DETROIT PISTONS HEAD COACH STAN VAN GUNDY: (On Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s night and the team): “I thought he was, especially in the second half, I thought he really picked up the defense. He played well offensively, he made assists, I just thought he was really, really good. He had great energy—played really, really hard, but tonight I think maybe more than any other game we’ve had, I thought was truly everybody. Everybody who played, played well tonight. Steve (Blake) played well, Aron (Baynes) played well, Stanley (Johnson) played well, AT (Anthony Tolliver) played well, all the starters played well, I mean everybody played well, so I don’t know that even in some of our better games that we’ve had that before. Tonight we had everybody play well.”
(On coming off last night’s back-to-back): “Well they were on a back-to-back also so that helps. But I will say we played five in seven days and we were a half-court shot away from winning four of them so I thought our guys had good energy tonight to not only be able to go back-to-back but on a fifth game out of seven nights. We’ve talked about it a lot, there’s a physical grind in this league, but every team in this league goes through it and so a lot of it comes down to your mental approach in the game and what you talk yourself into or out of. I thought we were good tonight.”
DETROIT PISTONS GUARD REGGIE JACKSON: (On hitting a stride on defense): “I think we’re still trying to figure it out; still have a long way to go, but we’re piecing it together day-by-day. Just figuring each other out and getting more continuity with each other and finding ways to help get each other easy shots.”
(On defense forcing Indiana out of their game): “We knew both teams were coming in on a back-to-back so we had no excuse. Both teams were going to be a little fatigued and we just had to push through and figure it out. Marcus (Morris) did a great job starting on Paul (George) and the rest of the team, we tried to help him behind him, but he did a great job playing one-on-one defense. KCP (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) was everywhere just flying around and Dre (Andre Drummond) did a great job at stabbing at the ball and making them think second about going to the basket. We just tried to force them into tough twos, they did a great job at making them early but after a while just found a way to force turnovers and get stops.”
DETROIT PISTONS GUARD KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE: (On starting the game with more energy): “We knew it was a back-to-back and they had one as well so we wanted to come out with great energy. I had a lot of energy and my teammates followed. It was a great team win.”
(On the play in the second and third quarter): “We just picked it up on the defensive end. We got stops and ran in transition to get easy baskets and we just continued it throughout the whole game.”
(On almost getting a triple double): “I wasn’t too much worried about it, I was just out there playing having fun.”
INDIANA PACERS HEAD COACH FRANK VOGEL: (On defending transition threes): “We didn’t get back well enough. We didn’t talk and match up well enough. They were the more determined team tonight, give them credit.”
(On playing a back-to-back): “They played last night too, that’s no excuse.”
(On differences from last night to tonight): “Tonight was a disappointing effort on the defensive end.”
INDIANA PACERS FORWARD PAUL GEORGE: (On giving up 118 points four of last five games): “Tonight was one that was different from all the other ones. We really gave up a lot of fast break points and let them really control the tempo tonight. We’re just playing poorly on back-to-backs right now.”
(On transition defense tonight vs. Pistons): “They just played with energy, they pushed the tempo; they pushed the pace. Once they figured out that’s a way to gain an advantage they went with it. We couldn’t stop them in the half court or in the fast break game which made it even tougher.”