WARRIORS INTERIM HEAD COACH LUKE WALTON
ON STAYING RESILIENT DURING THE PISTONS’ LATE RUN: “I think it was a great win for us. Just a hard fought game. Detroit is a very good team that is well coached and they don’t ever quit. Every time we looked like we were ready to open it up they would just keep coming and keep coming and fight and scrap and get back into the game. That’s how they have been playing all season and that’s why they were 5-1 entering the game. That’s a very good team over there.”
ON DRAYMOND GREEN’S HIGHER ASSIST TOTAL THIS SEASON: “He was a great passer last year. It probably has something to do with the fact that we have been shooting the ball well pretty much all season. He’s getting really good at, when people start doubling Steph (Stephen Curry), becoming the primary playmaker for us. We trust his opinions whether he’s going to shoot it or pass it. He’s playing unselfish basketball and getting everybody involved and we love that.”
ON DETROIT’S PERIMETER DEFENSE: “I have to watch the tape, but they were in us. They were playing phenomenal defense out there. I feel like most games we get more open looks than that, but you have to give them a lot of credit for the way they defended this.”
ON LEANDRO BARBOSA’S IMPACT IN THE SECOND HALF: “Our second unit, in that beginning of the fourth, was huge for us. We were ready to get our starters back into the game and then they picked it up on defense and that led to some offense and got the crowd involved. They got us a nice big lead there and we were able to give our starters a couple of minutes on the bench and Barbosa was a huge part of that.”
ON HIS BENCH TONIGHT: “It’s one of the great things about our team. Our second unit is, we feel, the best in the NBA. We have great chemistry. We have veterans on that second unit that know how to win. When they give us that type of performance it just makes us that much more dangerous. Did we need it? No, but it was nice to have.”
ON KLAY THOMPSON: “Klay is one guy that we aren’t that worried about. We know what he is going to do over the stretch of the season. It was nice to see him hit shots tonight, but I thought he also did a great job of not forcing shots. I felt like earlier in the season he was trying to force them every once in a while and take some really tough shots. Tonight, if he was open he shot it and if he wasn’t he moved it on to somebody else and that’s when we are at our best.”
WARRIORS GUARD LEANDRO BARBOSA
ON HOW THEY WERE ABLE TO STAVE OFF THE PISTONS RUN: “It was our energy in the second half. Detroit was doing a great job and they’re a young team, they came to win. Every team has been coming to get a piece of us so we did a great job in the second half with our execution. It was a lot better. We have [Andrew] Bogut back and he did a great job tonight.”
ON ANDREW BOGUT BEING BACK: “Bogut’s very important to the team and now he’s healthy and playing well so hopefully we keep doing what we’re doing now.”
ON THE GUARDS SLOWING DOWN DRUMMOND: “We have so many options on the team that makes it so easy for them. Tonight was one of those nights and everyone did a great job on the perimeter. The defense was on point and the big guys too so it was a great job from everybody.”
WARRIORS CENTER ANDREW BOGUT
ON HIS CONDITIONING: “Yeah I didn’t do a lot to be honest but thankfully I lost that weight in the offseason because it’s helped me a boatload. Last season when I missed a couple games and came back when I was heavier, I felt like crap. Right now I feel good. Had some good bursts there, had some energy, and felt pretty good out there for 18 minutes.”
ON ANDRE DRUMMOND: “He’s tough. I think that they’ve made some personnel moves to make him a focal point with spreading the floor with four shooters now. And not having (Greg) Monroe in the paint now he’s got a lot more room to move. He’s getting free runs at offensive rebounds. He’s very good at catching the lob. He’s done a great job for them. We knew we had to keep a body on him. A lot of times you’ve got to give up getting the stat for yourself knowing that you’re not going to get the rebound to try to make sure that he doesn’t. And that’s sometimes hard for guys to do.”
WARRIORS FORWARD ANDRE IGUODALA
ON TONIGHT’S GAME: “They’ve got a tough team. They’re playing really well so far this year so it’s good to be tested late and to be able to convert on both ends of the floor.”
ON SECOND UNIT’S PERFORMANCE: “It was the tale of two halves for us. First half it wasn’t too good. Second half was a lot better with the energy and getting stops, converting in transition, getting stops on defense.”
ON ANDREW BOGUT’S PERFORMANCE: “It’s good to have him back. He’s looking forward to getting back out there. He does what he does best, rebounding the ball, offensive put-backs, being at the right place, passing the ball a few times. He had a great pass to Klay (Thompson) there in the fourth quarter. Kinda got us back to our rhythm once the starters got back in the game. It was good to have him back.”
PISTONS HEAD COACH STAN VAN GUNDY
ON STAYING CLOSE BUT FALLING SHORT IN THE LOSS: “Look, you can’t turn the ball over 20 times and you can’t give up 35 fast-break points. That to me was the game. I thought we made some really bad decisions passing the ball. We didn’t pass it enough and we turned it over too much. I thought our biggest problem tonight was our offense, which put our defense in bad problems, but our guys did continue to fight. We simply didn’t play well enough against a very good team.”
ON REGGIE JACKSON’S STATUS: “He just got kneed in the thigh.”
ON ERSAN ILYASOVA: “I think Ersan is a really good player. He’s a tough guy. He can shoot the ball. He’s really smart. He knows how to play. So I think he’s a guy if our ball movement gets better, he will start to thrive, but right now, our ball movement is not good and so he’s not getting a lot of opportunities offensively.”
ON THE PLAY OF BOTH BENCHES: “I thought their bench did a good job. Stanley (Johnson) played well, probably his best offensive game. I didn’t think he was, it’s interesting, he wasn’t as good defensively as he has been the last couple of games, but he had a good offensive game. But yeah, their bench outplayed ours, no question.”
ON TURNOVERS: “I thought forcing too many plays, one dribble too many, trying to force plays. There are people open on the perimeter. We keep talking about it. We keep showing film and we’re just struggling with it.”
ON KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE’S DEFENSE AGAINST STEPHEN CURRY: “I thought he did a really good job. Look, I mean some of the screens you’ve got to get through on them, some of them are good, solid, legal screens, some of them aren’t even close to that and you’ve still got to get through it. The one I got the technical on, fine, I’ll take the technical on that. Anybody can watch that play and tell me I was wrong. I’ll give them the 2,000 (dollars) that I have to give the league. I mean it wasn’t even close. With all he had to go through, I thought he did a great job. He made it tough on him. That’s all you can do. The guy is a great, great player, but he didn’t have an easy night. He made it tough on him.”
ON ENCOURAGING STRETCHES OF PLAY FROM THE BENCH: “No question. There were some encouraging things in that game. I thought the way our bench got us back in it, second quarter. The way we fought back in it in the third quarter. We’re down four, you feel like going into the fourth, you’ve got a chance and then we just started the fourth terribly. Five quick points, we just didn’t do a good job.”
PISTONS FORWARD ANDRE DRUMMOND
ON HOW THE PISTONS PLAYED TONIGHT: “After the game I came in the locker room and told myself that tonight was a learning experience for us. We went against the defending champs and they know what it takes to get a win. Today was a day to see where we are at and see what we have to work on to get better, maybe take a few things out of their book as well.”
ON PLAYING THROUGH THE TURNOVERS TONIGHT: “It was tough, they forced us into a lot of bad decisions and had us playing out of our game and it sparked their offense.”
ON IF HE FELT GOOD GOING INTO THE FOURTH QUARTER: “It was a good game, they played a good game. They did what they needed to do to come out with a win. We have to get back to the drawing boards to see what we need to do to get better.”
ON IF THE TEAM HAD A FIGHT IN THEM TONIGHT: “Yeah, that’s always going to be one of the biggest things we have, the fight in us. We fight no matter if it’s a back-to-back or anything else, we can’t use that as an excuse. We have to keep playing and take care of our bodies.”
ON IF HE LIKED STANLEY JOHNSON’S PLAY TONIGHT: “We lost, obviously it was great to see him have a great offensive night but it would have been better if we had won.”
PISTONS GUARD REGGIE JACKSON
ON IF TONIGHT’S GAME WAS SIMILAR TO LAST NIGHT: “I was proud of the way we battled; I felt we gave ourselves an opportunity. Last night we didn’t really give ourselves a chance. With a team like this unfortunately we weren’t able to close the game out. I felt we battled but we have to be better.”
ON IF HE LIKED THE BENCH PLAY: “Yeah, we started off behind as the starters and kept battling. The bench came in and really kept us in there the whole time. It’s just unfortunate our efforts didn’t turn into a win tonight.”
ON HOW KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE DEFENDED STEPHEN CURRY: “I think he was phenomenal. You know Curry is going to get hot and make some threes. They do a great job of setting ball-screens and down-screens for him and KCP battled every play to make it tough on him.”