Postgame Quotes - January 24, 2011

On what allowed Detroit to play so well in a tough environment: “It was a total team effort. The starters did a great job. The guys that came off of the bench did a phenomenal job. And it was important. You had Austin Daye come in and give us huge minutes. We were a little stagnant going into the end of the fourth period, and then (Ben) Gordon hit some big shots and that was important. It was important for our psyche. Tracy McGrady had a phenomenal game I thought. Tayshaun Prince continues to play solid basketball, he’s outstanding. Ben Wallace coming off of the bench with 11 rebounds, I was very pleased with his efforts. I thought Rodney Stuckey had a much better second half and played very aggressively.”

On what’s clicking for Detroit: “The players have decided they want to win. You give the players all of the credit. There’s no question, they have done a phenomenal job of their approach to the game, and that’s important. Watching us, how we play in a basketball game, the enthusiasm that the bench is having right now. They deserve this because I think it’s important they taste some success cause we have some talent on this team.”

On keeping the focus on winning: “My whole focus has been preparing for the next game and that’s all you can do. And in preparing for the next game you have to make tough decisions. I’ll give you a great example, Will Bynum won us the game the night before. Playing Phoenix he did a phenomenal job. Tonight we had other guys step up. You realize that all of these guys on any given night are going to give us something, and that’s the main focus.”

On forcing turnovers and taking care of the basketball on the road: “It’s huge. It’s the reason you win. When you take care of the basketball and you’re capable of creating turnovers on the road. We showed a lot of resiliency. We showed a lot of mental toughness, something I’ve been searching for. I was very impressed.”

On Tracy McGrady’s role: “I can’t begin to tell you how much it’s been a pleasure to be around him. He thinks the game all of the time. He has a great demeanor of calming our team down. It’s interesting to watch tape when we play teams early on, and to see it now, it’s like night and day. One of the things that’s a huge part of it is when he’s attacking the basket and not settling for jump shots, he’s awfully good, because he not only creates for himself, he creates for others.”

“Don’t leave me in the fourth, because I am going for the dagger-threes. I am trying to find the line and take some air out of the Arena.”

“That initial run that we had definitely helped and B.G. and Tay knocking down big shots was big. We did a great job tonight of executing.”

“I always expect shots to go down. That is kind of how it was at the beginning of the season too but I kind of got pushed out of the lineup. Hopefully, I am back in to stay and I can continue to do what I am doing.”

“I think we have been more dedicated on the defensive end and we are not making as many slip ups as we were at the beginning.”

“He (McGrady) brings a lot of things especially with the initial mismatch. Teams have to pick and choose what they are going to do. If they don’t double they will have to deal with him against the smaller guard and if they do double, they will have to deal with me, Tayshaun, and B.G. out on the perimeter.”

“Tonight I wanted to be more aggressive. That is how I wanted to approach tonight because I was very disappointed with how I played in my last game. I felt good. I got us off to a great start and it just continued.”

“I just took advantage of what the defense gave me. I felt like I could get my shot off and I could get to the basket. Things just felt good for me in that first quarter.”

“We made a point of emphasis of trusting each other on the basketball court and being unselfish. We had three guys with 20 points tonight, but more importantly I think we are a more improved defensive team.”

“It (win) felt good considering what our schedule is looking like over the next week. We have a tough game at home against Denver. Then we go on the road for two tough games against Miami and then New York. This was a big win for us to come in here and beat a team on their home court who are pretty darn good. It should be a confident booster for us going back home.”

“I think I have matured as a player and as a person over the last couple of years with what I have been through. I just wanted to come in here, and I am thankful that Joe (Dumars) gave me the opportunity to come into this team and bring my leadership abilities…if I was to get healthy the way I am now, and contribute the way I am contributing, he took a chance on me and I wanted to really embrace that and do the best I could.”

(on whether he envisioned himself being a point guard at this stage of his career) “Not really but having the ability to go to that position after being a scorer for many years but playing the point guard position is a comfortable thing. It could prolong my career and I have no problem with it. I like the way the team runs when I have the ball.”

(on development of Austin Daye) “That is what it is all about having a young player that is really confident like that. We have veteran players that encourage him every time he steps on the basketball court. He is a guy that works extremely hard and willing to get better. He is willing to listen and that is one of the most important things for a young guy coming into this league. He is getting better and tonight he shot the ball extremely well and we needed every point that he scored for us.”

On the Night: “It came down to three things tonight; turnovers, especially in the first half, that’s why we were where we were. We had 12 turnovers at half time; they scored 17 more points off of our turnovers, which is a huge number. We did a very poor job taking care of the ball. Austin Daye had a career high tonight, and their perimeter guys just rocked us. We couldn’t guard any of them, McGrady had 20, Prince 20, Gordon 16, and Stucky 16, and there wasn’t one of them that we could guard. That was the three things in the game that I felt hurt us the most. Austin Daye had some big shots and their perimeter guys just tore us up. Not to mention they played great defense on us. Our perimeter guys didn’t play good tonight, so we really got out-played out there tonight.”

On Magic Defense: “We have to get a lot better defensively, which is my responsibility. I played Quentin tonight and maybe I’ll have to play him more, or maybe we will have to play other people if these guys won’t commit to it. We’ve just got to defend a lot better than we did tonight and that’s my responsibility.”

On The Magic’s Focus: “I think our focus is a big problem. We aren’t focusing on the game plan or on personnel. I think our guys know the stuff if you talk to them about other players, but I don’t think we focus on it on the floor at all. I don’t think we do a good job of taking away people’s strengths, which we usually do a good job at. We make too many mistakes, and it’s going be hard to be a winning team that way. Our intensity needs to improve too, and our help defense was not good. We talked about our problems at practice today, but our focus was just not good, and we had two easy wins and I think we started getting ahead of ourselves.”

“Guys got to guard on the perimeter. Got to do a better job, it just can’t be one dribble to the basket. So you got to do a better job.”

“Guys just got to want to play, that’s it.”

“Either we get it together or we’re just going to be a playoff team that doesn’t win a championship.”

“We just have to play; everybody knows what to do. We’re professional athletes, we know what to do.”

“Everything we do right now, we’re developing some bad habits. Kind of like turning a switch on and off, playing hard and not playing hard. Just have to do a better job of our energy, consistency and intensity and continue our level of play when we get in there and keep it there.”

“They turned it over like twice in the first half and we turned it over 12 (times) or something. I mean, they’re not a team that scores a lot of points but once you give them that many opportunities, they’ve got guys on that team that are good players.”

“It was one of those things that we have to find ways to win games when we’re not shooting good regardless of what happened in the previous game. We have to buckle down, stop guys and try and make it tougher than we did tonight.”

“I just think that I personally didn’t do a good job from stopping guys from getting to the basket. They got to the basket at will in the first half and I think that’s why they controlled the game the whole way.”

“We definitely hate to give up games like this but every night you’re not going to be at your 100% best but you still have to go out there and be competitive. I don’t think we did that tonight. Didn’t have any energy, played their style, played a slow-paced game. We just didn’t have it, whatever the reason was.”