(On your play tonight):
“Obviously there are 2 areas of concern with our X’s and O’s. The first is giving up second chance points. That was a good offensive boarding team and you can’t do that. Second area is turnovers. Committing 20 and giving up 29 points of them, you can’t do. If you add both those things together, it’s 50% of their points. It’s hard to win.”
(On your concerns):
“When we hit adversity tonight we didn’t handle it well. They took us out of what we wanted to do. That adverse situation was tough for us to handle. Tonight we were mentally not tough and physically didn’t handle their pressure. When we were denied what we wanted to do, we didn’t cut and go back door, we stood around. Mentally and physically they just did what they wanted to with us.”
(On Bynum’s play):
“We just don’t know how to play with a guy like that yet. Every time he touched the ball on the block, something good happened. When they double teamed, he kicked the ball out for a 3. I’d love to establish him down low, and it’s what we wanted to do tonight.”
(On their play tonight):
“It was not just 5 or 6 minutes of bad play that cost us the game, the whole game we just didn’t execute. We didn’t deserve to win. Then, we also couldn’t make any plays down the stretch. We have counters for their defenses. We just didn’t execute them. We just need to learn to play better on the road.”
(On the turnovers):
“We just didn’t execute. We need to learn like in baseball to hit singles and not go for homerun passes all the time.”
(On his starting tonight):
“I feel pretty good now. I didn’t think I was playing well in the first half but in the 2nd I was ok. I’ve always had good footwork. Running up and down the court was ok as well. Now we’ll work more on playing together and work on getting use to each other. The guys don’t know how to play off me yet. There are a lot of changes for players around me when I start. They are not all familiar with it and I have to learn the plays. I have no problem passing the ball so when I draw a double team I will pass it. I felt good today but will take it slowly.
(On Derrick Rose’s condition):
“He’ll be evaluated tomorrow but it looks like a minor right hamstring. We called the timeout just to get him out. He tweaked it. When he gets reevaluated tomorrow we’ll have more information. It appears to be minor.”
(On Dunleavy’s play in the 4th quarter):
“I thought in the 3rd quarter there was a sequence where we got into the rhythm. And, I thought that Mike did a good job for us in the 4th quarter.”
(On Derrick finishing at the basket):
“He’s done that all season where he’s been attacking and not quite finishing which he normally does. I would like to see him get to the line a little bit. We have to keep working on it.”
(On the defense against Cleveland):
“They are a load. You can never quite stop a guy like Irving. I though Derrick did his job and the rest of the team provided the necessary help. Irving keeps constant pressure on you. No matter how the game is going, he still has the poise to make. They are a very good team with what Bynum adds to their team. They have a lot of variety off the bench. They are tough.”
(On the game):
“We had some chances to break it open, early on, each quarter. They just hung in there. Fortunately in the 4th, we were able to pull away.”
(When will the team play a full 48 minutes):
“We just have to stay with it. It’s not an easy thing to do. Probably the toughest thing to do in this league.There’s a lot of great teams. To think you’re going to go out and put it on people 48 minutes, every night. We’d like to do that but you have to be realistic. We just have to keep grinding at it, keep thinking we’re going to do it. We will.”
(Do you know what happened to Derrick):
“No. I just that he came out.”
(On his 3 point shooting):
“I think we have a lot of guys who can draw double teams and draw attention to open up the 3 point line. Hopefully we will keep finding guys who are open. Guys have to step up and knock them down.”
(Are you feeling more comfortable with your teammates):
“Yes, I’m getting there. It’s an easy group to get along with and feel comfortable with. You have to go out there and perform. I’m getting more comfortable here in the United Center and getting more comfortable in every which way on both ends of the court. I always want to keep improving and helping this team in any way I can.”