Detroit: Lawrence Frank | Tayshaun Prince
Houston: Kevin McHale | Chandler Parsons | Marcus Morris
(On the turning point): "We gave ourselves a cushion, but you hold them to a 17-point third quarter, then in the fourth quarter they had eight second-chance points, nine points off of turnovers, they outrebounded us 12-3, we gave up 33 middle drives for 48 points. We played at a really poor pace. We lost our rhythm. You go from holding them to a 17-point third quarter, to then the floodgates opening, where we give up a 35-point fourth quarter, that's not a recipe to win."
(On tempo): "I think we just lost our pace. When you watch the amount of times we get into things later than we want to, and the ball sticking, we didn't change what we ran, but just our intent with it. We like to play an up-tempo game as well, but they were just able to do it for longer stretches tonight."
(On defensive strategy): "You can live with (James) Harden going big because at one point prior to him hitting those two threes, they were 3-of-10 from three. Then all of a sudden we give (Jeremy) Lin those two threes because we adjusted our coverage with Harden a little bit to make him a passer, but we just have to be more precise with our angles, the timing of our bumps, and how we close out. The damage in the fourth quarter wasn't really precipitated by Harden as it was by others."
(On the game): "It was a circus out there the whole game. They hit threes and went up, then we came back. We kept going back and forth. We had a good end to the third quarter. They started the fourth real well and made some big shots. From that point on we just couldn't gain control. A couple bad turnovers here and there and then the offense shut down. A young team needs to know that you have to play consistent basketball, and if you don't, this can happen. We have a lot of work to do. Obviously, we wish we could have won this game at home before we go on this road trip. It's going to make it even tougher for us."
(On the difference between the third and fourth quarters): “The difference is that they stuck to their offense and kept us spread out, allowing them to get penetration. If you sagged in they found three-point shooters, if you stayed out they got to the rim and created and-ones and got to the foul line. Their offense picked up at the start of the fourth and they found their rhythm. We couldn’t counter balance that.”
(On Harden’s performance): “We thought he would have had a tougher time as far as figuring out their offense, but they only stuck to a couple plays the entire game, which helped him out and kept him in a good rhythm. We know what type of player James Harden is. The more he has the ball in his hands, the more dangerous he is.”
(On game): "That was a good win. There were periods where it got a little challenging for us and we had to break down the transition. The ball got sticky. Twenty turnovers are too much. We got better. We started off with a 10-0 run then they hit us with a 13-0 run. If we can get the ball to go from side to side and not have the ball get sticky, we we'll play a lot better."
(On James Harden): "I thought it was a challenge for James to kind of figure out what we were doing. We put some plays in that he was comfortable with that they ran at Oklahoma City."
(On Carlos Delfino): "Carlos came in and hit a couple three's. He is a big game player too. You have to get him open. When the ball is going side to side we have some guys that can knock down three's."
(On win): "It's always better to win from coming behind and obviously on the road also. I think that shows a lot about our team. It's basically the first time we played together and not once did we give up."
(On fourth quarter): "If it was one thing we could take out of this is inconsistency. Every team is going to make a run. We are playing against very good players so we just have to maintain their runs and go on runs ourselves and just keep getting shots and keep rebounding."
(On personal performance): “I thought I played okay. I was a little rusty because I haven't played in a while. I'm ready to get back out to it to try and get more and more better with playing the four and getting in where I fit in at."
(On offense): "I wouldn't say the rhythm but just the speed of the game. I had a couple missed layups early."
(On team chemistry): "It was real, real exciting. James (Harden) could really score and a lot of people don't know he can really pass it. It's going to be an exciting season and I'm happy we got the win."