Postgame Quotes - Suns vs Trail Blazers, 11/1/2008

(On using the zone defense)
“We used it one time in San Antonio; we haven’t used it a lot. We wanted to try and keep Shaq on the floor because we thought we had an advantage offensively. We went to the zone as opposed to taking him out and going a bit small.

(On Amar’e Stoudemire)
"He really did a good job; I think he is slowly finding his rhythm. He seemed to be feeling more and more comfortable on the floor. It was nice to see that he gave that lift offensively that we need."

(On guys stepping up)
"We had some guys step up and make some big shots for us. Steve did a good job; Matt did a good job, so it was nice to see that. Early on we struggled trying to keep these guys off the boards. Early on that really hurt us, they got nine or 10 second chance points so we had to tighten that up again, so it was nice to see."

(On third quarter dominance)
“I had my mind set that I wanted to dominate, I wanted to go out and dominate the third quarter to set the tone for the second half and I was able to do that with the help of my teammates. They were there to cheer me on and I just went out there to dominate. As a team we did that tonight during the second half.”

(On building the lead)
“It was great we were sensational during that stretch which really gave us an important lift to get a cushion to get the win.”

(On team shooting better)
“I think we have good players and we are a good shooting team so we should shoot a good percentage, but we have to keep the turnovers down because that will kill us. Not only when it’s out shot attempts, but it also gives us more transition opportunities.”

"They just packed in their defense and we shot the ball from the perimeter. We can attack that zone or their man (defense) but we didn’t do that. They were the aggressors, they got 30 free throws tonight to our 14. Amare and Shaquille are very physical guys. At times, they just overpowered us in the paint.”

"Nash is a big part of what they do when he’s in the game. He puts us in bad mismatches when he goes on those pick and rolls with Amare and they’ve got good spreaders, so did a good job of making shots and they were just a more physical team tonight. We weren’t very physical tonight.”