Wolves - Magic Postgame

NBA Postgame Quotes
Minnesota vs. Orlando
April 11, 2008 @ Amway Arena

Minnesota Head Coach Randy Wittman:
On the win:
“That’s a good one. We’ve talked; it’s been as brutal a schedule coming down the stretch as we’ve had and our guys just stayed in it. We got down by 14 and we kept playing. I think they were 9-for-13 I think at the half from the 3-point line and I told our defense at halftime that if we can get them to shoot a lot of 3’s in the second half I don’t think they’ll be able to go 9-for-13 again. Dwight (Howard) is a load and I thought Al (Jefferson) battled his rear end off tonight. We gave him some good double-teams down there. We were active and we forced them, I thought as it came down, to shoot a lot of 3’s. I think they go 4-for-16 in the second half and for us that’s what we wanted to try and do. We lived with it in the first half and felt pretty comfortable coming in at half and knew they weren’t going to shoot 67 percent in the second half.”

On not letting the game get away in the first quarter:
“That’s where this team has kind of developed some things. Earlier in the year we did do that and we put our heads down. We kind of fought through in the second half of the year and I think all the guys learned that it’s a long game. Momentum can change so quickly in this and you just have to give yourself a chance. That’s what we did. I thought Randy (Foye) got aggressive in pick-and-rolls and created some things. He hit some big shots, some big 3-point shots. I thought Corey (Brewer) came in and played well and gave us a big lift. I thought his defense on (Hedo) Turkoglu the last three to four minutes of the game was pretty good. I mean, that’s a tough cover for anybody. Al (Jefferson) battled all night down there. Everybody came in. Michael Doleac, I thought, came in and made a big bucket at the end of the second quarter. Marko (Jaric) is playing banged up. Kirk (Snyder) got banged up. We’re the walking wounded right now and with Craig (Smith) out we’ll have to see what we’ve got tomorrow.”

On the motivation of knocking off a playoff team:
“It’s just motivation for us to compete through the end. We’ve kind of set up little goals for ourselves; our little playoff thing. We’re not in the playoffs but I want these guys to think, coming down the stretch, of games you need to win. And we’ve done that. A lot of these guys, it’s their first time being in this position, and I give them credit. Sometimes it’s hard playing these last three or four games knowing when you don’t have anything at the end.”

Minnesota Forward Ryan Gomes:
“I didn’t want to think about it too much. When you start thinking about it too much then it might throw your rhythm off and your timing off. So I just went up there and shot them like nobody was in the gym. They both fell down.”

“We have been struggling the last few games and we haven’t been finishing them off. Tonight was a big challenge. We were down six. Randy comes and hits a big three then Rashad comes right back down and hits another one. We got some stops and we got an opportunity to go back down and get some shot attempts up. Corey and I both crashed the glass on that last play and we were able to come up with the offensive rebound and get fouled. We want to finish the season out strong like I have been saying. We have 3 games left and we wanted to finish out on a positive note.”

“Randy played tremendous at the end of the third and into the whole fourth quarter. He made big shots whenever we needed them.”

“You have to take accountability for the last five before this. We won this one, but the ones before this did not turn out the way we wanted. There were a few bad losses. We don’t want to go back to those habits again. We want to finish the season out and get all three of these. We will see what we can do.”

Minnesota Guard Randy Foye:
“That is one thing (Magic’s field goal percentage from three point line in first half) that Coach said at halftime and ourselves in the huddle. They shot 70% from the three point line. They were not going to shoot like that in the second half. We had to keep playing our game. In the second half, they missed some of those threes and that helped us out.”

“I thought Al did a great job on Howard tonight. Even though we came and doubled every time, Al had to set the position for us to come and help. We didn’t let Dwight Howard get started the way he could.”

“We just have to keep playing. We know we are not in the playoffs. We know we are way under .500, but the main thing is to keep playing and get better every day.”

“You never want another team to try and celebrate on you (as Magic went for 50th win). So we always try to come out and be aggressive and try to spoil your party.”

Orlando Head Coach Stan Van Gundy:
On the overall game:
“I thought it was very fitting that we got beat on an offensive rebound. I thought we had made some strides in the Chicago game, but evidently not. We’re just not taking care of things on the boards, we’re just not. It was very fitting that we got outrebounded by nine, destroyed in the second half on the glass and we lose on an offensive rebound; very fitting. Their guards destroyed us. We could not play either Foye or McCants at all, could not. That’s troubling with the guys we’re going to play in the first round of the playoffs. We didn’t take care of the ball in the first half, a little better job in the second half. And we again, with the lead, come out again in the second half with no offensive energy at all. I thought we had played an awful, awful second half offensively. What I told them after the game, we’ve got to wise up a little bit. We don’t play well with the lead, and we didn’t understand at halftime, and we pointed it out to them, that the only reason we had the lead at halftime was phenomenal 3-point shooting. We hadn’t played real well. We hadn’t defended well. But, instead of taking that to heart and trying to really put the game away and play harder and better, we just jacked up more shots and hope they keep going in, and that we wouldn’t have to play hard to win. And they stuck it to us. They deserve to win and again, very fitting finish to that game.”

On Turkoglu taking the last shot:
“We had him the ball right up there. He had 2.9 seconds, but he shot it like he had .9 seconds. I didn’t like the shot because he wasn’t balanced up. He shot like a fade away 3 air ball. I didn’t like it. I just, I didn’t like it.”

On if losing five of last eight games will motivate the team:
“No obviously not. If New York didn’t get your attention to last beyond one game then this will not.”

On if this being end of year is why they are losing focus:
“Nope. No excuses. Not getting ready. Not doing what they’re asked to do.”

On what to expect in next three games:
“I have no idea. I told them afterwards I fully expect that we’ll go into Sunday very overconfident and low energy, because that’s sort of what we’ve shown. We just beat the team. Earlier in the year we beat Detroit here, played them four or five days later we’re down 20 at the end of the first quarter. Then we played Washington, win by 30, played them here two weeks later and play awful. Philadelphia, we beat them by 16 here, went up there five days later and we’re down double figures in the first quarter. If you’re a betting man then I would bet that that’s what we’d do on Sunday, because we don’t seem right now that we’re capable of learning.”

Orlando Center Dwight Howard:
“We’ve just got to continue to play inside-out and work on both ends of the floor. We didn’t do a good job of it tonight. We’ll get ready for the next one.”

(On losing to a 19-win team) “It’s over with. It’s frustrating that we lost. We’ll just come back the next game and be ready. We shouldn’t lose to any team at home. But we lost tonight; there’s nothing we can do about it but come back and play hard.”

Orlando Center Adonal Foyle:
“It’s not so much that our mind is not there. We keep forgetting that one of the first things that happens when you become a good team is that it doesn’t matter what team you play, they’re going to bring their ‘A’ game against you. You always have a bulls-eye on the back of your shirt and what guys fail to realize is that every team that comes in here is going to want to beat the daylights out of us. And every team, whether or not their season is over is really irrelevant, because they think they can make a statement as to where they are by destroying us. And I think that we have, and this is so critical because it’s not like we have a lot of games left; we have three games to prepare for the playoffs.”

Orlando Forward Hedo Turkolgu:
“I should have taken a better shot in that situation. But in the best situation, I’d have a better choice. I know it was bad at that time but I tried to get a little space and try to take the best shot. And it was kind of a bad shot.”

(On blowing leads) “Things like that shouldn’t come down to the last second shot. We should take care of our business way easier but sometimes shots don’t fall down.”

“We should have 50 wins in front of our fans. But hopefully, we learn from this and go to Chicago and take care of those games and have 52 to finish the season.”