Dec. 17, 2008 at Conseco Fieldhouse
Pacers 127, Warriors 120
PACERS COACH JIM O'BRIEN
“That was an exciting basketball game for people to watch, nerve-racking to coach. Both teams were in adverse situations with players injured on the sidelines. Overall it was a good team effort. I love run and shoot games. I think that’s the way the game is meant to be played."
"Danny (Granger) not only had 41 points but 11 rebounds, six assists, two block shots and two turnovers. He’s playing the well rounded game, not just points on the board. And down the stretch he was guarding their best player. He’s growing his game."
(On Jarrett Jack) " I think Jarrett would be disappointed in some of his decision making. But he played with a great deal of heart. He gives you everything he has every night out."
"I think they (wins) are all significant and we don’t dwell on people who aren’t in uniform. Every win is sweet tasting to us.”
PACERS GUARD JARRETT JACK
“We knew that they could score at an unbelievable rate. We knew we had to hang in there and sustain their runs. I’m still learning things about this team and I get a little better the more I play and the more I see them."
(On turnovers) "I’ve got to get a better handle on that. You do that by playing through it."
"Now that we are playing some teams with losing records maybe we can build on that and build our record up. We’re only about a quarter of the way through the season. There’s a lot of time left. We just have to continue to believe and work hard.”
PACERS GUARD MARQUIS DANIELS
(On his injuries) "I’m OK. Just a little sore neck, nothing that I can’t recover from."
(On winning this close game) "It’s always good to win a close game, but even better to win one like this. That’s two in a row. We could build on this. We still have a lot of things that we need to get better at but as the year goes on we will. We must continue to work hard on the small things and stay together, which will probably lead to bigger things.”
WARRIORS COACH DON NELSON
“I thought we competed the best we could. I thought it was anyone’s game for awhile."
"We didn’t expect to play with such a small lineup. But with Murphy (Troy) out, they went small and then we had to. Their small team played better than ours. We expected them to run the floor and it was a pretty good battle.”
WARRIORS FORWARD STEPHEN JACKSON
(On the game) "They made shots. Danny (Granger) had a terrific game. We had a difficult job guarding the pick and roll tonight. That definitely hurt us. They set a lot of screens where they got open and they knocked them down."
(On the development of the Warriors) "We have a young team. We’re going through a lot with injuries. Young guys are trying to find their roles and how the NBA goes. There’s a lot we’re going through right now and just trying to find a niche. We just need to get some momentum going for ourselves. This was a bad way to start a road trip but we have to get ready for the next one."
(On his place on the team) "I’m just trying to stay positive and be aggressive. I have to play well and shoot well for the team to win. I’ve been struggling a little bit. Everybody struggles sometimes, somewhere. It’s just about me continuing to be humble about the game and continuing to work on my shot and hopefully I can get out of it.”
WARRIORS GUARD JAMAL CRAWFORD
(On the game) "I thought offensively we gave ourselves a chance. But we were down one a couple different times and we didn’t capitalize or get the big stop or the big score. We just didn’t close it out.
(On Warriors trying to turn things around) We just don’t want the young guys to get down. When you get results with winning, the hard work is paying off. Since we haven’t been winning we have to keep going forward and hopefully they’ll keep their heads up."
(On Danny Granger’s season) "It’s confidence. I’ve always thought in the past he was a really good player. But now he’s being more vocal with his teammates and you can see he’s the leader of this ball club.”