It's great, but I don't feel anything other than this is what I expected. I thought last summer we were a playoff team, we could win 45 games if we could avoid the injuries. We did it with the injuries. From that standpoint, I'm more pleased. |
It's just a different game than we saw in the last two games in (Los Angeles). But I'm not going anywhere near blaming the referees. . . . The referees didn't force 25 turnovers. |
It's just frustrating. We did everything we needed to do to win it and we were one free throw short. It makes it tougher to take. |
It's not even a question. If he's not an All-Star they better line people up for some kind of testing. He's got all of the requirements. |
It's our maturity. We know defensively that we're good and that we can make stops. |
It's probably more gratifying to them because of what they've been through, not that it's been their fault. I'm sure it was frustrating for them to go year after year and not be able to compete in the playoffs. |
It's really the toughest part of our schedule. |
Looking at the situation coming in, I thought it would be exactly what we have here now. I liked the nucleus, and the commitment that I heard from (management), I felt strongly that this could happen. I believe that you defend first, and I've been preaching this from day one. |
Mike Miller is a big luxury. Having a guy like that come off the bench makes a big difference. He has improved this year. He's making big shots and putting up big numbers. |
Not to say that those are the guys who are going to be shooting the last shot every time, but they have a reputation for doing that, making big shots, ... What that does is, it puts of lot of attention to them, where it can leave someone else open, or it makes it easier getting the ball inside. |
Obviously for us, it is a great day. Our guys came out focused but Denver made a hard run at us. They fought the whole way. Fortunately for us, we kept coming and broke it open in the second half. Our guys did a great job defensively. |
Obviously it was a disappointing night for us. We couldn't make any of our shots and they made all of theirs. Our big guys didn't do a good job of finishing around the basket. |
Obviously, for us it's a great day. |
Our coaching staff did do a great job. We knew that play was coming. |
Our finish was disappointing. I thought we got a little frantic at the end where we had time on the clock and shot the ball quickly. ... Those mistakes, as well as 20 points on turnovers, was the difference in the game. |