Detroit: Lawrence Frank | Jason Maxiell | Greg Monroe
Atlanta: Larry Drew | Lou Williams
(On game ending) “Obviously, there’s a lot of cleanup for us. I thought we had a very, very good half by at large, although we didn’t get up to a good defensive start the first six minutes. The last, I’d say, 17 minutes, we set pretty good defense in basketball, obviously Austin (Daye) gave us a huge lift in the first half. Then we kind of left off on some discipline in that fourth quarter. Poor shot selection; didn’t really have a lot of rhythm, shots, and it led to poor transition defense. In the third quarter defense we were getting four threes, couple of them, we just need to be more solid. I thought the intensity was there, we just took some gambles on a couple of them. You just got to give them credit, some good ball movement possessions for them. Like I said, down the stretch, obviously, we’re going to have to be sharper and better. We did a good job on the boards, good job in the paint. We’ll just have to continue to clean up our mistakes.”
(On defense) “Well, this was the second game in a row where Max (Jason Maxiell), down the stretch, made some huge energy hustle plays that almost came up with another loose-ball when he dove on the floor, very similar to what he did in the Sacramento game. And, you know, give him credit, he’s sitting there for a while now and to respond and do what he did, you know those are winning-type plays that we need.”
(On avenging the loss in Atlanta): “We pretty much owed them one from last time at their place, so it was just a close game like always.”
(On the home stretch): “Being at home, we got some good practices in. We’re protecting our home court and have had some good wins in our conference.”
(On Atlanta’s comeback): “They made at least six threes in the fourth quarter and that brought it right back to a close game and it was lucky for us.”
(On being physical in the paint): “That’s the type of game we had. We tried to get down low and bang, working on Andre (Drummond), getting a little more physical down low (and) myself and things are working out.”
(On holding on in the last minutes): “It was huge. We found a way to get another win. Guys did well and the team had rhythm. We had a let down coming down the stretch, but we found a way to finish the game.”
(On the let down in the fourth-quarter): “We’ve been improving, but obviously we have a ways to go. We are finding ways to win now, which is always the most important thing.”
(On the previous overtime loss against the Atlanta Hawks): “That game could have gone either way, obviously. Tonight we just wanted to continue what we’ve been doing the past few games. That was a few games back. We’ve got a lot better since that game.”
(On Game): “We came up a little short tonight. Coming into this game, the one thing we said that we wanted to try to do was to eliminate momentum plays and match their physicality. For three quarters we did not do that. In the fourth quarter, I thought we did a better job with it.”
(On Defense): “We did a good job. Particularly we switched up our defensive strategy. We played them man some, we played them zone some, we forced some tough shots, we challenged shots and we came up with rebounds. I thought Zaza (Pachulia) did a good job coming off the bench and defensively, I thought we did a good job collectively forcing them into some tough shots.”
(On final play): “We were going to go right to Al (Horford) and just going to let him take it to the basket.”
(On final possession): "I was just trying to get it towards the rim. I figured that the clock was down at that point, and I just wanted to get shot towards the rim that would count if it went in."
(On difference between first three quarters compared to the fourth): "Energy. Simple as energy. We didn't play with a lot of energy in the first half, we didn't make smart plays, and then in the second half we did a better job.”
(On early deficit): "It happens. We realize in this league you're going to get your best shot on any given night from any given team, tonight was no different. I think Detroit just did a good job of playing well on their home court. We did the best we could fighting back."
(On Austin Daye): "I'm sure he's part of their plans. He's a guy that spaces the floor out for them, especially with the style of play that they have, he helps them out tremendously by making shots, and making big shots as well."