I’m very fond of Eddy. I always found him to be very honest and open. He was never a problem.

Normally, you run away with a game like that. Obviously, it’s a big problem.

My opinion has always been that whoever the top guys are in the rankings — provided they have the attempts — should go. I had that opinion the whole time I played, and my opinion...

This was a game that had a little bit of everything. I thought we showed a lot of fight and we made plays when we had to. They also made plays. Fortunately we had the...

To win a game where we only make 12 field goals in the second half, obviously our defense is good. I thought we were very active and it won the game for us.

We . . . stopped running back on defense.

We can trace our problems to basically one thing. Our home record is below par.

They were more active. They came to win. I’m not sure what we came to do.

A.D.’s leadership presence is definitely something we’ve missed. There’s no doubt about that. And Griff was very important to our team. We miss that (veteran leadership).

This is the time of year when the great players and the great teams elevate their play. We need all of our guys to elevate their play. He’s certainly an important part of that.

It’s no secret that the last couple of years we were trying to rebuild and redo our team, and there’s a lot of teams that try to do that and can’t get in the playoffs....

We played hard. We didn’t play as smart as we needed to in some instances.

No, because I’ve heard similar things throughout the course of the year. It’s something he’s going to have to get over. He needs to face the personal responsibility of what he needs to get done....

Everything is a little looser now and can look a little more sloppy. I guess (that’s) what the league’s after.

We do this a lot. It’s bothersome. When you don’t get to the line very much, and then you get there and can’t make them, that’s a bad combination. We have to be able to...

It would be impossible at this point to dream up something that Shaq hasn’t already seen. He’s seen double teams from the passer, double teams on the catch, double teams when he dribbles once.

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me that question… wait a minute, I do have a dollar for every time I’ve been asked that question.

He’s got size. All the teams keep drafting younger and younger players. It’s becoming more and more rare that you get a guy from college who has an NBA body and NBA athleticism. Eddie has...

Malik has had some good minutes lately. He’s shooting 49 percent. He doesn’t have a lot of attempts, but he’s been able to knock down the perimeter shot, hold his position and he’s had some...

Every game he plays in, he’s … one of the toughest guys on the floor. He’s got size, strength, athleticism, and he can play. He gives them one of the best players in the game,...

Banks speeds up the tempo a little bit. He can really push it and create a lot of problems. Davis is a great scorer and a great athletic wing player.

Ben played so well and took the open shots. Sometimes he turns those down and ends up taking a more difficult one.

Tyson had the blocks. Two of those blocks were big league blocks, the one from behind and the one directly on Paul when he came down the middle. We were able to make our free...

He’s well over 700 free throws. [If] you put any two of our guys together, they’re not even close to that.

Detroit had their own agenda, which is to rest their guys, and Washington had motivation so that is understandable. That’s why you play all 82.

Why, is Shaq not playing?

The question we had is what if this was regular season and a back-to-back? You would know before the next game so why does it take so long?

They just dominated us all over the floor, and then probably the most disappointing thing — I thought in the third quarter, we quit. That’s something I have to address. … We were in the...

There was a lot of out-of-position fouling. If we don’t let them go to the line that much, we probably get the win. We had a lot of trouble (defensively). The last three games, we...

I didn’t see the replay yet, but I’m sure it was a good call.

We came out at halftime totally casual. Just kind of winging the ball all over the place, acting as though they were going to give us the game. We’ve done this so many times now....

We have a bunch of guys who basically have to decide if they want to be sort of the typical NBA player, which nowadays is more of an excuse-maker and a blamer and has his...

What we tried to talk to the guys about [Tuesday] morning was that we’ve got a long trip. We can’t have a carry-over from game to game, quarter to quarter, minute to minute. We’ve got...

I thought overall it was one of Kirk’s better games.

We feel like they are all must games now. We have to put together a string of wins, but that will be tough to do.

We waited 2 ‘, quarters before we got any energy going. Once we did, we were able to chip away at it and give ourselves half a chance.

I just sprinkled the magic dust on them and they took off. I don’t remember what I said.

They still haven’t proved they can play well in a big game at home.