Our only motivation is not winning it last year. That's our whole motivation. We thought we was the best team in the world last year and came up a little bit short. We feel the same way again and we want to validate that. |
Our whole focus is trying to get home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. We play every game focused on the big picture, not against our opponent that night. |
Rip did a great job on him, that was his assignment. He contested a lot of his shots. |
Rip was aggressive early. And once he got it cooking, we kept going to him and we fed off him. When he gets hot, I don't know anybody who can slow him down. |
So many times when people are going through tough times at home or off the court, the court is everybody's safe haven. This is where we can come and take our mind off everything for two or three hours. |
Somebody is always going to come up big in the stretch. We never know who, but somebody will come up big. |
Sometimes, a loss can be a good thing. You don't like it, but it makes you shape back up. |
Strange as it sounds, we get bored sometimes being able to win so many games so easily. It's not something that should happen, but it's what did happen. |
Tay had us on his back last night and almost carried us to a victory. Tonight, he did it. |
Tay had us on his back last night and we couldn't quite get the victory. He had us on his back again tonight, and he carried us all the way through. |
Tay is their biggest problem playing against us. They put a big guy on him and his perimeter game is so good. They go small and he posts up. And he's not just a scorer, he makes plays down there and gets rebounds (eight Thursday). He's a match-up nightmare. |
That fueled our fire more than anything. |
That fueled our fire more than anything. That made us come back in training camp in great shape with one goal, and that was to get home-court advantage. |
That guy, he's playing great. He's back to his old self again. I'm sure you all could see that. I'm happy for him, I'm happy that he's on my team, too. I just hope he stays playing with that same confidence coming down the stretch into the playoffs. |
That is something that you play for, to be recognized as one of the best. I've felt like I've played like that for a couple of years now and it's nice to finally get that validation. |