featured-image

Postgame Quotes - November 15, 2015

Lakers Head Coach Byron Scott

(On if managing Detroit’s rebounding was a small victory for the team) “Yeah, absolutely. They didn’t have 27 offensive rebounds against us, so that was a very good indication that we would have a chance to win the game, if we did those little things. I thought Roy [Hibbert] did a fantastic job on [Andre] Drummond. If you look at his stat sheet, the guy [Drummond] is up with 17 and 17, but he only had four offensive rebounds, so we held him under his season average. For the most part, we did a pretty good job.”

(On what was different about tonight’s play that prompted the win) “I thought our activity was much better. Guys are moving much better on the stream. Our communication is much better. They’re just starting to get it, you know, all the work that we’ve been putting into it, all the drilling, they’re starting to get it, so that’s a good thing.”

Lakers F Kobe Bryant

(On C Andre Drummond’s performance tonight) “He is taking his game to a whole new stratosphere. I told him before the game just to keep going. It’s amazing. I feel like you’ve done a good job if you’re getting 17 rebounds. That’s crazy.”

 (On whether or not the team is improving offensively) “We are getting there, but it’s a process. When I first came here it was hard for me to understand ball movement at 18 years old and these guys are in the same position. The good thing is that I understand how to speak that language because I was once in that position.”

 (On Coach Byron Scott’s decision for him to keep playing into the fourth quarter) “I pushed through this fourth quarter because we had to get this win at home. Right now, I am barely standing up. My back and my legs are killing me but I am going to take an ice bath and stretch, and I have a full day of recovery tomorrow.”

 (On if he is worried about the impact tonight’s game will have on his body) "A little bit, but we talked about it and I knew that we had to push through. We had to get this one done. I will take a day tomorrow.”

Lakers F Nick Young

(On getting a win) “It feels great. Get our first win at the Staples Center, regular season, we needed it.”

 (On what was different tonight) “We’re just still figuring it out. We’re learning how to play together more and more every day. It just clicked tonight for us down the stretch.”

 (On the team defense) “We just pretty much became like a boy band, like NSync, we were really in sync in the game. I was more like Justin Timberlake out there on the defense.”

 (On if he is comfortable picking up the scoring load if Kobe Bryant can’t play in Phoenix) “Yeah, Kobe’s been teaching me more and more out there and that’s what I like to do is put the ball in the hole and hopefully keep going out there with confidence, keep getting that confidence, and playing as a team. Like I said, you have to be in sync. We have to do our dance moves and get the crowd going.”

Pistons Head Coach Stan Van Gundy

(On Roy Hibbert’s strong defensive play) “Well, [Roy] Hibbert is a very good defender. I mean, he is one of the best rim protectors in the league, something that we need more of, Andre [Drummond] could learn from. Andre does a lot of great things but he is not protecting the rim at all. Hibbert is a great rim protector and I thought he did a good job of that today. That’s what Roy Hibbert does. ”

 (On the Pistons’ missed shots) “Look, I thought we played hard tonight, I didn’t have a problem with the effort. I thought other than fouling them a lot, our defense was good. Our defensive rebounding was good, I thought we battled. Just offensively we are a little bit of a mess right now and we just are not making any shots. Spencer [Dinwiddie] played really well and Andre [Drummond] played pretty well on the offensive end. Other than that, we just didn’t have anything, so it was a rough night. But we’re not going to have much offensive success and continue to shoot the ball the way we are.”

 (On Reggie Jackson’s play) “Tonight his decision making was terrible, he was trying to go behind his back in the middle of the lane, he was up in the air. Look, he just had a really bad night. The guy has had a heavy work load on this trip, the two wins we got were largely him taking over late in the game and I think he is a little worn down. Today I think mental fatigue too, he just was a little bit out of it today and his decision making was bad. But guys are going to have bad nights and he had an awful one tonight.”

 (On putting Reggie Jackson in for Spencer Dinwiddie in the fourth quarter) “Well, [Spencer] needed a little bit of a rest, he went in six minutes of the third quarter, I wasn’t going to have him finish 18 straight minutes, that would have been a little bit much. So I took him out and see what Reggie [Jackson] did. Two quick turnovers and then [Reggie] tried to isolate and post up, he took a bad shot, I just thought his decision making was off and we went back with Spencer [Dinwiddie]. I don’t know that Spencer could have played many more minutes than he did in the second half, unless we started him in the second half.”

Pistons G Spencer Dinwiddie

(On what four straight losses mean for the team’s confidence) “Nothing. I mean, everybody understands that we have to play better. A lot of it has to do with hitting shots, like you said our defense is solid, not spectacular like it was at the beginning of the season, but you’ve got to hit shots to win basketball games. We’re generally holding guys around 100 [points], under 100, you know, you do have to make shots and that’s something that is an emphasis for us right now, and yeah, that’s about it.”

 (On whether he finds any solace in the team’s 5-5 record after 10 games) “Well that’s the thing. I feel like if anybody was looking at this team to start the season and said you were going to be 5-5 after this type of road trip, and having the second hardest schedule, a lot of people would have been happy with it. Sometimes outside expectations, they get a little bit high because of the way you start off and because obviously, Reggie’s setting records and Reggie had his 40- point game and all that stuff, but as a team you can never get too high or too low. Right now we understand we’re a good basketball team, and right now we’re solid on defense, [if] we can tighten up the screws a little, even that much further, then we’ve got a good shot.

 (On what his performance means for his confidence going forward) “It’s not so much that it gives you confidence, I think it settles you down a little bit. When you see the first shot go down, and everybody’s like ‘great job,’ obviously it slows you down. You start just playing instead of [thinking] ‘let me make sure that this next play is a good one.’ Because sometimes when your leash is short or something like that and you miss [your] first shot or get a turnover quick, you’re trying to press and make sure the next play is perfect because you know if the next play isn’t perfect you’re probably coming out, so hitting that first shot relaxes everything.”

Pistons G Reggie Jackson

(On whether he agrees with Coach Van Gundy’s assessment that he ‘made bad decisions’ and may be ‘fatigued’) “No, I made bad decisions though.”

 (On whether he expects the heavy early-season workload to take its toll) “I don’t know. No excuses, I’ve just got to play better.”

 (On bouncing back from losing the last four games of the road trip) “It wasn’t a successful trip.”

 (On what it will take to bounce back) “We’ve got to find ourselves, we’ve got to find our offense, [I] felt like we competed defensively, the games that we dropped early on this trip we felt like we were on our toes but tonight it felt like we really competed defensively we just couldn’t find the basket, and I played too poor probably for us to get over the hump and dug us a hole. It’s kind of hard probably to battle back when your starting point guard plays that bad.”

 (On drawing  lessons from his own performance) “No, it’s over. I’ve just got to move on, learn from my experience tonight [and] try to be better Tuesday against Cleveland.”

 (On whether the long trip affected his play) “No, I wouldn’t say I’m mentally tired or physically. [I’ve] just got to find a way to compete.”

 (On whether he finds any solace in the team’s 5-5 record after 10 games) “No, I want to be 10-0.”