[All the credit for this unexpected surge goes to Carlisle, who's as quick to deflect praise as he is to accept criticism. His players though, are not so unassuming.] Rick Carlisle has to be Coach of the Year, ... If you have great players, it's easy to win. If you take away those players, it has to be the coach. Take away the top two or three players from any other team and ask me if they'd be in position to compete. |
A championship team cannot make excuses for losses, |
A. J. has taken it to another level. |
After studying the tape (from Games 1 and 2) over and over again, I got a better feel for how they are playing me. I realized that, with the defensive sets they were using, the best thing to do is keep moving and be aggressive. It's hard for them to double when you keep moving. |
All and all, we have the talent, the depth and the experience. We know what it takes to compete with the best and to get over that hump. We set the bar high and guys have to really step their game up. |
As a player, you don't know what else to say, but we're just not cutting it. I don't know what the hell is wrong with this team. For the first time in my career I don't know where my team is. |
At home you don't really get tired. You get the fans going crazy and it gives you an extra boost. It's like an extra power pack you've got in storage. |
At this point, we don't even deserve to be in the playoffs. |
Austin had a concussion tonight. That's the way it goes for us. We get one back, we lose one. Or lose two. We've had the most difficult time the last two years just keeping a full roster. Hopefully at some point at the end of the tunnel some good things can happen for the Indiana Pacers. |
Defensively, he's still learning, ... You've got to be a little bit patient because it is a transition for him. The preseason isn't a real NBA game. ... We're going to do our best to help him excel in the system. |
Defensively, he's still learning. You've got to be a little bit patient because it is a transition for him. The preseason isn't a real NBA game. ... We're going to do our best to help him excel in the system. |
Everybody has learned. Me and Ron, we've talked millions and millions of times about the situation and what we could have done to prevent the situation from happening. Knowing is always half the battle. |
Everybody seems to think that I pushed him out the door. I didn't push him out the door. We mutually agreed that that was the best situation for both parties.... When we talked, it came down to him understanding what he needs to do to achieve his goal to be the type of player he can be and get the recognition he deserves. |
Everybody's still trying to find their way right now. When teams get in their formats, we're going to be in trouble if we don't get focused. Hopefully, when they get to that point, we're rolling. |
For years, our league has been under scrutiny for how we adopted hip-hop and stuff like that. It's always been easier to put this league under a microscope. The whole league learned a lot of important things from this incident. It took this to really open up the books, but it gave us a new perspective on how we're looked at. And I think that's for the best. |