The Clippers went down to Chris Kaman and Chris Wilcox coming off the bench. We worked really hard to minimize Elton Brand 's touches but they went to Wilcox and Kaman and they produced. |
The difference between tonight and 15 other games was we made big plays. You've got to give Jason Richardson credit. He made two big baskets down the stretch. He wanted to make them. |
The difference is astronomical in how you evaluate yourself and how you're evaluated in those situations. But that's just the way it is. We just got to stay positive. You really got to guard against defeatism, if that's a word. |
The doctors say he's OK to go, the trainer says he's OK to go and he says he's OK to go. You don't put a guy out there with a restriction. |
The experience of, for anybody, being a head coach, having to make the decisions, I just think it helps your understanding of the whole process. Just confidence and making his own decisions and being in charge, I think it helps everybody. |
The game was ours. It was right there. All we had to do was finish it. |
The obvious thing is we get three shots at the end but we never should have been in that situation. We should have had a lead early and been able to sustain and get away from them. |
The other area is certainly an area for debate. We'll just have to see it plays out. I understand both sides of the argument. |
The system they're going to run, the things they're going to do, the terminology they're going to use -- there's not really much of a connection to us. So if a guy goes down, I don't know if he's going to be better for it. |
The thing that he is, that probably sticks out a little bit on our team, he's really quick. He moves to a spot really quickly, he can get off his feet quickly, get into a shot quickly. He makes a back cut, he separates from people. We don't have a lot of people who can do that. |
There was a recipe for disaster not having Jason Richardson out, getting in at 4 a.m. and playing a back-to-back. But the guys hung in there and gave us a chance. We battled hard. |
There's no excuse for playing that poorly in the first half, ... But it is two halves. |
There's no question Mike's critical to us, |
There's one coach we all know cheats, everyone knows it. A few years ago, he made the Final Four. His president heard all the accusations, knew his graduation rate was awful and what did he do? He gave him a $1.7 million-a-year contract. What kind of message is that? |
They looked a lot like us. They were missing shots and that's what we've been going through. They actually got some decent shots but they just missed them. They're struggling a little bit and we know what that feels like. |