Postgame Quotes: Suns @ Miami, 11/4/09

On whether Orlando is one of the more extreme examples of an inside-outside game Phoenix’s had to defend: “Yes, when you’ve got (Ryan) Anderson and you’ve got JJ Redick. You’ve got those guys standing out there. And then (Mickael) Pietrus comes in and makes 3s. (Dwight) Howard is always a factor on the inside, so yes. Basically what you have to do is pick your poison. Either you have to play Dwight (Howard) straight up, and they’re going to go to him and pound it in or you’re going to have to double and then you’re going to be in rotation. Stan (Van Gundy) does a great job of mixing it up and making you decide what you really want to do. They’re a great basketball team.”

On Grant Hill’s performance: “It’s tough on Grant (Hill) back-to-back, but I never fault his effort or anything that he does. I’ll go to war with him every single night and most of the time we’re going to win. It was just a tough situation. He and J Rich (Jason Richardson) struggled tonight. You can’t have your two wing players struggling against these guys. You’ve got to play well, but I think we’re going to be okay. Obviously we were missing LB (Leandro Barbosa). LB can change the course of a game like this in that he gives us so much speed and he just gives us another weapon out on the floor. And there’s very few times where you’ll have LB (Leandro Barbosa), J Rich (Jason Richardson) and Grant (Hill) where they’re struggling. Usually two of those three guys are always playing pretty good. But I don’t want to take anything away from Orlando. They did a great job.”

“They went to the Finals last year. I think they got better with the pickup of Anderson and Vince. He didn’t play tonight, but I am pretty sure he is going to be effective once he gets back into the lineup. The same with Rashard Lewis. They have a very good team and wish them success in the future.”

“I am just trying to get back into it. I have been off for so long. I have never in my career, even since I was playing as a kid, taken so much time off from the game. I took seven months off and it is not because I wanted to. It was because of the injury. I am slowly starting to get my feel back. I am getting more and more comfortable out there game by game.”

“I think defensively by watching film, I am getting better out there. I definitely studied the game a lot this offseason by not being able to play. I watched a lot of film. I watched other teams play and studied their game and defensive matchups.”

“We are definitely playing more up tempo. We are also applying defense to our makeup. I feel if we continue to keep playing the way we are, we are definitely going to make a push for the playoffs.”

“We wanted to get it under double figures and see what we could do in the second half. Our guys coming off of a back-to-back, it kind of weighed in on us and fatigue set in during the third quarter. It was hard to tough to get into it from that point.”

(On getting 3rd technical): “No, it’s not a concern. I mean, I get a tech, I can’t do nothing about it. It’s going for a good cause.”

“We had a very bad game in Detroit and we bounced back. After the game, we were in the locker room talking about what we needed to do to get back on track and everybody made a concentrated effort on coming back so I think we did a good job.”