Detroit: Maurice Cheeks | Greg Monroe | Chauncey Billups
Washington: Randy Wittman | John Wall
(On the overall team performance tonight): “To get a win number one is the first thing. We were good, as you said. We had some moments when we weren’t going to be as good; that’s to be expected. We are missing a couple guys that we plan on being key players for us; but the guys that we’re going to count on, they made plays for us. Greg Monroe made plays, Chauncey [Billups] made plays; Josh Smith made plays. Kyle Singler played a very solid game and Will [Bynum] played 38 minutes; I thought he played a solid game. There will be minutes that we’re going to be good, that’s how basketball is. I don’t think it’s just opening night. It’s going to be like that throughout the season.”
(On Kentavious Caldwell-Pope): “I liked his activity on defense. That’s what always keeps him on the floor; is the way he plays defense. And he didn’t settle for a 3-point shot. I talked to him about if he didn’t have a wide open shot, put the ball on the floor and try to get to the rim. He did it two or three times where it allowed him not to sit there and hope that he makes a three. He got to the rim, continued to play defense and that’s why I kept him on the floor. And when a guy plays defense the way he does and has the ability to make a shot, he gets minutes.”
(On team play) “We were doing our job; rebounding the ball, helping each other, finding each other.”
(On team effort) “They still scored. It’s the first game, we have a lot to clean up, but I think we did a good job tonight.”
(On the fans) “It felt good, the energy in this building was something familiar. It felt really good.”
(On team advantages) “That’s where we feel like our advantage is, with those three big guys. We should have an advantage on 90% of the nights in this league. We have to go to that, the good thing about it is all those guys are really good passers and we have perimeter shooters as well when they get in there, don’t have something, kick it out to some of our shooters, it makes for a tough attack.”
(On the home opener): “We had a couple of bad possessions at the start of the game, just butterflies, even me. Seventeen years; always have butterflies on the first night.”
(On game): "Offensively I thought we were really bad in the first half. The shot selection was terrible which led to easy breakouts and open transition. We got beat in every category."
(On Wizards battling): "We continued to battle and kept fighting to stay in it. I like that but again you have to go out with a purpose. That is the main thing. You do not go out and play this game and hope to win. To win games in this league you have to go out with a purpose."
(On Chauncey Billups): "We talked about that. He (Chauncey Billups) is a guy now at this point in his career that you cannot just let walk into threes. You have to make him put the ball on the floor, go to the basket, and make him score a layup."
(On game): " We did not do anything defensively. We did not stay in that defensive concept and our seams and things like that. You have to give them credit. They played harder than us. They got to loose balls and did certain things but then they executed better until we realized how close we got in the fourth quarter."
(On home team): "We were playing catch up and that is one thing that you do not want to do especially when it is somebody's home opener. Fans are into it and when you get that close the fans get them right back into it."