Detroit: Lawrence Frank | Greg Monroe | Brandon Knight
Milwaukee: Scott Skiles | Mike Dunleavy
(On offense): “We had some turnovers, both on some elbow entries and elbow catches. Sometimes, especially if you’re trying to feed the post at times, other times, you know the pick-and-roll play we had some turnovers. We just weren’t very, very protective of the basketball in the second half. Obviously, that first quarter, our starters did a great job of setting tone, going on a 13-0 run. They responded back on a 17-6 run and then we had a strong finish. I think our second unit did a good job in the second quarter. The third quarter, basically, we were creating baskets. That fourth quarter, turnovers, not only turnovers, think about it, a loose ball leads to a three, an offensive rebound leads to a three; they wind up getting another three, [Monta] Ellis hits a hell of a shot along the baseline. At the end of the day, Tay (Tayshaun Prince) delivers four big points for us late, got a big stop late against Ellis for the last possession. It wasn’t necessarily pretty, but as we’ve seen with these division games, they’re grimy, grindy and nasty. Obviously we have a lot to work on. It was good to find a way to win and execute down the stretch. Tay was big.”
(On the last minute): “I saw real poise, not necessarily on the floor, but in the huddle, in the sense of there was no panic, there was no finger pointing. It was, alright; what do we need to do. We had a foul to give, so we were able to use the foul, we were able to get the stop, we were able to execute and get another stop. So, I thought our guys maintained their poise down the stretch, but like I said, a lot of these games are close, and if you’re competitive, like we have been, you’re going to be in a ton of these games. Sometimes you’ll convert down the stretch, sometimes you won’t. The key is, we just have to keep up with ourselves in this position, because that’s what winning basketball is about is getting to the last six minutes with the game and going either way. Whether you had a lead, whether you’re coming back, regardless of what happens, the game is a game of ebbs and flows and you just have to stay the course.”
(On handling Milwaukee’s run): “They made a late run, but we did a good job of just standing in defensively.”
(On the bench): “Those guys are doing a great job. We have to be better, more consistent, as a starting group. This has been great for us, but when both groups are playing well most of the time we can get a win.”
(On Tayshaun Prince): “We saw that we had a mismatch all night. Tayshaun (Prince) definitely came through for us, especially in the clutch knocking down what ended up being the game-winning free throws.”
(On home stand): “We’ve got a couple more at home. We still have to continue to play with energy and continue playing well at home.
(On Tayshaun Prince in the last minute of the game): "Definitely huge. He got a big bucket for us. Just his presence out there helps us. He is such a big-time player when it comes to situations like that. He's been in them so many times, so he's very poised in situations like that."
(On Milwaukee's charge in the fourth-quarter): "They are all NBA teams. Maybe one is a little bit better than the other, or whatever you want to call it. Every team is going to make runs throughout the game. You've got to be able to withstand it and keep the same mindset whether it's the Miami or Milwaukee."
(On confidence boost after beating two of the best teams in the east): "Definitely. We are going to continue to do what we have been lately and continue to grow of it and get better, and continue to protect our court."
(On game): "It was more than a bad start. It was a bad three-and-a-half quarters. They outplayed us except for maybe six to eight minutes the whole game. They deserved to win and we had chances to try and steal it at the end. They were more physical and had a lot more energy. We had trouble finding a lineup that could kind of get some cohesive energy going."
(On defense late in the game): "Just playing hard. We started kind of denying things a little bit and got into it a little bit. We spent most of the game just too far off of guys and they took advantage of us."
(On defending last two plays against Tayshaun Prince): "We put our best defender on him and he created a foul and got two free throws. That is a difficult matchup for most of the three guys in the league, Tayshaun (Prince) in the post.
(On back-to-back): "We really talked about that (having energy) before hand, we didn't want that to happen, but to me it was a little bit of just being stagnant, lack of ball movement. Sometimes we come out and don't do that, but you get down 13-0 or 10 to nothing, it's just a disappointing way to start, and then we have to make lineup changes and everything else was just kind of messed up the rest of the game."
(On giving up early lead): "It seemed like they were getting whatever they wanted, and I just thought our offensive rhythm was terrible to start the game. Finally we got some stuff going, but we didn't start well."