Quoting Pacers Interim Head Coach Frank Vogel
“We’re very excited about the win. Our guys really fought. They aren’t ready to go home yet…It’s the scrappiest team I’ve every seen. I’m excited to be a part of it. (On the defense on Derrick Rose) We were just executing our scheme. We had different looks and we played with passion, energy and fight. (On play of the bench) The strength of our team is depth…We experienced a big lift from our bench all year. It happened again today. (On holding off Chicago’s rally) The key is, we withstood a furious comeback. We’ve lost games like this recently where they’ve come back. We held them off. It’s a great sign of growth from our young guys. (On Danny Granger) His free throws down the stretch at crunch time were huge. He’s a gamer. Danny Granger is a flat-out gamer. I’m glad he’s on my team. He’s been great the whole series. (On the defense by Paul George and Dahntay Jones on Rose) Both are doing an equally great job on him. I have a hard time deciding who to go with down the stretch. They’re very different type of defenders.”
Quoting Bulls Head Coach Tom Thibodeau
“I thought offensively in the first half we weren’t very good. I thought in the second half we were much better, moved the ball side to side, and we got some better looks. But we did settle too much for the three. (On the Pacers defense) They’re playing good defense. You have to give them credit. We have to read. You have to hit the first open man. When you do that, the ball moves. We’re trying to thread the needle and you can’t thread the needle. You have to hit the first open man. (On the last play) There’s three or four different looks to get a three. We didn’t get a good look…They defended it well. (On whether Rose was affected by his ankle) He doesn’t leave the game unless he’s hurt. For him to leave I am sure he tweaked it pretty good. He’s done it before and he’ll play through it. He said he was fine. (On the Pacers rebounding) They went after it. The more you go, the more you get. They fought harder and got to loose balls. (On his team’s turnovers) We like 13 or below. That’s what we’re striving for. We had a lot in the first half, that’s what gave them the cushion.”
Quoting the Pacers’ Jeff Foster
“A win is a win. (What do you think this means to the younger players?) This was a well deserved win. We’ve played so well throughout the series. The fans really helped us. Even though we knew there was a lot of red, we loved our fans. (On holding the lead in the last couple of minutes) When they started trapping we tried as a team to settle down and keep composure. But I do have to admit the crowd from Chicago was pretty rowdy. But give the guys credit. This is going to be a great experience for us going into game five and I’m looking forward to it.”
Quoting the Pacers’ Dahntay Jones
“(What was it like making a stop on Rose (Derrick) on the last play?) I just tried to deny him the ball and stop him from going where he wanted to go. He’s such an electric player and it was great to get this win. (General) We felt down the stretch today that we could hang on the last few minutes. We knew the key was getting stops on defense and keeping our composure. (On Jeff Foster) He’s doing what we need him to do. He’s great at playing the defense that we need, making the key rebounds that we need. He’s a great leader on the court but he’s also a great leader to us young guys off the court.”
Quoting the Pacers’ Roy Hibbert
“Chicago is really a tough team and always plays well. They’re very prepared and know how to win. I kept in the back of my mind that I did not want this to be the last game of the season. I did not want to go back to DC on that note. We have had three games that we’ve been in there for the whole game and didn’t get it closed out. Tonight we arrived. We came over the hump and got the W. We proved we’re as strong as anybody else and can win with anybody else. (On Carlos Boozer) Don’t really know what we said, it was loud out there. Boozer is a brut and we all knew that. (General) We had the big push and got it done. This is a big win and a win that we needed. And now it’s on to Chicago to take them on there.”
Quoting the Bulls’ Derrick Rose
“(On his ankle) I’m good. That’s basketball. You’re going to have injuries. Anytime as a guard you get hurt during the game you just want to be able to keep moving so it doesn’t tighten up, and have to make sure you keep your shoes tight. (On how he hurt it) Just by taking off. I can’t really explain it. (Did it affect his game?) No. I was just missing shots. I thought I got a lot of good looks but my shot was just short. I thought the shots were on target but just short. (On the comeback at the end of the game) At the end of the game when we got things going, things seemed pretty easy. But what we have to do is do at the beginning of the game what we did at the end of the game. Today we got into too deep of a hole. But if we do things at the beginning like at the end, we should be able to put this team away and take away their confidence. (On the last possession) We didn’t execute right. Everybody just seemed like they were rushing. We easily could have called a time out, but it is something we can fix. And we are still confident that we can close them out.”
Quoting the Bulls’ Carlos Boozer
“(On the comeback falling short) We gave them too much of a cushion. Any time you give up a 14, 15 or 16 point lead especially when they’re at home, it’s tough to come back. But we had a chance and if the ball would have bounced our way maybe one more time we could have pulled it out. It was a grind out game. Whenever you have both teams shooting low field goal percentages, it’s going to be a tough physical game. But in the playoffs the team that is supposed to win, as you guys know ,wins. But in saying that, we still have to go out there and play.”
Quoting the Bulls’ Kyle Korver
“(On the difficulty getting a shot on the last possession) Any time you’ve got two guys guarding the ball it should be easy offense. Some guy should be wide open. (On continuing struggles offensively as a team) I’m not sure. It seems like we’re trying to thread the needle and not just making a pass to pass the ball. We ended the year offensively playing great. Defensively we weren’t playing great. We’ve just go to make easy plays. If the first guy comes open, pass him the ball. If not him, the second guy that comes open pass him the ball, simple basketball. (On how the team will respond the loss) Hopefully, we handle it well. Let’s face it, even though we were up 3-0 we are not playing good basketball. Maybe it’s time for a reality check. Hopefully it happens. We’ll see.”