Detroit: Lawrence Frank | Greg Monroe
Oklahoma City: Doug Collins | Jrue Holiday
(Would you talk about the team effort tonight?): I think it’s the formula for winning. You look at the defensive end and holding them under 30 percent was tremendous, they didn’t have a quarter over 22 percent. We had high assists tonight at 27 and we outrebounded and got to the free throw line. Everyone who played for us contributed. This game shows what we’re capable of doing and can be a standard of how we play.
(Why was your defense so good tonight?): I think it was intent and effort. Guys were really locked in and focused. We rebounded well and contested shots, we got extra possessions. Overall, it was a very solid effort for us.
(Was it good to get this first win out of the way?): I think it was just important to play well. I think it’s probably more on the outside when you’re losing games it’s the build up. When you’re in it, whether you’re winning or losing, you never talk about a streak, you just focus on that streak. We were disappointed in our start to the season, but it wasn’t like we had any doubt we were going to win a game, it was more like when we deserve to win, we’ll win.
(Can you talk about the importance of getting that first win tonight?): It was really important because we needed it. As a team, we thought it was long overdue. A lot of games, we could’ve won, so tonight we just wanted to come out and do a good job for 48 minutes.
(Do you think putting in the effort you did tonight for the full 48 minutes is the reason why you were able to win as opposed to other games where you weren’t able to close it out, even though you had a big lead?): Yes, we played well all 48 minutes tonight compared to other games where we had some lapses. Tonight, we did a good job of withstanding runs. We did have some little droughts but we were able to get to the free throw line for easy buckets. But for everything we did well on offense, we didn’t have letdowns on defense as much as we did before, and I think that was what made the difference.
(On tonight’s game): I have no idea. We had a great practice yesterday. We’re playing against a team that is desperate, 0 and eight. I told you that this team was a lot better than their record. I have no idea why. I really don’t. I don’t know how many times I asked the coaches sitting on the sidelines, “What’s going on?” I had no idea, but we were in slow motion. The only guy I thought had any juice at all in the first half was Jrue [Holiday]. If we think that team is physical, wait until Utah comes in here on Friday.
(Is that a big part of it?): Yes.
(Is the physicality wearing them down?): Well, we’ve only played eight games. I sure hope not. If you look at it, we don’t have much size on the front line. Kwame [Brown] came back and gave us some minutes tonight, but we’re small. Thad [Thaddeus Young] and Spencer [Hawes] are small and we just don’t have much physicality. That definitely hurts.
(There was a lack of energy still): It just has to come from ourselves. We can’t blame anybody. We can’t blame the crowd, we can’t blame our coach. Sometimes you’ve just got to look in the mirror. Only person we can blame is ourselves.
(When you get outrebounded by that number, 19, is that people not doing their job? Is it that they were more physical?): I think it’s both of them. Again, it’s discouraging obviously after that happens, but when you see somebody is beating up on you or punking you, you’re supposed to hit back. We didn’t have that today and then after a while when we tried to, it was like everything was going their way. They got every loose ball just kind of thrown into their hands. The rim was this big, so every shot that they put up was going in.
(It’s hard to run when the other team is outrebounding you so much, but is there a way that you guys can make the game quicker even though that’s happening?) :Rebounds.
(But if it doesn’t happen, rebounding): We’re getting defensive stops, then missing. Then missing jump shots, then missing layups. We’re playing pretty good defensive. It wasn’t even a 100-point game so we’re playing defensive fine. We just need to get rebounds.