Suns-Grizzlies Quotes: 4/13/2009

Alvin Gentry	Grant Hill	Robin Lopez	Lionel Hollins
Hakim Warrick	Rudy Gay

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Suns Head Coach Alvin Gentry

“It was a good win, it was a tough win; that team is very talented. I felt like this was an important game for us to try and find a way to come away with a victory, and that’s why I put the starters back in. Not that I didn’t think our bench could do it, I just thought it was a good opportunity for those guys to close out the game and they did a good job. You can see that team is really talented with their three big guns, when you look at Rudy, O.J., and Hakeem seems to love playing against us. You look at the bottom of the sheet, and we always have more memos than any other team in the league. We would like to cut down on some of those memos at the bottom of the page. It was a good win for us, we want to try and close out the season on a positive note.”

(On Grant ignoring Gentry’s call for a timeout): “That’s the old Doug Collins play. We did have that play when I was in Detroit where Doug said take a timeout and then dribble down, so that’s what Grant said when he made the basket. It was a good thing they didn’t call a timeout because I was getting ready to jump all over them. I didn’t think that we were focused in, we turned the ball over and we had five early turnovers which is inexcusable.”

(On Robin Lopez): “I think Robin is coming along; he just hasn’t had a lot of minutes. I think you will see that the more he plays the better he will get. I think he has a real bright future. He does a great job of protecting the basket. I think his offense will eventually come, and in our system he’ll do alright offensively because he can catch and finish and get out and run; he’ll be ok.”

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Suns forward Grant Hill

(On the Grizzlies): “I like their team. Certainly they struggled this year, but man – if you had Pau Gasol with those young guys – they’d be pretty interesting. It wasn’t pretty, but they fought hard and stayed in the game and we did what we had to do to get the win.”

(On the starters returning late in the game): “It was like one of those camp substitutions – you sub a whole unit in. We came in and it was good – we did what we had to do. Sometimes when guys are sitting like that, you’re not sure whether you’re bringing guys back in or not. The last two games we haven’t played in the fourth quarter, but starters came in and responded. J-Rich, Shaq and everybody contributed and made big plays on both ends and did what we had to do to close out the game.”

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Suns center Robin Lopez

(On getting a lot of playing time): “I was pretty confident. My teammates were getting me into it and I was feeling comfortable as I got a good amount of minutes.”

(On how he feels he’s improved): “I want to stay humble and not have a big head, but I think I’ve made some huge steps since before the All Star Game. I’m more comfortable, I think, and I know my role – especially on offense.”

(On what how he hopes to improve this summer): “Put some weight on and get stronger and learn the pick and roll a little better.”

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Grizzlies Head Coach Lionel Hollins

“It was an ugly game. The Suns, because they’re out of the playoffs have actually turned it into an exhibition game and trying to get our guys focused down the stretch is tough. We know we haven’t been going anywhere for a while but we ‘re playing hard, playing together , playing pretty consistently, trying to build for next year, and then you come into two games with the Suns where they’re liberally subbing and knowing that they’re not going to play. Obviously they had to play their starters because we were right there at the end but they broke away from us."

(On last 3:30): "They made plays. They made shots and we didn’t, we turned the ball over and they made shots.”

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Grizzlies forward Hakim Warrick

(On 10-11 shooting): “My team mates did a good job of getting me the ball. I was able to get some loose balls and finish. I was trying to stay active and we did a really good job of spreading the floor and getting into the lane, staying active and getting second chance points."

"They did a really good job running the pick and roll and executing down the stretch. Steve Nash is making great passes to Shaq who is going to finish. We just didn’t get the stops down the stretch that we needed.”

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Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay

“They played pretty good defense. Shaq was a big presence down there. Lopez came in the game and he got some offensive rebounds and some dunks. That’s what you need."

(On playing well recently): "That’s something you’ve got to take with you. That’s one thing we’ll take with us into the off season.”

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