Postgame Quotes - March 2, 2011

Detroit: John Kuester | Greg Monroe
Minnesota: Kurt Rambis | Kevin Love | Jonny Flynn

Pistons Head Coach John Kuester
(On the game) “The first half the score was 63-61 and the concern that you have is giving up 63 points. Anytime you score 105 points that should be enough points to get a victory but we have to make more of a commitment everyday and change the culture of our thinking defensively. Just making sure that we defend people. We almost gave up 53 percent and we have to make sure that level of commitment that we talk about everyday has to translate from practice from the shoot around to the game situation.”

(On lineup) “We are giving our young guys a great opportunity. We are giving them a great look right here. We have two good practices ahead of us to again find out who is going to make that commitment. We had a great practice and a great shoot around before the Milwaukee game and it just didn’t carry over into the game.”

(On Greg Monroe) “One of the things about him is that he makes great decisions but I love the way he is roaming and getting into the dunk area and being able to duck in very hard. I think that he has such good savvy that he’s creating a lot of offense by himself.”

Pistons Forward Greg Monroe

(On offense) “As a team, I think we got a little stagnant, I think also they started to create a little more turnovers.”

(On playing defense) “Yea that’s how you win games; got to play hard on defense every play.”

(On rookie wall) “Yea I think I probably hit it; I hit it a while ago. I think I’ve been regaining my legs, regaining my body, reenergized, so right now I’m not focused on a rookie wall or nothing.”

(On calling more plays in post) “Just trying to get in when I can. This whole season I haven’t had many plays called, not expecting that to change, just go out and do my part.”

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Timberwolves Head Coach Kurt Rambis
(On the Game) “I was really happy with our effort and energy throughout the ball game. The guys had a disappointing loss against the Lakers, we didn’t get the things done in the second half against the Lakers that we wanted to, but the guys but themselves together in this ball game and collectively, everyone that played made a contribution. It was nice to see how hard they played and how much effort and passion they put into the ball game. I was particularly pleased with the fact, in the second half, after allowing them to shoot 53 percent in the first half, we held them to 33 percent in the second half field goal percentage shooting. It was good that they made their adjustments in the defense and started to really focusing on that end of the floor, that, on top of our ball movement won the game for us.”

(On Bench Play) “I think they played well together, they played well with a lot of energy. This was by far the best collective game from our point guards, Luke (Ridnour) played 17 minutes and was five-for-five. I thought he and Jonny (Flynn) both did a good job. When you combine their numbers from the point guard position, those are pretty impressive numbers. I thought they did a good job orchestrating our offense, running pick and rolls, and distributing the basketball. We had an awful lot of assists on our field goals, too and that was attributed to our ball movement.”

Timberwolves Center Kevin Love

(On second team) “I think that coach just found a group that he liked in that fourth quarter and then we got numerous stops on the defensive side and then made some free throws. We were also moving the ball well and the biggest thing for us was just getting stops. Everybody was rebounding the ball and that is how we want to play basketball, just like that.”

(On point guard play) “Jonny (Flynn) was terrific tonight and Luke (Ridnour) was great too. Jonny just played to win tonight, especially in that second half. The whole group really was working well, we were unselfish tonight, moving the ball and Jonny was just finding guys. The play of our point guards tonight was just really good.”

(On Flynn) “He just looked comfortable tonight. He still doesn’t look like the Jonny from last year as far as he is still just a little step slow and not back to 100 percent yet. But he really looked good tonight and if he can keep that up for a few games here and get his rhythm back then I think that he can be a very good player in this league.”

Timberwolves Guard Jonny Flynn

(On his 14 assists) “I can’t do it all myself out there and my teammates hit a lot of big shots tonight that might have looked easy, but they made them and played a good game as well.”

(On good second half) “I think that we just reacted a bit, instead of just going up and down the court in the first half. We just really focused at halftime and came out and got the win with our defense.”

(On building momentum into next game) “We just need to keep it up and help each other. I think that if we just stay together on defense and keep helping each other out then we will continue doing well.”