Pistons Head Coach Stan Van Gundy
On the game:
“We couldn’t guard them (the Miami Heat). The only two guys who played well for us offensively were Reggie (Jackson) and Andre (Dummond). (Dwyane) Wade and (Udonis) Haslem played great for them. We had two guys play real well but they got more help. (James) Ennis played well, but we didn’t get a whole lot of help for those two guys. The most disappointing thing was getting our butts kicked on the boards against a smaller team. It should not have happened. Haslem’s seven offensive rebounds shouldn’t have happened. We had too many defensive breakdowns and we missed far too many shots.”
On giving up five offense rebounds in the first quarter:
“We were getting beaten off the dribble. When Andre (Drummond) was coming to help, nobody was syncing to (Udonis) Haslem. I thought their energy level was a lot higher than ours early in the game. I thought our guys kept fighting but we just didn’t play well enough.”
On facing Dwyane Wade:
“Dwyane (Wade) is a great player. I’ve been in here before and I’ve had Wade hit 50 against us and we’ve won. You can’t just look at that number. Again, to me the rebounding is really the big difference in the game and the number of layups we gave up. We gave Wade a couple of easy baskets, but he hit tough shots. He’s a great player. He’s a Hall-of-Famer. He’s going to make some of those but you have to rebound the ones he misses and you can’t give up layups. We didn’t close out hard enough a couple of times on (James) Ennis. Those kinds of things are the things that beat you to me. We had two guys out there they couldn’t stop either so it comes down to a lot of other things.”
On Dwyane Wade:
“He’s had a great year when he’s played. He only played 22 minutes the other night in Atlanta and had yesterday off. No, I wasn’t surprised in those situations. If he does it on the fourth game in five nights, you’d be surprised. Not a night after a day off.”
On their play against zone defense:
“I thought we played really well against the zone. I think we scored every time they went zone tonight.”
On Andre Drummond:
“He had 17 shots and went to the line seven times. He got the ball quite a bit and did well.”
On Udonis Haslem:
“Udonis (Haslem) is the ultimate pro. The guy is always ready. He had times in the last two years where he wasn’t in the rotation; now he’s starting. That guy is going to be ready and compete all the time. You hope that as you go on building an organization, you find the Udonis Haslem’s of the world. Those guys will help you win a lot of games. I always will tip my cap to Udonis even if his numbers aren’t what they are tonight. Obviously you have to have the stars. You have to have the Wade’s and guys like that to build an organization but then around them you have to put guys like Udonis Haslem if you are going to be a perennial contender. He’s great.”
On the shorter bench play in the second half:
“I didn’t think our bench was giving us much really at either end. That was my choice. I thought Andre (Drummond) and KCP (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) could handle the minutes. KCP did not have a good night, maybe overplaying him. I didn’t think I overplayed Andre though. I never saw a time where I thought his energy level dropped. But I think it might be one of the reasons he’s (Caldwell-Pope) 8-for-35 on this trip. We haven’t given him much rest. We are going to have to take a look at that.”
Reggie Jackson
On the team performance:
“They really beat us up on the offensive glass tonight. Really beat us with a lot of back-cuts. Even though we got back in the game, everyone was doing a great job of competing defensively. (Andre Drummond) was doing a great job of calling coverages. I got mixed with some coverages. I played poor down the stretch on the defensive end. I think it really hurt us (that) we got behind, but we made a surge late. About three straight times I messed up defensive coverage and it hurt us.”
On if Dwyane Wade’s performance surprised him:
“No. It’s Dwyane Wade. Everybody knows he is a great player, one of the greatest to ever play this game. At his age, you don’t last that long and still be that dominant without picking your spots. He was just getting the spots. Some people get paid to score and he is just one of them. (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) did a great job making it difficult all night, but he just found a rhythm and really hurt us. (He) got to the line, had some foul calls. Proud with the way we competed, we just have to do better and it starts with me.”
Andre Drummond
On the team performance:
“We all played hard tonight. We got down during a tough stretch in the third quarter and they really got going. (Dwyane Wade) was making a lot of tough shots contested. He’s really the sparkplug. When he makes those kinds of shots, he energizes their whole team. He had a fantastic night tonight. Reggie (Jackson) and I played well, the team played well, we just couldn’t come up with a win.”
On if he wanted to see the play forced through him more:
“For me, I think it is my presence. When I set screens and when I roll, I suck in so much of their defense (that) it makes them make a decision. Either they are going to come down with me or they are going to get a three-point shot. When they stop the lob, I just seal up the paint. Sometimes they see me, sometimes they don’t and tonight they made a focus point of getting the ball in the paint so I could get to their right-left-hand jump-hook and it looked good tonight.”
Jodie Meeks
On the team performance:
“It was unfortunate for us. We have been playing good basketball. Those guys played well. You have games like that. Dwyane (Wade) played really well, kind of a throwback game. We have to move forward and try to get the next one.”
On Dwyane Wade:
“He knew he had to carry the ball offensively for the most part for them today. We knew that too, he was just good tonight. You have to tip your hat to them.”
Heat Head Coach Erik Spoelstra
On Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem’s play:
“What we’ve been talking about is this collective grit and toughness to find ways to win games and it can be different ways each game. Tonight [we were] playing against a tremendous offensive rebounding, paint ‘collapser’, and we have to do it without virtually all of our bigs. The guys laced up their shoes and really just buckled down and trying to compete in this game and I thought the level of competition was great regardless of what would have happened at the end.”
“Our two co-captains really led us and set the tone at halftime once we knew Luol (Deng) and Michael (Beasley) were going to be out in the second half and we didn’t have Hassan (Whiteside) and Bird (Chris Andersen). They didn’t take a step back. We went in with the mentality that we have to play for 24 minutes and find a way to win. They did it with their actions.”
On the entire team’s contribution, including James Ennis:
“I’m glad you mentioned that because James’ (Ennis) minutes were critical. We said coming into the game that we would need 25 rebounds from our perimeter players and we ended up getting 27. James was pivotal in that area. He tracked down probably four of them.”
“When we’re giving up that much size against (Andre) Drummond, we needed the perimeter guys to be active like that.”
“You have to keep yourself ready, sharp and ready for these types of moments and each one of them have had theirs and tonight it was James.”
“I like this team. I like the toughness of this group. I like how this team responds to adversity.”
On Dwyane Wade’s play:
“He gave us that level of confidence that star players do in the fourth quarter.”
On Udonis Haslem’s play against a bigger opponent:
“This is a game that we’re going to have ‘lunch-pale’ mentality, get in that scrum and fight for it and there’s no better guy to lead that type of charge but UD, our captain. Once he started to battle without fear, and he lost a lot of those balls, but he showed our guys that he was in there every single time fighting for it and that inspired other guys to do the same.”
“That was the paradox I told him before the game. I said you have to really lead us with your physicality and fearless and toughness. We need that, but ‘oh, by the way, you can’t foul.’”
On Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem’s play:
“What we’ve been talking about is this collective grit and toughness to find ways to win games and it can be different ways each game. Tonight [we were] playing against a tremendous offensive rebounding, paint ‘collapser’, and we have to do it without virtually all of our bigs. The guys laced up their shoes and really just buckled down and trying to compete in this game and I thought the level of competition was great regardless of what would have happened at the end.”
“Our two co-captains really led us and set the tone at halftime once we knew Luol (Deng) and Michael (Beasley) were going to be out in the second half and we didn’t have Hassan (Whiteside) and Bird (Chris Andersen). They didn’t take a step back. We went in with the mentality that we have to play for 24 minutes and find a way to win. They did it with their actions.”
On the entire team’s contribution, including James Ennis:
“I’m glad you mentioned that because James’ (Ennis) minutes were critical. We said coming into the game that we would need 25 rebounds from our perimeter players and we ended up getting 27. James was pivotal in that area. He tracked down probably four of them.”
“When we’re giving up that much size against (Andre) Drummond, we needed the perimeter guys to be active like that.”
“You have to keep yourself ready, sharp and ready for these types of moments and each one of them have had theirs and tonight it was James.”
“I like this team. I like the toughness of this group. I like how this team responds to adversity.”
On Dwyane Wade’s play:
“He gave us that level of confidence that star players do in the fourth quarter.”
On Udonis Haslem’s play against a bigger opponent:
“This is a game that we’re going to have ‘lunch-pale’ mentality, get in that scrum and fight for it and there’s no better guy to lead that type of charge but UD, our captain. Once he started to battle without fear, and he lost a lot of those balls, but he showed our guys that he was in there every single time fighting for it and that inspired other guys to do the same.”
“That was the paradox I told him before the game. I said you have to really lead us with your physicality and fearless and toughness. We need that, but ‘oh, by the way, you can’t foul.’”
Dwyane Wade
On tonight’s game:
“We were just being strong willed. We didn’t have that many guys coming into the game and then we lost two coming out of halftime. Henry Walker was playing the backup five man, I was playing the four tonight but you just have to do what you have to do. We had to get a win at home. This is where you have to do it, at home; it will be tougher on the road. I am glad we were able to pull it out. UD (Udonis Haslem) had a big game for us; he had 13 rebounds and 18 points. Everyone did their job.”
“Our guards are going to help as much as possible, there is only so much you can do when the ball is up there and you have that monster (Andre Drummond) down there. Mario (Chalmers) had nine rebounds; things like that really help us out. The play of the game was our bigs, well, our small bigs rather; they did a great job of just fighting and fighting. They did enough to give us enough opportunities to score on the other end.”
Luol Deng
On his injury:
“It is the same injury that happened in the last game (against the Atlanta Hawks). I wasn’t sure before the game if I was going to play or not. I gave it a try but was feeling that it was getting worse so we decided to shut it down.”
“We’ll see how it feels tomorrow and try to get the swelling down.”
“It was a tough decision before the game because we knew how big of a game it was. At halftime I felt like it was getting worse so it wasn’t going to help going forward to make it worse and be out longer. I’m glad the guys really played well. This was a big game with me out, Beasley out, and a couple of guys out. It was a big win for us.”
Udonis Haslem
On the team’s approach with the injuries:
“We have so many men down we just have the ‘last man standing’ approach. It just so happens that I am the last man standing when it comes to our five man (center). I’ve got a couple bumps and bruises. I’m not going to make it worse than it is.”
On his performance:
“When I’m out there I have to play with energy, effort, and I have to impact the game.”
On Andre Drummond:
“He’s a big guy. They do a great job spreading the floor coming off the pick-and-roll. Once they throw it up to him, there’s not many people who are going to get up there and contest that. We understood we were going to give up a couple lobs.”
On tonight’s game:
“I was just being active. With D (Dwyane) Wade getting so much attention and Drummond being a shot blocker, I knew he was going to go up for the shot when D Wade rises up. I was just being active on the weak side chasing rebounds.”
On the mentality of the team:
“We’ve developed thick skin. We’ve developed a grit. We’ve got so many guys who have come from the D League, undrafted and other situations who are having an opportunity to play. This is their time to prove people wrong and to prove that they deserve to be in this league. There’s no better situation for guys like that. For myself, being in-and-out of the rotation and not having an opportunity to play so much in the last couple of years, it’s an opportunity for me to show that I can still go out there and produce. We’ve just got guys in the right situation at the right time.”
On his role on the team:
“Helping my team win means playing with energy, it means rebounding, impacting the game defensively, knocking down occasional shots, hitting the boards, and bringing that physicality and defensive mentality.”
On facing the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday:
“Last year is last year. Two years ago is two years ago. You always have to get up to play the (San Antonio) Spurs. I don’t know what their situation is in the West, but in my mind they’re still the best team in the NBA. We’ve got a huge, huge task ahead of us on Tuesday.”