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Postgame Quotes - November 25, 2015

DETROIT PISTONS HEAD COACH STAN VAN GUNDY: (On premonition of a lot of energy tonight): “I had a pretty good idea that we would play well, I didn’t know how well we would actually play, but for a couple of reasons. Number one, I know how our guys felt coming off the Milwaukee game. If you’ve got a good competitive group, which I think we do, and you lay an egg like we did up there, and get your (butt) kicked, you’re going to want to come back and change it. Plus, I saw the way they worked at practice yesterday and I saw the focus and energy this morning. So I knew they were going to come out and play. But I didn’t know we were going to make 16 threes and do all of that, you never know that but I knew we would play hard. (On how good it was to see Andre challenged): “Right from the beginning of the game. See that’s what I’m saying. I made this point the other night, we have a lot of guys, like in the Milwaukee game, talk about “come on we got to play harder.” What they need to do, what leadership is, is people need to see it. They need to see it. They need to see somebody making defensive plays, making effort. That’s the leadership. Everybody always wants to talk about it in terms of what people say in the locker room and all that, to hell with that. It’s what you do on the court that’s leadership.” (On what impressed him the most): “Our defense. That’s what I’m most concerned about. It was great to see the ball go in; don’t get me wrong, but our defense. And to see Andre (Drummond) step up and protect the rim even, though he had to be worried about the lobs with Whiteside. I thought that was great and I thought all of our guys worked really hard defensively, team wide, it was gratifying thing.” DETROIT PISTONS CENTER ANDRE DRUMMOND: (On changes in defensive play): “We had a talk yesterday at practice about me not challenging shots, so tonight I made it a job of mine to go after everything and knowing that my teammates will have my back if they throw the lob.“ (On Hassan Whiteside): “He’s starting to become respected for what he does on defense. He’s putting the work in; he’s found a knack that really works for him. I’m impressed with his game and my job tonight was just to  take it to him,  contest as many shots as possible and make him uncomfortable.” DETROIT PISTONS GUARD REGGIE JACKSON: (On difference in tonight’s game vs. the last game in Milwaukee):“We were ourselves. We were disappointed in the way we performed, we know we are a better team than what we put up in Milwaukee, and we wanted to come out here and prove it.” (On maintaining consistency): “It’s still going to be hard to remain consistent on offense. We just need to find the shots and continue to find our flow. But it’s going to be easy for us to do it defensively, we just have to go out there and want to. It’s a will thing, and I think we willed ourselves to play defense tonight.” MIAMI HEAT HEAD COACH ERIK SPOELSTRA:  (On tonight’s game vs. Pistons): “You have to give them credit, they had us on our heels pretty much from the get go.  They dictated the game; they imposed their will on the game with their physicality- on the glass, loose balls.  Then shots started to fall from that point.  That’s usually how this game works in this league, the other team plays harder, competes harder.  Then the basket starts to get bigger for you and you earn those opportunities.  It’s tough to win on the road and that’s probably the biggest thing.  We move on now to the next city and that’s more of a mindset than anything else.” (On defending the 3-point line): “No, we weren’t able to get into them and they pretty much dictated it.  Once they got rolling the basket got bigger and bigger, they were able to make the extra pass and play with great flow.  But when you make it tough from the beginning then those shots aren’t quite as easy.  You have to give them credit, they really dictated this game from the first possession on and they didn’t stop.” (On the offense tonight): “It was very tough to evaluate our offense, it was inefficient.  Tonight we weren’t getting the shots we want to, but really the game felt won in those effort areas.  Defensively we couldn’t get into a rhythm.  Three or four possessions in a row that we had been doing getting defensive stops where we take pressure off of our offense and play out of that flow.  We never got into that and guys weren’t able to get into any kind of rhythm.” MIAMI HEAT GUARD DWYANE WADE: (On tonight’s game vs. Pistons): “First of all, give Detroit credit.  They came out to win this game and they were all very focused to do that.  They shot the ball amazing and they got points in the paint.  Defensively, especially on the road, you have to take away something and we gave them everything.  So it started off with points in the paint and then it went from there to a three point barrage.” (On what the Pistons did defensively against him): “I just sucked tonight.  It wasn’t anything that they were doing.  Offensively as a group we have to bring a better game on the road, a more together game on the road than we do at home.  Individually I just sucked.”

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