Detroit: John Loyer | Greg Monroe | Rodney Stuckey
Utah: Tyrone Corbin | Marvin Williams | Trey Burke | Gordon Hayward
(On playing a near-perfect 48 minutes ) “I thought it just started right from the opening tip. What, did we have a 9-2 lead or something right out of the gate? It just kind of set the tone. Our guys, I think, could just stop and relax for a second and play. I told them before the game, when you go on the road, especially a building like this, and really the last three places we’ve been, you don’t want to be an 8-to-10 down, catch-up type game. We had a really nice start, and I think that set the tone.”
(On having a two-to-one rebounding edge heading into halftime ) “Well, they didn’t really play both bigs (Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter) together other than starting them in the first (quarter) and third (quarter). I thought after a little stretch our guards came back and helped us rebound. I thought our bigs did a better job by not getting pushed underneath the basket and holding their ground. We had a long stretch where we just gave them one shot and we did a pretty nice job in transition to go attack them.”
(On he and Andre Drummond facing Utah’s bigs ) “I think we were both just aggressive. We moved around trying to get second shots. Just trying to be aggressive in the post. Taking what they gave us. I think both of us did a good job being patient.”
(On the team’s bench play ) “Will (Bynum) definitely came in and moved the ball around. Jonas (Jerebko) has been playing really well the last few games. Slashing making open shots. (Kentavious Caldwell) Pope had a good game tonight, so you know it was a great team win for us tonight.”
(On the last time Detroit won in Utah ) “(Winning in Utah) is very rare. I think we played as a team tonight. We were helping each other offensively and defensively. We just played well as a team.”
(On winning on the road ) “This win was crucial for us. It’s always good to win. Winning cures everything. (We’re going to) go back home now, play Cleveland (on) Wednesday and try to get another one.”
“Most importantly, we just have to come out, try to compete each and every night for 48 minutes. Try and finish the season strong.”
(On the game ) “It was a disappointing loss. You have a big win the other night. One of the things we talk about is each game is different and you can’t live off another game. We came out right from the beginning like we were running in mud. I don’t know if we were thinking about the other night or what, but we gotta put a lot more energy than we showed tonight.”
“We cut it to 12 there a couple of times. We picked it up a little bit. They had gotten going at that point. For this team to shoot - not taking anything away from them they played well - but 55 percent from the field against us. I think they were 61 percent at halftime so they had the confidence going. It’s difficult when you let teams get going like this. They feel good about all the shots they got.”
(On the game ) “We didn’t have the energy that we had the other night. It was kind of disappointing. I think we were trying to find it but give Detroit a lot of credit, every time we made a push they always had an answer. Those guys executed very well and made big shots when they needed to and they made it very tough for us on the offensive end. ”
(On getting off to a slow start tonight ) “We got off to a slow start. I think they jumped ahead of us like 9-2 or 10-2. We obviously didn’t get off to a good start or the start we wanted to. We made a big push in the third quarter and came out and played with more energy, but still not the level of energy we played with in the past. If we play with the energy we played with in the third quarter and start the game the way we started the third quarter we’ll put ourselves in a position to win games.”
(On the game ) “It’s kind of disappointing with the way we came out against Orlando and fought for 48 minutes and gave ourselves a chance to win at the end, and you come out and lose by 20 to the Pistons. It’s tough, but we just got to continue to learn. You can say a thousand things about the game tonight, but I think the most important thing is they had more energy than us early on and when we did try to make a push, it was kind of too late.”
(On his game tonight ) “I feel like I missed some open shots that I usually knock down and I feel like I could have got others involved a little more in the paint. I feel like I did do a good job of getting into the paint and kind of making the defense collapse and kicking out. You gotta commend the Pistons tonight, they did a great job of rotating early off the pick-and-roll and they were better defensively than us tonight.”
(On the game) “It’s frustrating, especially playing at home. We just didn’t come out with energy for whatever reason and it’s disappointing because we have such good fans that always provide us with energy and for whatever reason we didn’t have it tonight.”
(On Detroit’s inside game tonight ) “They’re the best in the league at that. They have some bigger guys and they can get offensive rebounds, some put backs, easy dunks. We didn’t really take anything away from them, and that’s on us.”