Postgame Quotes - April 16, 2014

On the way the Pistons competed: “Our guys played their hearts out, competed from the opening tip. I feel terrible for them because they deserved to win the game. They did anything we asked them to do tonight some guys stepped up and made some incredible shots and they put together 48 minutes of as good as basketball we can play.”

On the gameplan after Kevin Durant’s go-ahead dunk: “A couple of different things, we have two or three options off an inbounds play and we wanted something at the rim, but it didn’t turn out that way.”

On Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s performance: “It was quite a game, he guarded two or three different guys and was terrific in the open floor. He was very good both off the dribble and making perimeter shots. He just played a fabulous game.”

On Caldwell-Pope’s development over the season: “Anytime over a course of 82 games you are going to make progress. He found out that they were going to start closing out on him, he even came up to me and says, ‘Coach they are not going to help off me.’ So I said well you might have to go backdoor a little bit and you might have to do some things to get them off of you. Then like I said they swung it to him a couple times and I thought the best thing we did in the first half was driving the basketball. We didn’t settle for a bunch of quick early perimeter shots and when you drive the ball good things happen.”

On Caldwell-Pope’s aggressiveness: “That’s just who he was. He was very aggressive. It was a great game. He was attacking. He was making the outside shots. He’s very talented scorer, and tonight you just got to see it fully.”

On ending the season on a closely-contested game: “We played hard, and however you want to think about it, one free throw, one stop, or one made bucket away from coming out with a win. Of course we’d like to end the season with a win, but it was a loss. I definitely think that was a good game by everyone who played tonight.”

On Durant’s offense: “He just started attacking. He didn’t settle in the fourth. I think most everything was at the rim. He hit a couple pull-ups, but he just started attacking. A guy that good, once he starts attacking it’s going to be hard to stop him.”

On finishing the season with a great performance: “I just felt some real confidence in coming out here and giving it all I’ve got. Just going out with a bang and leaving it all out on the court.”

“I was just trying to stay in attack mode all night, just to keep my rhythm going.”

On what he improved on in his rookie season: “Learning the flow of the game, and just taking the open shot when I have one.”

“Well, like I told our guys after the game, we had a really good year; 59 wins. A lot of good things took place, a lot of good improvement, a lot of good growth. Teamwork was taken to another level, commitment to each other was taken to another level in the right direction; but I thought our guys competed all year. Everybody pitched-in and gave ourselves a chance to win 59 games and being second seed. With the year we had some adjustments we had to go through and play through and find success through them. With that being said, I am not overly thrilled in the way we played tonight, but with that being said also, that we made winning basketball plays down the stretch. The game is about making winning plays for each other.”

On Durant and Westbrook attacking the rim in the 4th quarter: “Well, we have to get to the free throw line. We’ve been one of the league leaders for many years. This year we’ve kind of dropped off. We’re trying to get a few other guys involved in getting to the line, but you have to get there by getting fouled. Those are areas that we want to continue to build our team going forward. But I thought the offense was good in the 4th quarter. We made some big plays on both ends of the floor.”

On thoughts heading into the playoffs: “We’re excited. We’re excited…We play a long season. Every team goes through a long NBA season to get ready for this part of the year. Our guys are excited. They’re excited for each other and the opportunity ahead. They know we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

On Defense: “We just figured it out and got it done. It wasn’t the best game, we didn’t play well defensively and we didn’t shoot the ball well offensively. It was something about just getting it done and having that will power and that fight.”

On Attacking the Rim in 4th Quarter: “Well my shots weren’t falling so I tried to get as close as I could and just be aggressive.. I got what I wanted down there going to the rim. I was just trying to position and my teammates to put me in a great position.”

On Playing Memphis in the First Round: “It’s going to be a tough but fun series. We have a lot of history with these guys. We’re looking forward to getting the opportunity to play for a championship.”

On Tonight Being a Close Game: “There’s going to be a lot of games where it comes down to one possession and you have to get the stop and you have to score. Tonight prepared us for that. To be honest, we wanted to win this game of course but I’m glad we didn’t win by a lot. This was getting us ready for that – having to make good plays.”

On the playoffs: “It’s a new season now. 16 wins, that’s all that matters. What we need to do better is just defend, do a better job of playing together and trying to win games.”

On him and Kevin attacking the rim in the 4th: “It definitely was a factor but I think defensively you have to do a better job locking down for the entire game.”

On playing Memphis: “It will be fun. It will be a physical matchup against Memphis. They’re a great team. We just have to go in there and play our game.”