Postgame Quotes - January 14, 2011

Thoughts on no third quarter meltdown tonight… No. We made a little adjustment at half-time but guys responded and did a nice job. Any time you win on the road, it’s important. I’m very pleased with the effort. Our bench did a great job. I thought Will Bynum, Ben Gordon, Austin Daye really did a nice job in the second quarter also. That’s important that you get that kind of play from those guys and Charlie Villanueva also coming off the bench.

Thoughts on Tracy McGrady’s leadership tonight…. He did a great job. I was very impressed with his pace of the game, his control, making big plays when we needed some big plays going down the stretch. That was very important. It was something I felt would be coming, the way we played tonight. We pretty much put 48 minutes together.

Thoughts on Greg Monroe’s defensive play… That was a great defensive stop at the end of the game. One of the things that people are underestimating is his ability to guard a number of players, not only fours, threes and fives. So he’s really been very versatile in his ability to move his feet quickly. Now he might not be the fastest person up and down, even though he teased us a couple of times on how fast he can be, he moves his feet well, he understands positioning, he has quick hands and gets deflections. I think he really has benefited from being around Ben Wallace.

Thoughts on Greg Monroe making athletic plays under control better than he did earlier…. No question. I think what he’s able to do is control his body. Guarding Bargnani (Andrea) is as difficult as anybody out on the perimeter because you know what he does, he’s a strong right hand and he ball fakes. If you aren’t disciplined in your game to not go for those ball fakes, he gets to the foul line so easily. That’s where Greg I thought did a great job.

Thoughts on finally playing a good third quarter… It was something that we did talk about at halftime. We were focused throughout the whole game. We just played a good 48 minutes of basketball. We beat them every quarter except for the last. We played well overall.

Thoughts on your play… My teammates did a good job of finding me and I made the open shots. I made the plays that needed to be made. I felt the rhythm.

Thoughts on Tracy McGrady… With him handling the ball it changes the offence a bit. He is a very unselfish player but at the same time demands a lot of attention. He feels more comfortable. It seems like every game he is just feeling more comfortable out there and he showed it.

How much of an impact did last night have on your team preparing for tonight’s game? I am focused every game but when you have an arena that boos you, I think that you put a little more focus into it.

Do you feel like you are starting to control the game? Yes that is the type of player I am always under control no matter how the game is going. I just always try and keep my poise and try and control the pace of the game. That is just what my game is and it is starting to feel a lot better physically. Being out for so long I think I actually got a little smarter on the basketball court watching the game from a far.

Thoughts on handling the ball more… I am a rhythm player so having the ball helps me on the basketball court get my rhythm. I feel that I am a great decision maker and I feel the ball should be in my hands making plays for teammates. That is what I thrive off of, making my teammates better. There is no greater feeling than that. Having the ball has given confidence to me and my teammates.

Thoughts on the game… I think when you look at the bench lineup that tells alot. 35-18 is when Leandro (Barbosa) gets hurt and goes out. That’s the majority of our scoring of bench points right there. Obviously we missed that. Some guys struggled offensively tonight. DeMar (DeRozan) is usually a little bit better and defensively we needed to be a bit better as well. Points were an issue but I thought the first half of the game was the difference when we fell back and didn’t stop anybody.

What happened differently in the first half defensively? They just went one-on-one. They just posted different guys up, they took turns posting different guys up. They went one-on-one and scored whoever the match up was. It’s not a scheme, it’s not anything it’s just man-on-man and they exploited the mid patches. Guys should be embarrassed when a team runs a play six times in a row right at you.

Thoughts on the man-to-man defensive… We did it in the second half but you can’t do it for half a game. The other team shoots 44 percent for the game and we shoot 47percent for the game and the rebounding is a push and the turnovers are a push and we lose the basketball game. Points were a problem and our bench didn’t get as much production.

What was the difference between your play in the first half and second half? They scored 60 points in the first half. We can’t afford for that to happen, to win, we cannot do that. We did it again, the same mistake, but we were always there within six points, five points but we were never really able to pass them.

Why does the inconsistency continue to happen to this team? We were playing bad defence. They were able to iso(late) everybody and get into the low block and sometimes we tried to help each other but they were good at finding the open guy.

Why is it that you guys play better against the better teams? That’s been our issue all season long. We are very focused and we play so much better when we match up against a very good team, Orlando, L.A. or those kind of teams. Yeah, it is another problem.

You were a game time decision going in, how did the injury feel throughout? I had an MRI on my back and they said everything is okay so I just went out and played.

Thoughts on the teams one-on-one battles… We didn’t play any defence in the first or second quarter and we played it in the third and fourth quarter but it was too late to come back at that time.

Was it just a matter of two different halves defensively? Yeah, that’s all it was. They got at us first before we showed any type of fight. We need to come out at the beginning of the game and jump out at teams first and don’t become independent when it’s the third and fourth quarters when we are trying to fight back and get back into the game.

Was it a lack of energy? I think it’s a lack of energy at the beginning of the game. Once we see teams jumping on us, then everybody decides to play. We have got to go out there with attitude from the beginning.