DETROIT PISTONS HEAD COACH DWANE CASEY
(On how he approached the second-chance opportunities during the game…)
Some of those things we can control. Those are the parts of the game that frustrate you as far as it doesn’t take talent, it's not who you are or what your contract says. Box out and go get the ball. Free-throw situations, you know Simmons is a bad free-throw shooter. Those are the little things we have to continue to talk about and build those winning habits and not get caught up in what the scoreboard says but creating winning habits. Those things will pay off for us down the road.
(On how he feels about the team giving up so many three-point shots…)
That’s the NBA. I can’t make excuses. Guys want to play. This is the opportunity to go out there and do your job. We can work on everything in practice, whatever the combination is, but it’s about getting out there and executing the defensive schemes, staying connected to three-point shooters, understanding who you are guarding. But I like the fact that Luke [Kennard] got a chance to get out there and get a minute. Jon Leuer got extended minutes, so this will pay off for us somewhere down the road.
(On his positive takeaway from this game…)
We are trying to get every bit of positive out of this stretch. This is the stretch from hell, but again this is going to make us a better team, closer together, tougher hopefully. It should make us tougher because this feeling doesn’t feel good and I told our players, 'The only people who can pick ourselves out by the bootstraps are ourselves.' And it wasn’t too long ago when Philadelphia was feeling this way almost every other night. But now look at them. They kept building habits, kept building culture, a winning mindset and now look where they are now. That’s where we want to build once everyone gets back and gets healthy.
DETROIT PISTONS CENTER ANDRE DRUMMOND
(On his team’s performance tonight…)
I think guys did a really good job of coming in and playing hard. We gave it the best shot we had. We had tough mistakes down the stretch of the game that got them going again, but I think overall we played a really tough game tonight.
(On adapting to Blake [Griffin] being out…)
I think the guys that came in did a really good job of adjusting, guys that didn’t get a chance or opportunity to play earlier in the year took the time to play and play hard and did what they are supposed to do and play to their position. So, take the hat off to those guys for playing that way and I’m looking forward to having guys come back healthy.
(On teammate Luke Kennard's performance…)
Luke is a scorer, he’s done that for the years that we had him and now that his legs are back coming back from that tough injury, it’s night and day for him. So it will be good to have him back and it was a good night for him to come back and play that way. I tell him all the time, that’s why you’re here, you’re not here to be a playmaker, you’re here to score, so shoot the basketball.
DETROIT PISTONS FORWARD LUKE KENNARD
(On his mindset going into the game and during the game…)
I’ve been struggling since I got back. My coaches and teammates told me to stay confident, stay aggressive, so that was my mindset coming into it. We knew we had some guys out, so we took the opportunity to just play hard and just try to get a rhythm back.
(On how the 76ers played tonight…)
They are a great team; they are going to be a team to fight, top four in the east. They always play well against us. They made plays, but we stuck in there and I’m proud of the way that we fought tonight. They had some big runs on us, but we stayed locked in and we had some runs ourselves. Throughout the game, we stayed locked in and stayed aggressive as well.
(On what it is like to guard Ben Simmons…)
My biggest thing is staying with it. He’s a great player, he knows the game so well. He is a tough guy to stop, he really is a strong guy. He knows how to play the game the right way and he knows how to make other people better. It's hard to take a guy like that out of the game, so we do our best to take other guys out of the game.
PHILADELPHIA 76ERS HEAD COACH BRETT BROWN
(On how important the bench was tonight…)
It was huge. Look at the points the bench gave us. I think they had 11 threes. Furkan came in and he was our bell ringer tonight. I thought Landry Shamet came up with some aggressive plays, especially at the end when it was sort of hanging around. He had the big offensive rebound off Ben’s missed free throw. But our bench was big tonight.
(On what he’s learned about Furkan this year…)
He’s not intimidated by NBA basketball. He’s not intimidated by the moment. I don’t know how much you paid attention to Turkey in the qualification series, but, I have said this a lot, he was one of the better guards in that tournament. He’s got a bounce, he has an inner belief, there is a swagger that he has when he is going to make a play. He may miss a lot of shots, he may make a lot of shots, but there really isn’t any sort of trepidation, there is not a back down in Furkan. I thought he played the game well and he played it with a lot of confidence.
(On his expectations of Landry from college videos…)
You could see it. You see it more dramatically when it’s under your own roof and in front of your own nose, but you could see how he just had a knack for doing things. He really could play and often times you speak about how clever he is moving off the ball. He’s actually a better shooter than I thought. But I think that defensively, and doing some sneaky and subtle things, he does those from time to time and he really can surprise you with his awareness, his court savvy, his presence. He does some sneaky things, like a few of the things we saw tonight and that really did change the game. That play on the baseline, that offensive rebound, where we sort of sent him in off Ben’s free throw and got away with it. But he’s an intelligent young man and he certainly can play the game. I think as he gets older, and starts filling out, we are going to see more from him.
PHILADELPHIA 76ERS BEN SIMMONS
(On if the Pistons were forced to adjust tonight…)
I think, they didn’t really adjust too much. We just started to play more of a team-style of play down the stretch in the third and fourth quarter.
(On Furkan Korkmaz’s game tonight…)
I think offensively, no question, he’s a great player, offensively. He knocks down shots, plays the right way, the European style of play. Defensively, he’s gotten a lot better, communication, strength-wise, holding his own on defenders and just reading plays.
(On how the bench has come through lately…)
I feel like when guys have opportunities they’re able to play and do their thing and get comfortable. It’s the NBA. Guys can play and know how to play the game. I think if you really look at it, if somebody doesn’t play as many minutes as another guy, obviously they’re not going to be as comfortable. They’re not going to take shots, certain shots, make certain shots until they get into a little bit of a rhythm.