Detroit: Lawrence Frank | Rodney Stuckey | Brandon Knight Sacramento: Keith Smart | Tyreke EvansPistons Head Coach Lawrence Frank
(On game) "That was fun. Obviously it wasn't an epic defensive, grind it out, 80s battle. The reason we did win the game was because we played enough defense at the end. They had 30 fast-break points in the first half, I know it probably says 25, but it was 30. In the second half it was 19-4, us, in fast-break points. We stopped turning the ball over in the third quarter and we got some key stops. Twenty-point fourth quarter for them. In terms of plays, because everyone wants to talk about plays in this game, everyone will want to talk about Rodney Stuckey's 36 points, but the block against Jason Thompson then sprinting back when they had a lay-up to break up a break that then led to our transition, huge. It was good that our guys found a way to win the game. Obviously there is a lot to work on, but we found a way to win. So we learn and move on tomorrow."
(On Rodney Stuckey playing on both ends) “Well, he has been doing that for a little bit now. Rodney has been very consistent. You may point and say it has been the past three games, but it has gone beyond that. The thing is that he is playing major minutes. He is playing at both ends and he isn't playing spurt basketball. He has been very, very consistent; putting tremendous effort, energy, passion. His focus, he is really engaged. He has done an outstanding job."
(On Brandon Knight) "I thought early on in the first half, even though he had a high assist total, I thought it was a little bit of a struggle, but then he stepped up. I was really proud of him making that pass to Rodney. That is just the right pass to make at the right time; great screen by Ben Wallace to create separation and any time you create separation, you force help. Now you have to make the right basketball play and so finding Rodney in the corner. Rodney stepping up and making it, but I was proud that Brandon made the right basketball play."
(On Tayshaun Prince and Ben Wallace) "I thought Tay hit some big shots for us. Especially on the left side of the floor, he made some big shots. Body (Ben Wallace) again, defensively; great energy. (DeMarcus) Cousins scored on that one face up, but everything was tougher and he had to work for it and I thought Body's energy was great as well.
(On the win): “I’m just happy we won. We dug down deep, deep into the second half we got stops and that’s what helped us win the game.”
(On not letting the game get away): “We know what type of team they are; they like to get up and down the court. Our main thing is we needed to get stops. We knew they were going to let us get back in the game, so we we’re just trying to get stops and push it on the fast breaks.”
(On offense): “We were just getting easy buckets just pushing the ball. It was just getting out on the break. Brandon (Knight) was doing a good job of pushing the ball and I was just getting rim attacks. That’s just my game, being aggressive and taking it to the basket.
(On trailing throughout the game): “We just tried to keep fighting. We know we kept giving up a lot of points in transition. We just knew that we were attacking the basket, we were doing fine offensively, but we just needed to find a way to come up and get stops.”
(On Rodney Stuckey’s and his own play): “We don’t really play like it’s your turn, my turn, it’s more so wherever the ball is giving it to someone who is open and having an advantage. Anybody could have 20 or 15 or score the most points any night, so that’s the type of basketball we want to play. Tonight’s was just Stuck’s night. He could get to the basket at will, draw fouls, and he carried us and did a great job of carrying us offensively. Not only that, the blocked shots, the hustle plays that he had, that really changed the game for us.”
(On team win): “Just to know we fought as a team, fought as unit, we came together as one. We had a lot of guys give great efforts, not just offensively, but hustling, getting blocks, steals; that led to easy offense for other people. It was a great team effort by everyone.”
(On game) "We started off the entire game moving the basketball and sharing the ball. We did everything well until late in the game. We made some critical mistakes helping off of hot guys. (Rodney) Stuckey was having a great game and helped off the corner three and then we just couldn't contain the ball late in the game. Just plays that we're not thinking the game all the way through; made some mental mistakes down the stretch on both sides of the ball and that cost us. Regardless of who you are playing on the road, if you have a tight game, records are out of the window and then you don't do the things from thinking the game on both sides of the ball they're going to come back and hurt you. This just was a tough loss for us just based on how we played. We played so great and gave it right back."
(On DeMarcus Cousins): "That's what I shared with the guys in the locker room that ‘hey, coming down you have a bail out guy now. Put the ball down stairs to him (Cousins). I can't yell to you guys all the time from a long distance to put the ball in there or run a play to get there. You guys have to start seeing those things and put the ball down but instead we tried to make a play on our own and then that got us in trouble.’"
(On playing well but not finishing): "You can come away from this game saying ‘look, we shared the ball, we moved the ball, we had some great defensive effort plays, did some really nice things, but then you turn it over in critical moments in the game. You miss easy shots, I mean just easy layups that we missed. You're on the road, you're up by three, you have the game on your side, you take a shot that gets blocked and maybe it was a foul. You got to be strong and aggressive at that time in the game.’"
(On not closing out game): "It's tough man. We have to learn to clean our game. We lost the lead that we had. You can't keep playing with teams like that especially at home so that's a loss on us. I don't take that out on coach, that's us as a team. We have to close teams out. The good teams close teams out so we have to become better at that."
(On what team did well): "We did everything well. We made good shots and we pushed the ball but we just have to do a better job of reading situations. That's what hurt us. When we tried to rush, they got turnovers and they got easy opportunities."
(On DeMarcus Cousins): "We were going to him (Cousins). He was kicking it out. I mean he was playing good but it was just bad defense. We sucked on the defensive end. We have to get better at that."