You’ve got to get close enough to him to foul him. I wouldn’t feel very good about myself if a guy scored a lot of points and I didn’t use my fouls to try to...

They were the tougher team mentally all the way around tonight.

We only had about three or four possessions where we got up and played people. That was the only life we had. Somewhere along the line we need to defend people so we can compete.

You see what championship basketball is all about.

Hopefully this gives us some confidence to try to get better. That’s the biggest thing.

Andrei was terrific for us tonight. He had his hands full with a couple smaller players, but he came through with seven blocked shots and made plays when we needed him to.

We had a lot of things we didn’t do well. There was too much ducking our heads and going one-on-one. We’re not going to win that way.

I think it’s been pretty good for most of our guys here because they got a chance to play some. They’re not playing garbage minutes. We’re trying to win ballgames with them.

They are good and did a lot of good things, but our guys did not respond. That’s the most disappointing game I’ve been involved with.

He took off like the game was all his, to begin the ballgame. He shot every time he got it. And, fortunately, he made it. So it’s hard for you to say too much in...

I’ve always been impressed with what he’s able to do. He’s just gone through some tough times. Some players do and some players don’t. I think those tough times are good for him.

Greg has never worked as hard in his life as he’s worked since he’s been back here.

None of this has any bearing on who will start the season. I told them that today. I’ve got to move a lot of people around. I’ve got to see how different guys play off...

They pretty much manhandled us all the way around. We didn’t have much of any kind of effort to stop them.

We just got annihilated. We had one quarter in which we executed and that was the second quarter. When we don’t execute our offense, we don’t get anything. We were just running around out there.

Their basic job is to get ready to play basketball and I didn’t think we came out with that intention, whatever the situation. There are a lot of distractions in basketball.

What I’m worried about is what’s out here on the floor. That’s all I’m worried about. Everybody has to perform out here on the floor, and we have to perform it a certain way. Not...

They’re playing harder, but they have to learn to play even harder. This is not a casual business. When we play casual you see how ineffective we are.

(McLeod) knows how to compete. He may miss a decision or might miss a shot, but he’s always going to compete. He’s not going to drop his head and say, ‘Can’t be done.’ I’ve never...

I just feel it is important for a guy if he is struggling, especially younger guys, to know what it’s like, on their own. Not run to them every minute. Let them fight through it....

They dominated us right from the beginning of the ballgame. We didn’t really seem to have any life. … They beat us all four quarters.

We did a terrible job altogether trying to defend them.

I just thought he was in the wrong spot.

Memo did hang in there,

I would think those things would make you a better basketball player.

He should be upset. I was upset, too ? but my job is to try to get these guys to go play again (tonight). He always has the right to do whatever he wants to...

He has confidence to go where he wants to go, to get us into whatever we’re trying to do. He’s a passer first. He’ll pass first and shoot second.

We kind of fought back a little in the second half. We got to within six or seven points and then they just annihilated us. Our big guys just looked like they were running in...

We had 23 turnovers and gave away 28 points. They went after the ball hard, and we looked like we were running in mud.

Deron had an excellent game. He is getting to know our system better. He came out and played against the Hornets and ran our offense like we needed him too.

He seems to be totally committed to staying out. That could change if he’s been out for a while and he doesn’t go too far.

He’s got his head on his shoulders pretty well.

I would think it would be something that would be worthwhile for him.

I think he was kind of rejuvenated, knowing that he felt like he belonged there. I think it gave him a little bit of a lift. I think it was important to him as a...

It’s kind of mind-boggling to me.

I don’t know what’s going on. (But) it’s very obvious something’s going on.

The games are important. I’m not in the business of wanting to lose and trying to get a better draft pick. I really don’t care about the draft pick.

They’re happy just being close. But it doesn’t make me very happy.

Our guys kept thinking, ‘We have a chance. We have a chance.’ That is so huge in this business. I hope we learned something from that tonight.

Nelson did a great job keeping us off balance. I thought his play was terrific. He’s strong … he can score, he was able to get people the basketball and help them get the kinds...

He’s progressed a great deal. The biggest thing was understanding what we’re doing. He’s a lively guy. A little wild sometimes. But he’s becoming more under control, doing more things that really help his teammates.

That’s the Boozer we hoped for at the beginning of the year.

He stayed with it.

I think they’ve always been fairly responsive. Everybody has their own way of playing and everybody has their strengths. In order to get 12 guys happy in that situation, it’s kind of difficult at times...

This is the same thing that happened in Salt Lake. They ran us off the floor and they defended us. As I’m looking at the box score, I’m seeing they pretty much manhandled us.

Fortunately Andrei made a couple of big plays to win the ballgame.

He was terrific. He made his shots and he’s just a wonderful player. I think we’re intimidated by him a great deal.

They did a good job of getting after us. We looked like we were moving in mud.

I thought we played a lot harder tonight than we have been playing. They out hustled us in the first half, but we got after them in the second half and turned it up defensively.

We’ve talked about it and talked about it and this second half they seemed to have the idea that if we make a mistake then we pull for each other and we play through it.