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Postgame Quotes - January 14, 2017

Detroit Pistons Head Coach Stan Van Gundy 

(On the difference of play in the third quarter) “We couldn’t score and they scored every time they got it.”

(On using different lineups) “You know we wanted to give Ish [Smith] a little bit of a break, he’s been struggling, been a little frustrated, thought maybe sitting for a night would help a little bit. Wanted to give Beno [Udrih] some run. Didn’t really know exactly what to do about the two spot. [Reggie] Bullock didn’t get back until later in the day, but once he said he was going to play we wanted to give him some minutes, so that was the lineup stuff.”

(On Detroit’s defense) “We can’t stop anybody. We just can’t. I mean for the first 21 games we were the second-best defensive team in the league and now we are one of the worst. I’m frustrated. Not with our players, I’m frustrated with myself that I can’t figure this out. I mean, we literally can’t stop anyone, ever.”

Detroit Pistons Guard Reggie Jackson 

(On the team’s defense) “I don’t know if we’ve held someone under 50 percent shooting lately so yeah, coach is pretty much right.”

(On their opponents’ recent three-point shooting) “We got to defend. We got to make someone miss. I don’t know what it is. We’ll do it for about a total of half of a game, whether it be the first, third, or be the middle of the first, middle of the third, half the fourth. We’re just not playing together for 48 [minutes]. It’s really coming back to bite us each and every night.”

Detroit Pistons Guard Reggie Bullock

(On getting back up to speed) “It felt good. Obviously wins still have got to come along, but having coach trust [me] just coming off of injury and just being able to get me out there and get some minutes under my belt and get back in the groove. It felt good to see some shots go down.”

(On getting back to playing defense) “At the same time, it’s all wins. Coming out here, playing at altitude, working out before the game not knowing that I was going to play and running the stairs before the game and just doing those things, I just came in. It was a man-down, so I was just like a couple days away. Maybe five days away or whatever, but my team needed me and I was just glad to give them what I got.”

Utah Jazz Head Coach Quin Snyder 

(On Rodney Hood being aggressive shooting the ball) “He shoots better when he is decisive. I think he understands what we want and the message is consistent. You just have to ignore it, there is going to be nights when they don’t go in, but he just needs to keep doing the same thing because that is the way he needs to play, and play defense. I think they are related for him. Where he is aggressive on one end, he is more aggressive on the other. It is a relationship that I think is usually the case.”

(On Rodney Hood, George Hill and Gordon Hayward scoring 20-plus points) “You shoot like that, you are going to be hard to beat if you defend. We were fortunate. You aren’t going to shoot like that all the time is the problem. I think that aggressiveness helps. We didn’t shoot the ball for a stretch after we got the early lead at first. The ball didn’t go in. Our challenge is when the ball doesn’t go in to continue to play the right way offensively and to continue to guard. Sometimes when the ball doesn’t go in we go inward a little bit. It’s true for those three guys, too. They got to be able to do that when they’re not making shots.”

Jazz Guard Rodney Hood

(On his play tonight) “I got to give a lot of credit to my teammates. I like playing here at home. My teammates got me open, they got me open shots starting off and I felt the rhythm from the beginning of the game. They told me to keep firing away, so I kept shooting.”

(On combining for 16 three-pointers with Gordon Hayward and George Hill) “It’s great. Just being out here playing with those guys, going and playing at an All-Star level. George, when he’s playing, is playing at an All-Star level, so I just enjoy to play off those guys and just be ready when my name is called.”

Jazz Forward Gordon Hayward 

(On combining for 16 three-pointers with George Hill and Rodney Hood) “Those guys were hot tonight and when they get hot, it’s hard to stop them. When Hood shoots the ball like that, he’s really, really good. George has been shooting like that the whole season it seems like. It was awesome to see them get going and hopefully they can do it again.”

(On Rodney Hood’s shooting and George Hill’s play tonight) “Confidence with Rodney. That’s the thing, when he’s playing with confidence like that, I mean, he gets going and he can really score in bunches on you, for sure, and do his own personal runs. G [George] has been playing like he’s been playing the whole year, so to me it’s just another normal game for him. But, glad to see both of them get going and just makes us really dynamic as a basketball team. We can spread the floor and knock down shots and that opens up everything else for you.”