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Postgame Quotes - October 23, 2014

DETROIT PISTONS HEAD COACH STAN VAN GUNDY: (On Spencer Dinwiddie): “I thought his first five minutes were really good, I thought he got tired as the game went on, he flattened out and didn’t attack. I thought the first half he made some really good plays and you can see some promising things. He looked good tonight. He’s got good size and played with great confidence in his first game in nine months.”

(On team going into the season): “We‘ve got a lot of areas where we can improve and I think that’s good. I have no real disappointments in terms of our team in the preseason, we still have things to work on, but no disappointments, I think they’ve worked hard. The real disappointments have been things out of our control such as the injuries to (Jodie) Meeks and (Kentavious) Caldwell-Pope.”

 

DETROIT PISTONS FORWARD CARON BUTLER: (On preseason): “As a veteran guy, I hate the thought of preseason, but I had to get through it and the younger guys, with our young core, they pushed me through it. We got more comfortable with practice in finding out what spots guys like the ball and where guys want to be and get more familiar with one another. It’s a process. We have a lot of new faces here.”

(On 3-pointers): “You have a lot guys that can make shots and stretch the floor. It keeps guys honest for our best one-on-one post players to get the ball and distribute and facilitate or score and take advantage of mismatches because we’re extremely long in the post.”

 

DETROIT PISTONS FORWARD JOSH SMITH: (On preseason): “We’re ready to get to the real business. We’ve been working extremely hard in practice and this offseason and we’re really ready to turn this thing around starting next week.”

(On comfort level): “(Stan Van Gundy) is putting me in great positions and other guys in great positions to where it makes us efficient and it plays to our strengths.”

PHILADELPHIA 76ERS HEAD COACH BRETT BROWN:  (On overall pre-season): “With the exception of the Celtics game, I thought we had a competitive preseason. We showed signs that we can compete. The group is tight. Tonight was a really good sign of many positive things.”

(On tonight’s performance versus Pistons): “I thought everybody had a say in something positive. It was Chris’ (Johnson) chance to get some minutes and I thought he played well. He has an NBA skill that’s important - he can shoot. Nerlens (Noel) played way better than I thought; five blocked shots, five steals, he’s just so bouncy and he had a say in influencing the game.

PHILADELPHIA 76ERS FORWARD DREW GORDON: (On making defensive improvements): “There’s a lot of stuff that we need to improve on. We’re keying on being a defensive team so obviously a lot of aspects need to be improved on – boxing out, just hitting the body. Basically we just need to step it up a little bit.”

(On tonight’s game): “I was out for a brief period of time so I made my minutes count. I probably would have liked to hit a body and get a few more rebounds. For the most part, I think it was pretty solid.”