Dec. 19, 2008 at Conseco Fieldhouse
Clippers 117, Pacers 109 (2 OT)
PACERS COACH JIM O'BRIEN
“Our team really played their hearts out. It feels bad to leave the building with a loss."
"I thought everyone in a Pacer uniform played as hard as they could. We just lost a tough game.”
PACERS GUARD JARRETT JACK
“The guys that hadn’t played much got a chance tonight and logged a lot of minutes. We just came up short. We played long and hard and the decision making could have been a little bit better and I am included."
"I think teams will know that we have other guys that can play and step up when called upon. We played in bunches and just didn’t have it at the end.”
PACERS CENTER ROY HIBBERT
(On his game) "I played pretty tough along with everybody else. We scrapped, fought and tried to get the win. The coaches told me to be more aggressive on both ends of the court and I think I did do OK in doing that. I still have a lot to learn."
"In the overtime, they executed better than we did and I think some of our people’s legs just gave out. Our bench is proud of what we were able to do tonight.”
CLIPPERS COACH MIKE DUNLEAVY
(On Eric Gordon) "Coming back home I knew he was going to be nervous. I tried to get him some good looks early because I knew he had a lot of people here watching him. And he hit some shots when we needed him to tonight."
(On the game) "Obviously I’m happy we won. It took us until way late in the game to get going to win the game. I told our guys coming in that they were going to play really hard and be very competitive. And they played really well with a lot of guys out. I knew T.J. (Ford) was going to play and he played a great game.”
CLIPPERS GUARD ERIC GORDON
(On being back home in Indiana) "I didn’t shoot the ball as well as I would expect to. It was different out there tonight. My heart was racing a little bit and I was trying to calm myself down. I had a lot of fans and friends in the stands tonight."
(On hitting the three pointer near the end of the game) "I was missing all game so I was glad that I was able to hit that last shot. One of their guards, I don’t remember which one, went to trap Baron (Davis) and it left me wide open and I got the pass and knocked it down."
(On Clippers recent improvement) "Our chemistry is getting better game by game. We’ve been playing a lot tougher games here of late. We’re just riding along and I hope we can get more wins. The NBA is such a long season. We don’t want to have too many highs or lows. We just want to keep it even. Zach opens the floor for us. He is a big presence inside and we get a lot of open looks because of that.”
CLIPPERS FORWARD ZACH RANDOLPH
(On his 34 points, 16 rebounds) "I got off to a slow start but then I just got more aggressive. That’s what we needed to do."
(On the trade that brought him to the Clippers) "We have good players and I’m just trying to bring whatever I can to this team and that’s aggressive rebounding and scoring the basketball and offensive rebounds."
(On coming back to Indiana) "I try to play like that every night. I just need to come out and try to be aggressive and play my game."
(On his slow start in the game) "I got off to a slow start. I couldn’t hit my first couple of shots but then I started getting warm and getting into my rhythm."
(On so many Pacers being out with illness) "Definitely we try to take advantage when guys are out. With them missing two or three players we have to come out and play hard and try to bury the team.”