Detroit: Lawrence Frank | Andre Drummond | Jason Maxiell
Orlando: Jacque Vaughn | Glen Davis
(On the turning point in the game): “The second quarter we traded baskets and that is a very, very dangerous game when playing a team that has shot-making, but the third quarter is where it changed. That first unit was locked in, holding them to 14 third-quarter points. The denials and the ball pressures at the elbows, our shows from our bigs were very good. I thought Greg (Monroe) was very good, the defensive intensity was good, and we have to play that way for 48 minutes. It’s a dangerous way any other way. We had very good bench contributions tonight, and got a lot of good play from different guys.”
(On defensive effort): “We want to play good defense. Being a steal-oriented defense is not one of those things that we emphasize, but a good part of the game plan tonight was those denials, extending out elbow catches and ball pressure at the elbows. And I thought that’s why you saw Greg (Monroe) get a breakaway, Andre (Drummond) got a breakaway, and Greg was very aggressive up top with his pick and roll shows. But (J.J.) Redick is a monster. Redick is really good, he’s having a career year, he puts a lot of pressure on your defense. Also the job that we did on Afflalo. Arron was their leading scorer. And then Baby (Glen Davis), again making him take a lot of shots, and luckily he missed some ones that he normally makes, so we did some things that obviously impacted the outcome of the game.
(On playing with effort): “If we play with a lot of fight and play with effort every game and give it 100 percent and we’ll come out with great wins.”
(On steal and dunk): “Finish the play. I wasn’t trying to do anything fancy, so I just finished the play and got back.”
(On mindset): “The mindset is defense first. No matter what size they are, you try to dominate defensively and set the tone.”
(On having a lack of energy at first): We did a little bit. It’s my job to come out and start the game off aggressive, both defensively and offensively tapping the glass. It turned around for us.”
(On the importance of winning before a road trip): “It’s a great feeling to take care of home. We got two wins, and now we have to go to Chicago, Miami, and back to Orlando and see what we can do.”
(On Game): “I am a little surprised. I was really excited and enthused about our approach tonight and I thought we had a great shoot around this morning. Looking forward to the game and just not the results we were after.”
(On Effort): “I think they played well. At the end of the day you have to play at both ends of the floor. We were down by two at the half and shooting 60 percent from the three and 50 from the field and 14 assists so then it boils down to the matter of stopping the other team.”
(On Pistons effort in the paint): “They did a few things. I thought early we were pretty decent in our post defense. As they game goes on, their ability to penetrate the basketball and get into the lane and cause some problems for us which opened things up for their post players a little bit.”
(On his looks): “They did not go in. As a player you try to prepare yourself for the worst. You have to keep the reps up. At the end of the day I put this loss on me. As captain I need to step up and do the necessary things to win a ball game.”
(On shoulder): “I have to play better. No matter what the coach does or how things look I have to play better point blank, no excuses.”
(On second half): “We cannot have (Arron) Afflalo take only four shots. I played 23 minutes and shot 16 shots that were all good shots. The second half I should have stayed aggressive and I took myself out of the game by getting a tech and I was not helping the team so coach sat me.”