Thursday, February 23, 2006 at The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI
Detroit Pistons 88, Indiana Pacers 83
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Pistons 88, Pacers 83
Boxscore
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Recap
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February 23, 2006
The Palace of Auburn Hills
Auburn Hills, MI |
| Points: | (DET) R. Wallace, 28
(IND) S. Jackson, 15 |
| Rebounds: | (DET) R. Wallace, 9
(IND) S. Pollard, 11 |
| Assists: | (DET) C. Billups, 9
(IND) A. Johnson, 6 |
| Blocks: | (DET) B. Wallace, 5
(IND) J. Foster, 1 |
| Player of the Game |
Rasheed Wallace
Points: 28
3FGM-A: 4-5
Rebounds: 9
Blocks: 3
Minutes: 37
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| POSTGAME QUOTES |
Pistons Head Coach Flip Saunders
On the Pistons’ defense:
“Our bigs were great defensively tonight. We were great on pick and roll defense, which Indiana killed us with last time. When a guy has a good defensive sequence, especially our perimeter [players], a lot of times it’s because our bigs are really helping them out a lot. But they’re doing their job, that’s what your team defense is all about - everybody doing their job.”
On Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace:
“I thought Rasheed (Wallace) had energy, made shots. I thought Ben (Wallace) was unbelievable in what he did as far as blocking shots, steals, rebounding, just kind of patrolling everything.”
“I thought we played maybe 10 to 13 minutes of championship basketball tonight. We didn’t play how we’re supposed to play even down the stretch. We won the game, but there were definitely some learning experiences.”
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Pistons Forward Ben Wallace
On adjusting to Jermaine O’Neal’s absence:
“[In the] third quarter, we just did a great job executing our sets - forcing them to move around and scramble. It helped us to make some easy plays.”
On Rasheed’s play:
“You know ‘Sheed played with a lot of energy after the tech. He was just aggressive on both ends of the floor. He just played his game and did a great job.”
On his play:
“I was limited to about 10 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble. [In] the second half I just played my game. I just came out aggressive and tried to make some plays."
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Pistons Guard Chauncey Billups
On Flip Saunders’ comment that they played just 10 minutes of championship basketball:
“It was ugly to be honest with you. ‘Sheed (Rasheed Wallace) got it cooking and kind of carried us, but it really was. We seemed out of sync a little bit. It’s a win though and we’ll take it. We’ll go on and get another chance tomorrow.”
On Rasheed’s play after the technical:
“When he gets a tech, he always seems to be a little more in tune with what’s going on. We ran his plays a little bit more after that, trying to keep him going.”
On Ben’s play:
“Ben was great. He’s one of the exceptions. Ben’s been great, to be honest with you. He kind of carried us to victory tonight.”
On playing the Bulls tomorrow:
“They’re always tough. They have guys that are very capable. Kirk Hinrich’s playing great and Ben Gordon’s on fire. They’ve been playing well and they’ve always presented a tough challenge for us and it’s a divisional game, so it’s going to be a good one.”
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Pacers Head Coach Rick Carlisle
On the game:
“Rasheed was great tonight. He did everything, he scored in the post, he scored from the three, he made big plays on the other end of the court - he was a big part of the game. The other big part of the game was turnovers. When you turn it over 22 times for 30 points, you’re not going to beat a top team. One of the characteristics of our recent good play is we haven’t been turning the ball over and we’ve been rebounding well. That’s something that was a part of our undoing tonight and we’re going to have to turn that around tomorrow.”
On turnovers:
“Detroit pressured us and that turned into some [turnovers], and there were some situations [where] our decision making could have been better. It’s a situation where our guys are going to look back on the game and know where we went wrong. We don’t have much turnaround time; we’re going to have to do better tomorrow.”
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Pacers Forward Jermaine O'Neal
“I respect the Pistons, I respect what they’ve got going on over there, but I feel good about my team. I feel good about my team against anyone, with a healthy team. You can say what you want to say about this game, we had enough players to win - there are no excuses. I feel like when we get myself back, when we get Austin Croshere back, when we get Jamaal Tinsley back, we’re going to be right there. Take any team and take two stars out of their lineup and tell me what you get. Take Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups and then tell me what you’ve got. That’s just the way it is. Those are the facts.”
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