Detroit: John Loyer | Will Bynum | Josh Smith
Sacramento: Michael Malone | RudyGay
(On defense in the second half): “We had a great stretch in that third quarter, whatever they were 4-for-20 from the field. I thought our bigs were tremendous in pick-and-roll tonight. They were up at the level. They did a good job stopping the ball. But it was a team effort. The guys on the ball did a good job. We didn’t give them easy looks. In that quarter, I think we held them to 11 points and our contest rate was one of the highest of the year. So you give yourself a chance.”
(On Andre Drummond): “Sometimes it isn’t about numbers. It’s how you play. I thought it was one of Andre’s better games. I thought he did a much better job in the post. I thought his defense was good. We were flicking at it. We had good digs from our guards. I thought Andre’s intent to guard in the post and Greg’s (Monroe) intent to guard in the post was very, very good. To control a player like (DeMarcus) Cousins, you have to do a good job and they both did.”
(On winning): “I thought we played well, we played with a sense of urgency. There are a couple of things we could do a little better but this is definitely a building point.”
(On maintaining the lead in the fourth): “We were making plays and getting stops defensively. We did a great job tonight.”
(On shooting and the post season): “We’re concentrating on feeling more comfortable and we’re also trying to play for something. I think we’re two, three games out of accomplishing our number one goal and that is making it to the postseason. I have to be able to contribute, I don’t want to sit home in April and think about what I could have done. I just want to try to leave it all out there on the floor.”
(On Game): "We scored 11 points in the third quarter. The first half we had nine turnovers. We did a little better job in the second half of taking care of the basketball, but we allowed them to get to the foul line. (Rodney) Stuckey had his way with us in the first half off the bench. He really got them going, and to me, I thought we lost that game in the third quarter. We did not come out ready to play. We had some good looks, but did not knock them down. We just were not able to get stops. It is a disappointing loss. We defended fairly well at 43 percent from the field. We held a team that was a great paint scoring team to well below their average in the last five games, but if you allow Josh Smith, who has owned us in two games, to get 24 and then Rodney Stuckey to get 23, they carried the load for them."
(On game): “They (Pistons) had their way with us and they made it easy. They were able to get to the foul line and they made easy ones when they needed to.”
(On offense): “It was tough. We were trying to take good shots, shots we know we can make, but at the end of the day we have to go back to the drawing board. We got stagnant after we started missing shots. When you’re missing shots you try to force things. I do think for the most part we took a lot of good shots and tried to get into the paint, but it just didn’t work out for us tonight.”