Detroit: John Kuester | Greg Monroe | Rodney Stuckey New Jersey: Scott Skiles | Brandon JenningsPistons Head Coach John Kuester
(On the game) “I thought the third period was a big key for us and it gave us a little cushion and that gave us some room to breathe a little bit, but the kept making shots when they closed it to four. I thought our guys showed poise, Rodney Stuckey had an outstanding game, he really did a good job of controlling the tempo, getting fouled, taking the ball to the basket.”
(On Chris Wilcox) “I thought the way he was so good was his ability to slash when people were posting up, getting offensive rebounds, showing his athleticism was something that we needed. Twenty-seven points and 13 rebounds is pretty impressive. He has had spurts throughout the year. We decided to go with Chris at the end because he was having such a big game and even though the match-ups where a little different, we stayed with him. Illyasova is someone who has hurt us on such a consistent basis because he is so wiley and rebounds and can knock down shots.”
(On playing for 48 minutes) “We both know that we have been in a lot of basketball games and just seems like in certain situations when we needed a stop or we needed to get a score it has not been that way consistently, but I thought our effort was pretty consistent throughout the night.”Pistons Forward Greg Monroe
(On Chris Wilcox) “He had it going tonight from the beginning of the game to the end of the game and had a great game. People were finding him and he had the hot hand tonight and he led us to a victory tonight.”
(On is this the Wilcox we saw in training camp) “Yea, he's been going through the little knicks and pains throughout the whole season so he's being play through it. He still has a little pain and doing some things before the game, but he's fine obviously. He's playing through this and showing his toughness right now.”
(On Wilcox and Monroe being in the right spot) “It has to be apart of my game. That's how we (Wilcox and Monroe) have to get our points and we both know that there's not going to be a lot of plays called for us seeing as we have scorers on the offensive end of the court so we work hard trying to get second chance shots, moving off the ball, getting easy buckets.”Pistons Guard Rodney Stuckey
(On Chris Wilcox) “He did a real good job. I think since we've come back from this all-star break Chris has been playing really well for us. He's athletic, he can get up and down the court, and he's a presence around the rim.”
(On getting down the court) “I think the more we can get the ball out quicker and just run and have fun we're a better team.”
(On game being fun) “Yea, last game too as well. I thought we got out and ran as well. I think that's when we're the best.”
(On making tonight a theme) “Yea, absolutely. Hopefully we can start doing that a little bit more.”
(On the game) “It wasn’t a very competitive game by us. They ran right by us in transition multiple times. They kind of dominated us in the paint in second chance points at halftime. Very very poor defensive effort and as a result we got one put to us.”
(On missing Andrew Bogut’s defense) “Obviously Andrew is a important part of our team but we had opportunities. We looked at several clips of the guys at halftime and of course we’ll watch the game again but we were right there to get balls its just we were a step slow tonight, particularly in the paint.”
(On holding opponents to 100 points or less) “We can tell right there at the very beginning it was obvious. We had a great difficulty getting back and that’s normally something we don’t do. We normally don’t give up a lot of fast break points. We scramble back and make the team set up and we were in a little bit of a jog mode and that loss us the game.”
(On Pistons’ offense) “In the rare occasion in the first half when we did get a stop, they get the rebound and get the second chance points. It was not a very well played game for us.”
(On the loss) “They ran the floor well tonight. They got a lot of buckets in transition and that’s kind of how they got the lead and was able to come out with the victory.”
(On failure to hold Pistons under 100 points) “Our defense wasn’t as good as a team tonight. We kind of let them get easy buckets and we really wasn’t rotating like we usually do and they were able to counter on it.”
(On second and third quarter) “I just try to be aggressive. I know we’re not making the playoffs and the season will be ending in a week or so but we still got to finish out the season. We’re professional athletes and we have to keep playing hard.”
(On lack of defense by Bucks) “It’s real tough losing your best defender on your team. A guy who can have a lot of shot challenges and make it difficult for the guards so it was tough out there tonight.”