Detroit: Lawrence Frank | Brandon Knight | Austin Daye Cleveland: Byron Scott | Kyrie IrvingPistons Head Coach Lawrence Frank
(On the game): “Collectively, it was a super effort. Especially, when you consider (we were) shorthanded. Losing Rodney (Stuckey) a couple minutes into the game and not having (Ben Gordon). Our guys really stepped up on the defensive end. Other than turnovers, early, we were getting great shots early in the game. A couple turnovers really fueled (Cleveland’s) (fast) break. In the first half, when you break down (Cleveland’s) scoring, they had 15 points in transition, nine of them by (Kyrie) Irving, all of them in the paint. They had 11 points on pick and rolls, and then 10 points by just making plays after the play (broke down). I thought our guys really locked in. The third quarter really set a great tone. Everyone who played stepped up and played well.”
(On defending Kyrie Irving): “We definitely know he’s going to take shots and use a lot of pick and rolls to try to get to the basket. He’s looking to create for himself and we knew that, and my teammates did a great job helping me try to stay in front and limit him as much as we could…He still got shots off, but my teammates did a great job, collectively, trying to get those rebounds after he missed a couple (shots).”
(On closing out games): “It’s very important. It shows that our team is growing and getting better. We’ll try and continue to build upon that. It all starts with defense, so as long as we get stops we’ll continue to build.”
(On him filling in for Rodney Stuckey and Ben Gordon): “(Coach) just said to be ready to play…I just did a good job of coming in tonight and fulfilling my role…I did a good job of just keeping my body ready for those minutes. I did a good job of running sprints during shoot around and doing extra work to be in shape to play 30 minutes. I’m not going to lie, in the third quarter I was really sucking wind…I’m just being ready whenever my number is called to make some smart plays and I was able to do that tonight.”
(On his defense): “When you hear positive things from the bench, it really gives me a lot of confidence. Just being in the right spots defensively really helped me out.”
(On tonight’s game): “I thought we played hard. Offensively, we just couldn’t make a shot. We did some pretty good things defensively. Pick and roll defense could have been a little bit better. I think we got split 10 or 12 times. We could have done a better job there. Overall defensively, I thought we played pretty well and played pretty hard. We just couldn’t make a shot.”
(On what he can do when guys are struggling to make shots): “You just keep searching. That’s all you can do. I thought we did that. We just kept searching it out. The other thing was, I think we had 40-some shots in the paint and I think we made 10, 11 or 12. It was an unbelievable number of misses in the paint. If you’re not converting those easy shots in the paint, it’s just going to be hard. We just couldn’t get it to fall for us.”
(On not getting frustrated as a team): “I told them when I called it in. I said ‘Everybody bring it in. We’ve been through this before and we’ve been through worse. The only thing we have to do is continue to stay together as a team and keep encouraging each other and keep fighting.’ That’s all you can do. I think we did that last year, pretty much. We just kept fighting and kept playing. I don’t see this group quitting. We’re going to keep playing and we’re going to keep fighting. That’s the only thing we know.”
(On if he thought they could win in the fourth quarter): “I did. That’s why I kept (the starters) out at that particular time, just to see if the second unit could hold serve and they were able to do that. When I brought the starters back in, I was hoping that we had another run in us. Let’s see if we can get another run and get over the hump. We just weren’t able to do it.”
(On Tayshaun Prince): “Prince looked like he did five or six years ago. Tayshaun played extremely well. He really won the game for them. He’s a veteran. He’s won championships. He’s been through that before. He knows how to put the ball in the basket when the game is on the line.”
(On whether fatigue is a major factor on the team’s recent performances): “I guess you would say it’s a factor, but we’re not trying to make any excuses for ourselves. It’s been a tough stretch of games for us and this is our fifth (loss) in a row. We’ve been in a position like this before. Everyone is down on us, but we just have to pull it together and continue to compete.”
(On if pushing the tempo will help going forward): “Definitely. I feel like we played a lot better in transition than we did last night, but tonight just came down to the last possessions and a few shots that didn’t go our way. It happens.”
(On how Detroit guarded him tonight): “I was just trying to make plays. I noticed that in the first quarter, every time I drove, they would clog the lane up like Philadelphia did. I just tried to make plays for my teammates and in the second half I tried to be a little bit more aggressive, but it just wasn’t enough.”
(On the upcoming difficult stretch of the season): “I’m looking forward to it. We’re winding down to the end of the season and I feel like we can still make a late push. I’m still remaining optimistic and we still want to surprise people. That’s the attitude we’ve had going into every single game and we want to compete. That’s what it comes down to.”