming out of a break."
"We came back from 20 points, cut it to six. We had a chance but we missed free throws and layups. We missed some easy shots."
"Playing here is tough. Indiana won against some good opponents, the top four teams in the league."
"We didn’t have intensity early and they have quick-moving offense. I thought Hibbert (Roy) did well early in the game.”
SIXERS FORWARD ANDRE IGUODALA
(On sluggish start) "The All-star break may have had some effect but that’s not an excuse. Despite our slow start, I felt like we still had a good shot to win this game."
(On the key to the Pacers victory in the fourth quarter) "They hit some shots. We were not focused on defense. All game we gave up a lot of easy baskets. We were not as good as we need to be on that end. We got a lot of good looks at the basket. We just need to finish those plays. For some reason we weren’t doing that tonight."
(On heading into the final third of the season) "Our main thing is to stay ready. We’ve got a young team, guys that are really young and they don’t understand that these games are important. We’re into the 50- or 60-game mark, now. They are all important.”
SIXERS GUARD ANDRE MILLER
“It was just a slow start by us. They came out with more energy. It was one of those games where we didn’t get into a rhythm, defensively or offensively … We don’t really want to point fingers at one thing. We just lost the game and need to move on to the next."
(On their 38.5% shooting) "hat happens. You can’t have a great shooting night every game. We had spurts where our defense kind of kept us getting back into the game, but they (the Pacers) just kept hitting shots.”