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Sign up for E-newsPostgame Quotes - November 14, 2009
Washington: Flip Saunders | Mike Miller | Earl Boykins | Brendan Haywood
Pistons Head Coach John Kuester
On tonight’s game:“We had a number of guys come up big at the end of the game tonight. Will Bynum was phenomenal off the bench attacking the basket. We have to focus on the game and we can’t look ahead. Washington is a good team defensive and offensive. If we look ahead we are going to have issues.”
On Earl Boykins:
“Earl is a competitor. He is a very special athlete and has had a wonderful career. He was very juiced up tonight and did a great job getting the team in a position to score. That was a great acquisition.”
On Gilbert Arenas:
“He was great. He is very, very talented and starting to get his old spark back, don’t kid yourself.”
Pistons Guard Ben Gordon
On the game:
“We knew they were going to make a run, especially being at home. We didn’t play with the same intensity as we did in the first half and they took advantage of that. They made their run and we continued to chip away at it, and we were able to pull the game away in the fourth.”
On coming back from a deficit:
“We are not in the position to stop fighting. What I like about this team is no matter what the score is we keep chipping away. We don’t hang our heads, we don’t make excuses, we just keep fighting hard and that has gotten us back in a lot of games.”
On Gilbert Arenas:
“I don’t think he is where he wants to be yet, but probably with a couple more games throughout the season he will get back to where he was in the past.”
Pistons Forward Charlie Villanueva
On tonight’s game:
“We played perfect in the first half. They came out and made a run during the third quarter, however we stayed on course. The beauty of our team is that we fight for every possession. We never allowed ourselves to be totally out of the game. I feel like that is what Detroit basketball is all about. When you play us you are in for a long night. Regardless of what the score is there is going to be a battle.”
On joining the Pistons:
“It is a good opportunity. It’s an unfortunate situation that our top two players are out (Hamilton and Prince) but no one is going to feel sorry for us so we have to keep playing hard. It creates opportunity for other guys and they are taking on the challenge. I feel like we are going to win games by playing good defense.”
Wizards Head Coach Flip Saunders
On tonight’s game:“We were definitely playing better. We were pushing the ball up the court. That’s one thing Earl did bring us. He played really well. We had some decent looks but we didn’t knock down the some shots.”
On the end of the game:
“(Ben) Gordon makes a great shot over three guys and we miss an easy shot. During that stretch they had two or three blocks on Brendan. They took away four lay-ups in the second half and Andray had a dunk where they came and blocked him at the rim.”
On the defense:
“We had trouble at times containing. What happened is some of their three-point shooters beat us off the first dribble. We jumped too quick on the ball side. (Will) Bynum got aggressive. We missed some coverages on the weak side.”
On the team’s energy:
“I don’t think we came out with the energy that you would have thought we would have come out with. Earl got us in the game. When he came in, he got us going. I thought we had good energy in the second half. If we don’t make shots, our energy gets sucked out of us. We become very stagnant. You can’t rely on making shots to dictate the effort and efficiency you play with.”
Wizards Forward Mike Miller
On tonight’s game:
“We put all of our energy in the second half and we played a lot better than we had which is a good sign. We have a lot of talent in this locker room. We are trying to figure it out. Tonight we played a lot better, we just didn’t win. When you don’t win it is disappointing. We will just get back to the drawing board and come in here ready to play for Wednesday.”
More on tonight’s game:
“We need to make plays down the stretch. We were moving the ball; we had 25 assists which is a good sign.”
Wizards Guard Earl Boykins
On his return:
“It feels good to be back, but more importantly it’s going to take a little time before I develop a good rhythm with my team. As far as myself, I’ll be OK. I’m more interested in establishing a rhythm with my teammates when I’m out there.”
On his expectations entering tonight’s game:
“I didn’t have any expectations. I just wanted to go out there and provide a spark for this team. I wanted to go out there and play solid basketball.”
On playing with Arenas:
“It’s easier playing with Gil because he’s someone that I know. I have to develop the same kind of chemistry with the other guys. It’s all basketball. No matter when you join a team everyone basically runs the same plays. It’s just a matter of getting comfortable with my teammates.”
Wizards Center Brendan Haywood
On tonight’s game:
“We got away from what got us there, the good ball movement, unselfish play. We played a good game, we played good enough to win we just didn’t win. We can’t afford to get away from the game plan. As a unit we have to come out and move the ball, pass to the next guy, make a cut, set a screen. It’s all the things that we did that got us the lead.”
