Detroit Pistons Head Coach Dwane Casey
(On tonight’s game)
“It doesn’t feel good, first of all. Let me clarify that. It doesn’t feel good at all. Again, we’re not here to play close, you only get that in horse shoes and hand grenades. One thing, again, it’s what the tenth game we’ve lost five points or less? Just making decisions down the stretch. I thought we played well if you take away the second quarter—our bench was four for 21 tonight, and they’ve been good to us all year…but tonight they let us down a little bit as far as the shooting and scoring. Down the stretch I thought our defense was good, it was a knockdown, drag out down the stretch with 18-16 in the fourth quarter and we competed. Again, I wish I could play Blake [Griffin] and Andre [Drummond] and those guys 48 minutes, but we can’t. So we’ve just got to get some production out of our bench. I thought Stanley [Johnson] competed defensively down the stretch, but that lull in the second quarter breaks your back when we’ve to rest our starters.”
(On needing quick points down the stretch)
“No, not really, I don’t think so. I think we had some good looks, and a couple looks there in transition that I thought we rushed. I thought Langston [Galloway] had a drive when he had [Dirk] Nowitzki closing some out to him. I’ll have to go back and look at it. But, again, they made plays down the stretch, and we didn’t. I don’t think we were too deliberate. I think we definitely wanted to get the ball to our top scorer and play off of him, which we did in the first quarter, and I thought we did a good job of that.”
Pistons Center Andre Drummond
(On the loss tonight)
“There is no consolation prize for losing. We played hard but it wasn’t enough to win.”
(On coming back from a four game break)
“I feel good. I did a good job of taking care of myself to make sure I came back ready to go. I had a good practice yesterday. I felt ready to go, so I played today.”
(On the team’s play in the final minutes)
“We missed on some good and open shots. We can’t control that. We missed and they made theirs. That is what it boiled down to down the stretch in the game.”
(On the last few shots)
“Yeah, that’s tough. That was tough especially because it waited so long to put it up and take it away too. It went all the way down to the three minute mark. We can’t control things like that. We are going to chalk this one up and learn from it, we did a lot of good things today. We will have a good practice on Sunday and get ready.”
Dallas Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle
(On Dennis Smith Jr. and Luka Doncic together)
“Well, wasn’t that a great win tonight, before we start on that? I thought it was. I thought everyone played aggressively. The game was won at the defensive end, which was great to see. It was a game we have to have as we are trying to claw our way back into the playoff picture. Look, those guys can play. There is no doubt in my mind about it. I like staggering them because it creates a different look. The important thing is to do whatever is best to win games… and that is what we are trying to do.”
(On Maxi Kleber’s performance tonight)
“The two blocked shots he had down the stretch were enormous plays in the scope of the game. If he didn’t make those two blocks, it would probably have been a one point game; going back and forth in those last two minutes instead of us getting a five to seven point cushion. He was terrific and his shot making in the first half got us going…got the crowd into it. He is a much improved player.”
(On DeAndre Jordan)
“We had no choice. [Blake] Griffin is just too big and strong. We knew that D.J. [DeAndre Jordan] guarding him was an option going into the game, but then you take a big body off of [Andre] Drummond so we wanted to be selective with it. He gave length, he gave strength, he gave a different look, and he made it difficult on Blake.”
(On giving Dorian Finney-Smith more minutes over Wesley Matthews)
“I have mentioned this many times in the last few weeks. We have a fluid, flexible lineup situation. Some are matchups, and some of it is just coach’s decision.”
Mavericks Forward Maxi Kleber
(On the team’s performance in the fourth quarter)
“Our key was to take Blake Griffin out of the game because he is obviously a good player that can make big shots and can make good decisions. Our key was to trap him and make it hard for him. At the beginning, we didn’t rotate well, so they had a lot of open shots. At the half, Coach [Carlisle] said that we had to step out and play harder, get better on our rotations, and that’s what we did. We might have started off a bit slow in the third, but we picked it up in the fourth. Defense and rebounds were the key for us winning this game.”
(On his three-point shooting tonight)
“I’ve been working every day in the gym and I changed my shot in the summer, so I knew there would be ups and downs. I just have to believe in my shot and I just have to keep shooting. I’m here to space the floor too, so if I get the ball and I’m open, I have to shoot it.”
(On his foul trouble late in the game)
“I knew I was in foul trouble late in the game. They told me not to foul so I could stay in the game. That block at the end… I kind of hesitated when I went up.”
(On the importance of the next game against the Toronto Raptors)
“Every game for us is important, especially home games. We are doing a great job and our fans always come out to support us. We play great basketball at home. Every home game we have, we want to win.”