PISTONS HEAD COACH STAN VAN GUNDY
DETROIT PISTONS HEAD COACH STAN VAN GUNDY
(Did you see this result coming?)
“No, you never see that coming against a really good team like that. We just had a great night. They were without one of their best players and we played really well at both ends.”
(On Ish Smith)
“His tempo is just incredible. He's got such a great motor. He had 13 assists and one turnover tonight, and he's scoring the ball too. You couldn't play much better than he did tonight. He's played like that for quite a while.”
(On what's caused the recent offensive success)
“I haven't figured out anything, but they (our players) have. Our ball movement has been good. Something we've been stressing is, 'Shoot the ball'. Before, we had guys not ready to shoot and not stepping into shots, hesitating, passing up good shots. It's hard when you play good defensive teams, which we have all week, to generate two good shots in a possession. So if we pass one up we're in trouble. We've really been talking a lot about not forcing shots and not just trying to jack up shots, but when you're open and the ball comes out, shoot the ball. We've shot it really well, and that always makes a huge difference.”
DETROIT PISTONS GUARD ISH SMITH
(On the defense)
“We were able to communicate, and that puts you in the right place. Not guessing, knowing where you're going to be. We were flying around. That's going to be the key for us going forward – just constantly getting better defensively. If we can do that, then we'll be pretty good.”
(On the offensive chemistry)
“Defensively, we were able to get stops. And offensively, we were flying up and down the floor. On the offensive end, we were able to move the ball, get the ball from side to side. Knowing where everybody likes the ball, and where everybody wants their shots, helps out a lot.”
DETROIT PISTONS GUARD KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE
(On his confidence)
“I'm very confident. I'm out here just playing my game and controlling the things I can control. Some nights I'm not going to shoot that well. But I can get in on the defensive end and try to get myself going.”
(On the offensive outburst during the road trip)
” has been great. Every rebound we get, he pushes in transition and we get easy layups, easy transition three's. It's been great for us. We've just been rolling.”
DETROIT PISTONS FORWARD TOBIAS HARRIS
(On holding on to the large lead)
“The mentality is to keep going. I know if the score were reversed, we'd be fighting to try to come back in the game. We understood that mindset that they were going to have, especially with the different lineups out there. They had a lot of guys that were real scrappy and really wanted to play hard. So we had to really pick up our energy also.”
(On winning their last three games on the road)
“We expected to get the wins. We wanted to really make a statement on this road and prove to ourselves that we can win games on the road. Now it's about being consistent with the effort, not only on the road but also at home. Our confidence is high. We don't want to get too high off this little road trip success that we've had.
ATLANTA HAWKS HEAD COACH MIKE BUDENHOLZER:
(Opening Statement)
“Detroit did everything well tonight. I don't think…not much we can pull off. There were times in the second half where at least there was some progress and better ball movement. Overall, Detroit was better than us in every way.”
(On lineup change to start the second half)
“I wanted to try (to) get a group that could give us a spark and pick it up a little bit. I liked the way they started the third quarter. Detroit was able to match that and we really didn't cut into the lead much, if at all. Then they went on another run and took it up into the 20's.”
(On evaluating the lineup change)
“We'll look at everything.”
(Can one guy – Millsap – make that much of a difference?)
“No.”
(On the Pistons)
“Their ball movement, their spacing, their reads (were) very good. They made open shots. I thought they executed well. Fifty-eight, 59 percent from the three-point line, a lot of good looks, execution and passing.”
ATLANTA HAWKS CENTER DWIGHT HOWARD
(On the state of the team)
“We have to stay positive, we can't make excuses. Stay together. Don't put our heads down and things will change. This thing that we're going through now, even though we don't want to, it's best that we're going through it now and not at the end of the season. There's a lot of things we need to clean up offensively and defensively. We have time to work on it, so come playoff time and the end of the season we'll have it down pat. The best thing we can do right now is not to hold our heads, stay positive and keep pushing.”
(On differences between the start of the season and now)
“We have to stay positive. We can't point fingers, we can't blame it on this situation or that situation. We have to stay focused and stay together. We have to stick together and this will make us a stronger team”
ATLANTA HAWKS GUARD KYLE KORVER
(On the recent play of the team)
“It's a combination of a lot of things. I think our offense is dictating our defense right now. We haven't had the same energy on the defensive end, and a lot of that is because offensively we haven't been very good. It's been tough with the schedule, we haven't had a lot of practice days. I think, honestly, we just need some time in the gym to just work on ourselves. We have to stay together and stay positive.”
(On the offensive struggles)
“We're probably not getting great shots all the time but there are shots we should be making. It's a combination of a lot of things.”
