Detroit: Lawrence Frank | Greg Monroe | Will Bynum Charlotte: Paul Silas | D.J. White | D.J. AugustinPistons Head Coach Lawrence Frank
(On tonight’s game) “I thought our guys played very hard. They really committed on the defensive end for the most part. They did a great job sharing the basketball and running the floor. I thought everyone contributed and stepped up and made their minutes count. I thought Greg (Monroe) played extremely hard on both ends. I thought (Jason Maxiell) gave us the start and we were riding him during the game. I thought Brandon (Knight) really played super. I felt Will Bynum helped change the game in the second quarter and we were able to ride with that second unit.”
(On Greg Monroe’s play tonight) “Greg’s effort on both ends was at a high level. I don’t ever care about individual stats. To me, it’s all about the letters vs. the numbers. We’ve got to get wins, and in order to get wins we have to outwork the opponent on both ends. I thought Greg really set a great tone of doing it.”
(On Brandon Knight’s play tonight) “He played a great game because what he was doing was getting to get others going first. That’s part of the maturation, when you are looking out and making sure I’m going to get this guy going or that guy going. Now, all of a sudden, everyone’s in the rhythm and as the point guard, as the primarily ball handler, you can start searching your shot out after you got those other guys in rhythm as opposed to vice versa.”
(On the third quarter) “We didn’t end the second quarter the right way. We gave up seven in a row, so I was happy with the way our guys bounced back and set the tone. It kind of steamrolled. We’ve been on the other side of it and we know what that feels like. You just keep on grinding and grinding. We got stops that led to transition, the ball moving freely. It’s a fun way to play when you are doing it with the defensive end first to get your energy and then just sharing the ball and not caring who scores.”
(On being aggressive early) “As a team we wanted to come out aggressive and find some energy early. (Jason Maxiell) did a great job of starting the game off, he was really hot. He got us all in a good groove and then we had a lot of energy on defense that got us a lot of easy buckets because we were able to get out and run the floor.”
(On playing within the flow of the game) “My teammates definitely got me a lot of easy buckets tonight. We were able to get out and run and I got a few buckets in transition, I got a few buckets off of penetration. Those guys were aggressive and they allowed me to get easy shots.”
(On the team’s play tonight) “I thought it was just positive energy from the first to the last guy on the bench. I thought everybody brought energy. The spirit was there and it was just a great effort by us all around the board.”
(On the team’s defense) “We had to put some pressure on those guys and force them deep into the shot clock and just try to contest shots and get out and run. I think that has been our focal point, using our defense to get out in transition and get on offense to get some easy baskets.”
(On tonight’s game) “We were missing a lot of people. I was having to play my young boys and we just didn’t have it. Defensively we didn’t stop anybody; rebounding-wise we didn’t block out. It’s just one of those nights where nothing went right for us.”
(On what he told them at halftime) “I told them we were only down 12 points at halftime after not playing that well. I told them to go out and score first and then we would only be down by 10 and we could just keep chipping and chipping away. It just didn’t happen. We were getting beat so much on the man-to-man that we went zone and (Brandon) Knight just started eating us up with threes so we had to go back to man-to-man. It was just one of those nights where everything they did was right.”
(On the team) “Right now we just don’t have much experience out there. But when things are not going right and you haven’t been there and you become tougher, that’s a learning experience. It’s not something you can teach right away. I’m not making excuses for these guys, but they are young and they don’t have the experience and a lot of them have not played that long in college or the pros. It’s a struggle, but we are going to keep battling. We are not going to give up.”
(On tonight’s game) “It’s a tough one. It seems like every game we will be in it or could be in it and then a team just makes a big run and knocks us out and we can’t recover. It’s been the same story all year. It was another tough game.”
(On the team’s goal over the final nine games) “We’ve got nine more games left and I’m not going to give up. I have some pride about me. I’m just going to keep fighting and keep playing hard and prepare every day, every game, every off day and every practice like we’re going to make the playoffs. Hopefully something can happen and next year hopefully we can do better. It’s just an unfortunate situation. It’s tough, but you’ve got to stay positive. That’s all you can do. It’s hard, but that’s all you can do. Just stay positive.”
(On the third quarter of tonight’s game) “We knew the game was close. Twelve points isn’t that much in the NBA, so we knew we had a chance to come back. We tried to fight hard when we came out in the third, they just out-toughed us.”
(On how the team wants to finish the season) “We have nine games left. We know it’s almost over, but we’ve still got to stay focused and we still have a job to do out there every night for the fans and for ourselves. We’ve just got to go out there and play hard no matter what.”