Detroit: John Loyer | Jonas Jerebko | Will Bynum
LA Clippers: Doc Rivers | Blake Griffin | Chris Paul
“[The Clippers] are a veteran team that I thought turned the pressure up defensively. It wasn’t so much what we did defensively. Our offense didn’t allow our defense to be in the game. We kind of just played scattered basketball for a three minute stretch. And that’s what good teams do – they turned up the pressure, they converted, they got easy baskets, and we didn’t stay disciplined enough in just a small stretch after being very disciplined for twenty-four minutes to withstand that type of pressure. It’s a credit to them. It’s something we have got to get better at.”
On Jonas Jerebko's performance: “Jonas [Jerebko] was very good. What Jonas can do, he’s a very good player. He shot the ball extremely well, he always plays with tremendous energy, and he moved the ball. When Jonas plays with what he’s very good at, he’s a good player.”
On Andre Drummond: “I thought Andre [Drummond] was very solid. I thought he screened very well, shot at the rim very well. Of course he always shoots a very high percentage. He had a nice little jump hook going in the lane. Andre, for a young player, you pretty much know what you’re going to get every night.”
On his performance: “It’s tough to lose the game, so I can’t be too happy about it, but at least I saw the ball go through the rim a couple of times. It made the game come a lot easier to me.”
On getting minutes: “I am just trying to stay ready when my name is called and trying to take care of my minutes. Today I was out there a little longer than usual, and I like to be out there. So I’m just trying to work as hard as I can in practice, and when the game comes just trying to stay ready.”
“In that first half, we did a great job executing possessions and getting the ball to the right people. They just jumped out on us in the third quarter.”
“[The Clippers] jumped out in the third quarter, jumped out to a double-digit lead. From that point out, it’s such a good team, so we’re playing catch-up and it’s just hard to respond.”
“We definitely need to share the ball a lot more. Defensively we have to be a whole lot better. For the size that we have, we have a lot of lapses on the defensive end on the court, and that’s critical to win
On Chris Paul: “Chris [Paul] is an amazing point guard, one of the best of all time. He played in front of one of the best of all time tonight in Isaiah [Thomas]. Very similar in a lot of ways, the ball handling. I think Chris, Isaiah, Kyrie [Irving], as far as just unbelievable pure ball handling. There are not a lot of guys in that; they have their own little area. That’s good; I didn’t know that about the assists [Chris Paul’s 6000 career-assists]. It doesn’t surprise me especially when you think about that number at his age, that’s pretty impressive.”
On the Clippers' defense: “In the first half I thought we were sketchy but in the third quarter, I thought it was phenomenal. I thought that we turned it on. I was worried about this game… When you take four days off, you’re going to be sloppy and late on a lot of stuff. I thought we were that. I thought we were tired a lot because you just are not in game-condition any more when you have that many days off. I saw a lot of that. I like the way we came out and kind of imposed our defense in the third quarter. That got us the lead and we were good from there.”
On Andre Drummond vs. DeAndre Jordan: “I thought DJ [DeAndre Jordan] was great. I don’t love matchup stuff because we ask DJ to do a lot of things. Even though he starts out on [Andre] Drummond, he’s up showing on pick-and-rolls, he’s rotating out to Josh Smith. There’s a great chance that if Drummond scores, it may not be on DJ, or even get a rebound. DJ was great.”
“We obviously had a poor second quarter. I felt like we can’t give up games like that or give up leads like that. I thought the coaches gave us the right talk in the locker room at halftime and we responded in the right way.”
On regrouping at halftime: “Doc [Rivers] said we had a whole lot of unnecessary energy. I think their [coaches] point was just that when things started going bad, when they made a run, we just kind of had bad energy. We didn’t put our heads down and work harder we just kind of gave up, and that’s on me just as much as anybody. So I’m proud of how we responded.”
On comparisons to Isiah Thomas: “Isiah [Thomas] is one of the greatest, one of the best ever to play the game. I’m not as quick or as fast as he ever was, or as crafty. I always have this burning image in my head of Isaiah Thomas, he was splitting a double team and he kept doing these little crossovers. He’s unreal. Zeke [Isiah Thomas] won a championship though. I think the thing that I’ve always admired most about him and the guys like Allen Iverson is that they were like iron men. I’ll never forget that game when his ankle was hurt, and he was just running circles around everybody. It shows competitiveness.”
On getting his 6000th assist: “It’s cool, it’s an honor. But I think I’m one of those people who will always say what would it be if I wasn’t hurt all the time. So I think that’s the toughest part. But it’s cool. I think I’ll definitely look back on it later. I don’t know what it means in the grand scheme of things, I didn’t even know I had 6,000 tonight. I think I’m just so focused on winning games and not the individual achievements.”