 | Suns Head Coach Mike D'Antoni
(Opening statement): “Obviously the first half was really good and a lot of good things. Again, we’ve got some improvement to do in the sense of a couple of plays here and there, a couple of rebounds and a couple of missed switches – and we can tighten all that stuff up, but when you shoot 77 percent in the first half and we end up 56.5 percent, it’s pretty good.”
(On Amaré Stoudemire breaking the franchise record for free throws made in a game): “To be honest with you, nothing he does really surprises me anymore. He’s done every obstacle – you say ‘oh, he can’t do that,’ and he does it. He just keeps getting better and working and he was awesome tonight.”
(On the winning streak and Grant Hill’s defense): “I just don’t want us to get ahead of ourselves. Two weeks ago, we weren’t going to make the playoffs, according to a lot of people, and today we’ll probably never lose again, and neither one of them is true – we’re right in the middle. We’re still working and have got some things to do. I thought Grant (Hill) did an unbelievable job on Tracy (McGrady). Tracy is that good, but Grant got him to an 11-31 night and Grant did a great job. Gordan did a pretty good job on him also, but it was mainly Grant out there the whole time and didn’t have Raja (Bell) to spell him a little bit. I thought Grant did a heck of a job.” |
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 | Suns guard Steve Nash
(On if he thought Amaré Stoudemire would break the free-throw record): “Actually he would be the only one, no one else is going to the line 20 times and he’s such a good shooter. He would be the only one I would bet on.”
(On difference in Amaré Stoudemire’s intensity): “I think it’s helped him to be at a more natural position defensively and have Shaq around the basket. But it also takes discipline and maturity to focus and he’s doing that.”
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 | Suns Center Shaquille O'Neal
(On peaking at the right time): “Yes, it wouldn’t have been good for us to come and peak too early and get comfortable. You know, even though when I first got here the games that we lost I still felt like nobody beat us. It was just unnecessary turnovers trying to adjust to each other and people not being in their right position. But we’ve been practicing all of that. It’s a smart group of guys that I’m playing with so I knew at some point that we were going to get to this level. Now we just have to bottle this formula and just go with it.”
(On the upcoming road trip): “The first two games, especially against Detroit, against a veteran team so we have to do everything right. Those guys have been together for 6 or 7 years now so they know each other pretty well. But if we play the way we’ve been playing we’ll be fine.”
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 | Suns center Amare Stoudemire
(On the fans chanting MVP): “It felt great and I appreciate the fans for their support. But what I do is continue to get better as a player and whatever accolades come my way that’s a bonus. But I’m just playing for my team and trying to play for us as a whole.”
(On his free-throws): “I was never a horrible free-throw shooter, there were just a few techniques that I had to work on and I was able to get that done these past few years with repetition. I think from shooting the jumper that allows me to find my rhythm from the free-throw line. So I think both of those play equally, so I feel great for both jumper and free-throws.”
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 | Rockets Head Coach Rick Adelman
“I was just disappointed in the way we played in the first half. They jumped on us and go to the open court and took control with Stoudemire. In the second half we got a little bit more rhythm offensively and defensively and did a better job of containing them. To their credit, they came out and went after us at the start of the game. Shaq was very aggressive. He just got too good of position. You can’t let him catch the ball right in the paint. That hurt us as Stoudemire obviously hurt us. Some of our guys have never played against Stoudemire and they’ve got to find out what it’s all about and they’ve got to learn from the experience. We haven’t played these guys for three months, so hopefully we’ll get better with experience.”
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 | Rockets Guard Tracy McGrady
(On 2nd half) “We put a lot more pressure out on the perimeter. We were making it too easy for them. Shaq was getting very deep in his post ups and our perimeter guys, we were making it that much easier because we weren’t pressuring the ball. We did as better job contesting shots on the perimeter. They shot the ball well in the first half and we didn’t have an answer for them. When we cut the lead to 8 points, it kind of gave us some confidence that if we could get a couple more stops, but we lost this game in the first half. Regardless of us cutting it to 8, the game was lost in the first half.” |
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 | Rockets Forward Luis Scola
“We played a really bad first half and we tried to come back. We tried to fight, we tried to compete but it was a really long shot. We played bad because we played bad, not because we were tired.
(On 2nd half) We played harder. We took a little bit of pride, we were down 26 and we were playing really bad so we had to work, we had to try.”
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