Postgame Quotes - January 15, 2012

(On what changed in the second half – transition defensively): “I think that was a big part of it, I believe 15 points were off post ups and another 12 points were off pick and rolls. (The) Third quarter you look at a 30-point team quarter team that is shooting 60% and a total of 24 points in transition really 27 when you include their pick and rolls. You know we are not going to win many games when a team shoots 63% in the third quarter and 55 points in the second half, we just don’t have room for that much of an error. They got the 50/50 balls, they were just a step quicker, a step faster, a step more aggressive, and they deserved to get the victory.”

(On the ability to get back in the game): “We started with Ben Gordon making a few plays off of them, we bounced back a little bit, we just couldn’t get enough stops because of that it impacted what we did offensively. You know we didn’t get the multiple paint attacks that we did at times in the first half during the second half. Still, obviously you do not want to start the third quarter that way but we did and you have to respond and we didn’t. Games like this you have to grind, so much of the season is the ability to play through fatigue and all the soreness that both teams are feeling, and that is natural and they were better at it then we were today.”

“You think about the last two games we weren’t getting out on the break, we weren’t getting back on defense so some of the extra plays that we were making on the last two games. We were not able to make those today so I do not know what it is but there is no excuse for it. I guess my point of this season is going to be lots of grinding and you have to grind things out and we gave up 24 points in transition and we have to make teams play against a set defense and we were not able to do that tonight.”

(On confidence): "It's high, but your confidence is high when your teammates are getting easy buckets, it's not like I'm doing anything special, I'm just playing the offense and my teammates are finding me right now."

(On bad moments) "I think we're getting a little bit better at accomplishing our goals. Eventually, hopefully we don't have those (bad moments), but I think right now, these past couple games, we've been better at not letting those moments last for a long time without playing with a lot of effort."

“(On fatigue) "Every team is facing fatigue right now, I guarantee that, so that's never a factor. Those are plays you have to make if you want to win games; you have to fight through adversity and we're going to have to make plays."

(On game):"We defended, we didn’t make excuses, and we didn’t get frustrated. It was just a great performance overall. We had guys individually that fought it out. It won’t show up on the stat sheet but I couldn’t be more pleased with our effort on the road."

(On Monta Ellis): "He's gotten frustrated lately because he has been physically abused at times and not getting to the line. But the great players find a way in spite of adversity, in spite of not getting the benefit of the doubt whistle to still gut it out and I’m glad the way he handled it tonight"

(On second half): "Well, we realized that either the conclusion would be that Charlotte , Detroit , and all these teams that we're better than beat us we're not better than them or we'd have to find a way to start winning these ball games. I think the guys felt challenged and first and foremost we are a defensive-minded team. We started to get stops and it affected our offense."

(On game):"We made a concerted effort to not only get out of the gate as well but start that third quarter when it was neck and neck; try to make the little plays especially on the defensive end and we were able to do that tonight and we were able to push the lead late third quarter, early fourth."

(On defense):"When we've played well this year we've gotten victories. That’s been our staple; is getting stops on defense and rebounding the basketball. We haven’t had solid first (quarter). We haven’t done that and we haven’t done that well on the road this year. It was something we had to focus on tonight; we knew we had to get that done in order to beat Detroit ."

(On bench): “Our bench gave us a lot of good minutes tonight. Ekpe (Udoh) played unbelievable and so did Brandon (Rush) and so did Charles (Jenkins) and Nate (Robinson). That’s what we need on a back-to-back on the road. Starters, a lot of the time are going to be pretty tired and we were tonight. Starters put some good minutes but our bench really carried us."

(On game): "It was easy. Guys came in were very focused. We played well in the third quarter. We got the opportunity to jump on them before they were able to get the crowd into the game or anything. It was very important to win these type of games. Pistons are definitely a talented team with all the guys they have but it was a much needed win for us especially coming off the bad loss we did yesterday. We looked at this trip before we took it as a opportunity to get back on track. With us playing the top teams in the NBA how we've been playing, there’s no excuse why we should lose to a team by 20 points after coming off a big game."