Detroit: Lawrence Frank | Greg Monroe | Charlie Villanueva
Milwaukee: Jim Boylan | Ersan Ilyasova | Brandon Jennings
(On the bench…) “I thought we had great contributions from the bench. That was key going into the game tonight, to get 49 points from our second unit and it coming from a collection of different guys. Rodney Stuckey was great tonight. He was really engaged in the game on both ends of the court. The ability to stay poised and play through mistakes was great.”
(On defensive end…) “Our guys did a really good job of locking in. Whether you’re on the road or you’re at home, you have to get stops. The scoring is going to go down and everything is harder to come by. We were able to get enough stops and make some big plays. Especially the last two [plays] for us.”
(On the team’s defensive effort…) “In the first quarter, it was our defense that was creating offense. We scored 33 points, but it was off of 16 fast break points. We didn’t have any fast break points for the rest of the game. We have to be able to use our defense and our ability to get stops. We can’t rely on scoring, but we can rely on bringing a defense, effort and understanding to our game plan.”
(On the resolve in tonight’s game…) “As a team, we definitely did a good job of staying poised. Obviously Charlie hit a big shot, but we got some stops late. We executed on offense. It was definitely a test of the growth of our team.”
(On keeping poise down the stretch…) “Guys know what it takes to win games like this. We’ve been in this position a whole lot this season. Guys know what to do to finish these games out like this. And we did a good job tonight.”
(On the comfort level with Jose Calderon…) “He’s one of those guys that you can plug in with anybody. He sets people up. The guy can score also. He is one of those people with a high basketball IQ. He just knows how to make plays on the court.”
(On having a turnover down the stretch, then hitting the game-winning shot…) “I just put [the turnover] behind me. The intention was right. I was a little bit off target. The next play, I was glad to hit that big shot.”
(On tonight’s game-winning shot being his best moment as a Detroit Piston…) “I wouldn’t necessarily say my best, but it’s up there. It’s definitely up there. Never really hit a game-winner. It’s definitely up there.”
(On potentially having hit other game-winning shots in his career…) “You’ll have to go back to the archives. As a Piston, definitely no. Especially playing against my old team. Good place for it to happen.”
(On the last offensive play…) “I think (Brandon) was thinking they were going to foul him. They were up three, time was running out, we were coming over half court…Lawrence [Frank] was up yelling at them to foul, so that’s what they were going to do. I didn’t have a great angle on it. I know Brandon had a mark on his arm. I don’t know. I’d have to look at the tape. I think he was thinking they were going to foul him, and he’d be in the act of shooting if they did that. It didn’t happen, so he took that shot and that was it.”
(On defensive schemes…) “At first, we were letting [Jose] Calderon’s defenders slide under the screen, but Jose was playing the ball well, shooting the ball well, so we decided we’d jump out a little bit more and try to be a little more aggressive. There were a couple of occasions where there was a little miscommunication, but I thought after a certain amount of time, especially when we had Luc [Mbah a Moute] on him for a while, we tightened up a little bit. Mike [Dunleavy] did a good job on him. That last play was just one of those plays where he just got loose off of penetration, [they] kicked it to him and he found it. Charlie banged the shot.”
(On Detroit tonight…) “Our turnovers were quickly turned into points. They built a lead. They’re a fast-starting team. This is not unusual for Detroit to come out and play like this. If you watch their games, they’re a good starting team. They come out and play well early. We expected a push from them early, but we just turned the ball over, and some of the plays, you can’t even really describe them.”
(On the loss…) “It was a really tough loss, especially back-to-back. Either way, we want to win a game. We started a little slow with our pace, but we just tried to play the catch-up game. We played much better in the second half. When Charlie [Villanueva] hit that big 3-point shot it was disappointing, but the game wasn’t over yet. We learned something from this game, and we want to move to the next one.”
(On ball control struggles…) “In the beginning of the game we had a lot of turnovers. It’s hard to win games like that. We have to take care of the ball much better. In the second half we got back in the game, but we have to build a lead at some point. It was really a tough game for us.”
(On closing out the game…) “We couldn’t get any rebounds. We couldn’t get any stops on defense. The one ball that was fumbling around we couldn’t get. They got an extra possession, and they were able to score.”
(On Villanueva’s shot…) “That was a big one. A guy running at you, and you step away and you come back and still hit it. You try to run him up a line.”
(On team chemistry…) “Their team was playing harder than us. We are not competing to their type of level. It’s going to take a team effort.”