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(On what it means to be Cleveland and L.A. in less than a week) “The guys responded really well. It’s always tough coming back. The first half we came out offensively we just couldn't get anything going. I thought, defensively, because we held them to 14 points in the paint in the first half and 22 in the game that was our emphasis. We wanted to make sure we did that and out-rebound these guys. It’s tough. They’re a tough team. They pose a lot of different problems but I thought the guys continued to fight and scramble throughout the game. Huge wins for us. We just have to continue to grind and continue to get better.”
(On the lineup and substitutions in the fourth) “I thought I was going to bring Rip (Richard Hamilton) back in about 3 minutes for Allen (Allen Iverson), give Allen about a three minute rest and then let him finish the last six minutes of the game. As far as Tayshaun (Prince) I was giving him a break and let Arron (Afflalo) hold down the fort for a little bit. I kind of figured they would go small eventually and probably have to bring Tay back in the fourth. That group got it rolling. (Rodney) Stuckey did a tremendous job in pick an roll and when he didn't have it he was able to hit Sheed (Rasheed Wallace) up top for a couple of shots and swing it over to the weak side to let Allen attack. Anytime we have Allen attacking on the weak side that's a bonus for us"
Pistons Guard Allen Iverson
(On the second half) “I would say our defensive pressure on the ball. We, at times, just didn't let them flow into what they wanted to run. We pressed up on them and made them try to execute their offense from far up top and I think that enabled us to get a lot of easy baskets and run transition.”
(On finishing plays) “You know I was penetrating the ball and getting into the paint and the guys would basically stand out, they weren't converging on me, and I was able to get a couple of easy, short jumpers in the lane. That's how I’m going to continue to play I’ll stay aggressive and keep driving the basketball.”
Pistons Forward Rasheed Wallace
(On the game) “We just try to make them take hard shots, instead of giving them points in the paint.”
(On beating the Lakers and Cavaliers in one week) “We are just playing. We don’t care if they’re best team in the NBA. We are trying to just make ourselves better.”
(On the teams chemistry) “We are getting there but it’s still early and there is still things we can do a lot better, we are in that process of practicing right now so we can be ready for June.”
(On the offense) “It’s simple basketball. They can not stop that outside shot, whether its me taking the shot or Tayshaun Prince or Richard Hamilton or Rodney Stuckey - they cannot stop all of them, so its simple basketball, there will always be someone open.”
(On the defense) “We just played good defense, there was not one particular person. We are all good defenders and we just showed that by Arron Afflalo doing a good job and Tayshaun (Prince) doing a great job containing LeBron James.”
(On the game) “I thought it was real simple, at halftime a few of their guys must have gotten together and said let’s go out and defend and take this game from the Cavaliers. Then they came out in the second half and took it from us, they didn’t do anything special or anything different. Defensively they turned it up. They turned it up with their pressure and we didn’t respond at all. We didn’t respond well at all in the second half to their aggressive play and that was disappointing tonight.”
(On their poor second half) “They got up in us in the second half and they brought us to a stand still. We had trouble throwing the ball in-bounds, we got the ball across half-court late, we got in our sets very deep into the shot clock, they jumped our lanes and stole our soft passes and we were discombobulated offensively. This was the first time I’ve seen us this bad this year, which in turn got us playing hold it, hold it, pick and roll at the top of the floor, which they are good at defending. You have to give them credit though, they did what they needed to do in the second half to win.”
Cavaliers Forward LeBron James
(On the game) “I think that ‘Sheed (Rasheed Wallace) and AI (Allen Iverson) put that team on their back. ‘Sheed hit two long-range threes that caught us off guard and AI did a good job of getting the ball down the floor and breaking down the defense. They turned up the pressure in the second half and kept us off balance.”
(On this loss being tougher then any other loss) “Any loss in this league is tough because you always want to go out there and give yourself a chance to win. We gave ourselves a chance to win the first half, but we didn’t in the second half. In this league, it is good to be able to get to the next game when you have a game like this, but you definitely try and look at the mistakes and get better for next one.”
(On losing the eight-game-winning streak) “I think that we played well for a little period of time in the first half. You can always get good thing and bad things from any game and we will watch film and get ready for Saturday.”
