DETROIT PISTONS HEAD COACH DWANE CASEY: (On the turnaround in the second quarter): “I wish I could sit here and say I saw it coming, I was hoping it was coming. Again, it was kind of a similar start (to last game), we had five turnovers in the first quarter and then we were riding the ship and got it going. I didn’t have to give a nice speech or anything tonight, guys understood and they knew after yesterday’s film session that there are certain things we have to do and a mindset that we have to have. I was concerned about the early start, I think it was a great day for kids, but the noon start has the NBA body clocks all out of wack, but I thought our guys responded pretty well.”
(On resting Blake Griffin for a large portion of the game): “No question, that was what we were hoping. Again, we are not in a situation right not where we can do the so-called load management and just have him have games off because every game is important for us. What we can do is manage his minutes and games like today help us do that, getting out into a big lead and take care of business.”
(On exploring the keys to the pick-and-roll): “Well, one is Ish’s (Smith) speed, I think his speed is one thing. Then Reggie’s (Jackson) has a gate about him when he comes off the pick-and-roll, off-rhythmed gate if you can think about that, he hesitates and goes. They throw so many stats at me I don’t even know, we’re at the top of the league in screen assists, so our bigs are doing a great job of screening. Andre is doing a great job of screening, Blake (Griffin) is doing a great job of screening and Thon (Maker) is also. So as long as we continue to do that, our pick-and-roll game will be effective.”
DETROIT PISTONS FORWARD BLAKE GRIFFIN: (On why the brand of basketball they are playing now is sustainable): “I think we’ve just been playing basketball the right way, I’ve said it over and over again over during this 14 game stretch. Making the extra passes, making the right passes, trusting each other defensively, being there on rotations where we need to be, all those things. Whether you’re hitting shots or not, those things will keep you in the game. You know, eventually you’ll get hot.”
(On the importance of screen assists) : “I think it was after we played Indiana at Indiana right before the New Year, our coaches showed a lot of clips before we had practice and showed us not getting hits on screens and challenged our bigs and the next night I think we had 16 screen assists against Orlando. Since, maybe the New Year, I can’t remember the stat they said but we’ve led the league in screen assists since around the time, that’s a credit to Dre (Andre Drummond), ZaZa (Zaza Pachulia), Thon (Thon Maker), Jon (Jon Leuer), they sit down and really set screens to get people open and in turn, it gets you open when you set a good screen. Our coaches pointed that out and we tried to correct it.”
DETROIT PISTONS CENTER ANDRE DRUMMOND: (On if the ball movement got faster in the third quarter): “Yeah, we got into a good rhythm, guys were hitting shots. We were making them make mistakes, they were trying to blitz us, swing the ball around, and we took the best shot possible.”
(On tomorrow night’s game and if it means something more): “Yeah, knowing that those guys are a few games ahead of us, we’ve got to try to knock them out early, get a win and move forward from there.”
CHICAGO BULLS HEAD COACH JIM BOYLEN: (On today’s game): “I thought it (the game) kind of slipped away from us the last three minutes of the second (quarter). We were only down six at the half. They just made a couple threes, three threes (pointers) there that kind of hurt us a little bit. We started the second half with a couple opportunities in the paint. I think three of the four shots were in the paint but they didn’t go down and the game kind of flipped from there. But, I’m proud of our guys and that second unit. I thought they tried to play the right way, I thought they battled and we’ve got to learn from the Pistons. The bench guys come off with force, (Langston) Galloway and (Ish) Smith. They take pride in their minutes and they play them the best they can and they sit down and root for the other guys. (Blake) Griffin and (Andre) Drummond are powerful guys and they pounded on us a little bit. So, they’ve got a couple stars, they’ve got some good role players and they’ve got guys that can play their minutes. They have maturity. I think they were down 20 in Minnesota and won, they were down 20 to us and won. So, they’re a good example of maybe who we can be, how we have to go out there, and what we need to learn. So, that’s what I talked to the team about after the game.”
(On what Blake Griffin was doing specifically that hurt the team): “We had a hard time with that big-big pick-and-roll. We couldn’t get under it, we were under the switch, and we couldn’t get under it and we couldn’t keep them in front of us. I thought the threes they made, we were stretched out a little bit. I thought our shrink wasn’t good during that moment either. So, you’ve got no shrink, you’ve got Blake isolated after the switch and it hurt us.”
CHICAGO BULLS FORWARD OTTO PORTER JR.:(On today’s game and his impressions): “We played a good first half, second half not so good. I mean, that was the game, they were making shots, they’re at home, a playoff team. You kind of expect that from them, to get it going offensively, and last game we just have to come off better in the second half.”
(On being able to learn a lot from the Detroit team): “I mean, that’s a playoff team. Playoff teams, they’re locked in, they’re together as one – the starters and the bench. Everybody comes in and plays their role and does their job for the sake of the team and for the sake of winning. We’ve definitely got to learn from that, you know, how they control the game, how their coaches put them in positions where they can be successful, and how they respond. They responded well to a couple of the runs that we had and they were able to get it going.”