PISTONS HEAD COACH STAN VAN GUNDYOn what the difference was down the stretch:“You can go back to a couple of things. They got a couple of big offensive rebounds. One off the free throw to sort of wrap the game up. Before that, Marcin Gortat the one he hit was off of a second chance. I thought that we executed better. Not saying that we were perfect. But I thought we executed better. We got better shots than we had been getting in the fourth quarter. We did not make some of them. It’s tough. Over the course of the game, we did not defend well enough.”
On John Wall getting to the free throw line: “I thought we were a little undisciplined. I mean he was just full speed out of control, throwing up stuff that really did not have much chance of going in. We kept fouling him. We were a little undisciplined there, but we had trouble getting back, which we should not. He is fast as hell, but that is why you have to get everybody back. It is exactly what put them back in the game was getting on the free throw line.”
On Brandon Jennings’ performance“I thought he played well, I thought he played really, really well. Obviously he got us off to a great start. I thought he played well.”
PISTONS FORWARD CARON BUTLER:On tonight’s game:“We played hard and we were playing through Brandon Jennings. He did a great job of getting going offensively. We ran a lot of sets and pick and roll action with him. It was a great point guard duel with him and John [Wall].” On not finishing games:“You just keep chipping away at it. No one is going to feel sorry for you in this game and that’s the nature of the beast. You just got to continue to chip away at it. There’s a lot of positives we can take away from this game and build on.” On Andre Drummond’s play:“He’s got to remain aggressive and be assertive out there on offense and defense and understand to build off the momentum at the defensive end. Continue to play hard. He’s one of the most athletically-gifted big men in the game, so he’s just got to continue to run the floor and be energetic.”
PISTONS POINT GUARD BRANDON JENNINGSOn what the difference was down the stretch:“Shots just did not fall again tonight for us. It’s tough, I mean we showed a lot of improvement definitely down the stretch, but a couple shots did not go in for us.”
On what their team needs to do after this loss:“It is a long season. I know all the work that we put in since September first is going to pay off, so we just got to keep grinding hard every night, and just stay positive.”
On getting in a good rhythm early and having to guard John Wall:“Just staying aggressive. I did not shoot well in Chicago so I definitely wanted to come out tonight and be a little more aggressive. Just attacking. My shot was falling early so I kept going with it. It is real tough, John Wall is one of the top point guards in the NBA. Your main focus coming in is trying to keep him out of the paint as much as possible. But I think he shot about 17 or 18 free throws so he kind of had it going right there.”
PISTONS FORWARD GREG MONROEOn tonight’s game:“Definitely disappointed. It’s another one of those games where one or two plays goes differently, the outcome of the game might be different. We have to learn from it and we’ve got to stick with it. We feel like we are going in the right direction.” On dealing with tough losses:“You just keep pushing. You go back and you correct the things that you can and you come out the next night. Try to be better and try to do whatever it takes to win that game.” On Rasual Butler’s success:“That was a good adjustment by them. When that happened, we obviously had to change the plan that we had. Yeah, we changed what we were doing, but we still had a shot to win the game.”
WIZARDS HEAD COACH RANDY WITTMANOn the team’s strategy tonight:“We decided to focus a little bit defensively. I thought the first six minutes of the third quarter we came out and played. I wasn’t really pleased at half time defensively. We were not sharp, we were not aggressive, we didn’t dictate the play. They dictated play. Coming out of halftime we got back in it from a defensive standpoint. That I thought was the turning point.” On Rasual Butler’s performance:“That’s what he does, he can spread the floor and make shots and that is what he did tonight. He was outstanding. There was no hesitancy in his play. He put the ball on the floor a couple times and made a couple mid-range shots. He did a little bit of everything.” On playing the bench in wake of injuries:“I am an optimistic guy. Even with Brad [Beal] going down, I don’t want to see him get hurt but this might help us. Rasual Butler is getting minutes that he probably would not get. Garrett Temple is getting more minutes and so is Otto Porter. They have taken advantage of it. They are playing with confidence and belief in themselves, so when Bradley comes back it gives me a lot of leeway. This can only help us become stronger.”
WIZARDS FORWARD RASUAL BUTLEROn his play tonight: “I just had the opportunity to get some good looks tonight and they went down for me. We did a good job executing our plays and I was the recipient of some good looks that Coach Wittman’s offense creates for his players.”
On the last time he had a game like this:“Probably last year sometime, when I was in Indiana. I had the opportunity to start a game or two.”
On adjusting to increased minutes (conditioning wise):“Our staff does a really good job of making sure we stay in shape. We have really good trainers that do a great job and I was able to lean on the work I do before and after practice.”
On his feelings about the coaches continuing to play him when he’s scoring:“I got my shots in the flow tonight and I think my teammates did a good job on finding me open on some of the actions we run.”
On how his role has evolved since training camp: “I think it’s just, you come to work, you do your work and have the mindset of wanting to make the team. Nothing is guaranteed but things worked out. I’m just trying to make the most of the opportunity.”
WIZARDS FORWARD KRIS HUMPHRIESOn the win: “They rebound the ball well and they are big but, we got the win. There are some things we could have done to avoid it being so close but we won."
On improvement after first half:“We were making some tough plays. We missed some free throws and played some good defense down the stretch. They played well. I was surprised. They scored the ball a lot more than they normally do.”
On Rasual Butler’s performance:“Rasual has been great. He is a great guy. He works hard and stays ready so he came up big for us in the end. He had 18 tonight. What is really good about him is that he can catch and shoot when he is open and he has good size. We were all just trying to contribute and win.”
WIZARDS FORWARD PAUL PIERCEOn tonight’s game:“A win is a win. Despite our defense we still have to do a better job…We make it hard on ourselves sometimes. We dig for short periods of time then we slack off on defense. It’s something we have to be able to do for 48 minutes. We had our run, end of the second quarter. We played defense in spurts and it can’t be like that.”
On the Wizards’ bench:“It’s huge. Our bench was huge. They really got us back in the game. Rasual [Butler] gave us a big offensive lift when we kind of struggled and [he] shot the ball really well, Kris [Humphries] with his energy, that’s what we are going to need all year long. Kevin Seraphin, everybody came all the way down the line. That’s what this team is all about. It’s about our depth, our ability to go to our bench to carry the load some nights.”
On defending Brandon Jennings:“I thought we did a better job of helping. A lot of times we got in the pick and roll we backed off our bigs and let them just shoot the jumper. I think in the second half we made them drive the ball a little bit more, tried to make them finish at the rim, make him kick it to other guys, we were able to slow them down that way.”