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| Monday, November 2, 2009 Final Score: New York 117, New Orleans 111 Hornets Post Game Quotes
On tonight’s loss: “We gotta get used to winning on the road again. I don’t know if we have the confidence now. We had a nice lead going into the fourth quarter and we gave up the points. Instead of tightening up on the defensive end, it seemed like we loosened up and they [Knicks] got pretty much everything they wanted.” More on tonight’s game: Right now we’re making a lot of mistakes; [Emeka] Okafor leaving David [Lee] under the basket- we can’t make mistakes like that and we did it too many times tonight. It’s all about getting more comfortable with each other and understanding our principles.”
On tonight’s game: “If I knew what happened tonight I’d tell you. We go over the defense a lot– day in and day out at practice, but we have to find a way to put it into effect in the game. We just have to find a way to get better defensively. We have a lot of great players but we gotta continue to play hard, play together and it will come along.” On the 4th Quarter: “Every time they [Knicks] made a basket they got it. We knew coming into the game- we watched it on film that these guys play 5 guys around the 3-point line and they have a lot of great shooters. So we were prepared, but at the end of the day we have to stop the guys that are in front of us.” Knicks Post Game Quotes
On tonight’s win: “There were a lot of factors. I thought our defense was solid most of the night. Guarding Chris Paul is not easy. I thought Larry Hughes did a terrific job on him. Our ‘bigs’ got out, were much were active on the weak side. Al Harrington did the things necessary. (It was) just a better flow of the game. It felt better. It felt better offensively and defensively.” On the Knicks rotation: “We have passion all the time. We just don’t have them in the right spots. We get frustrated and different things. A lot of times you have to get rotated and people have to feel comfortable with each other out there. I was obviously experimenting a little bit. Each guy came in and understood what they needed to do.” On Larry Hughes: “I probably haven’t had anybody handle it better than him, the position he was put in. He was very professional and never down and never blaming anybody. It’s funny how you do the right things and things work out, most of the time. I’m glad it worked out for him and us.”
On tonight’s game: “We came out with more energy. They were coming off the back to back we weren’t. Our defense was a lot better from the start. We set a tone early. It’s a lot easier when we can play in the fourth quarter with an even game or up a couple points rather than trying to fight back.” On the pick-and-roll: “The way Gallo’s [Danilo Gallinari] been shooting the ball and other guys around the perimeter it’s going to open up the middle and when the pick-and-rolls working like that they will sag back in and it will open up the 3-point shot. That’s what effective pick and roll teams do. Overall, tonight we played unselfishly on offense and we played hard on defense and when we can do those things we have a chance to win. If we would have gotten down it would have been a feeling like here we go again. Getting off to a good start really helped us.” On bouncing back from loss vs. 76ers: “For me it was the disappointment of not playing well. I had no energy in that Philly game coming off of playing as many minutes as I did the night before and I really just wanted to play with energy and let everything else take care of itself tonight. Al [Harrington] and Danillo [Gallinari] and those guys played great. When you play with energy it makes up for the fact that we have a lack of size on the inside.” On Larry Hughes: “The big thing about Larry Hughes is his maturity and when he’s a veteran. He could have easily been upset about not playing the first couple of games. Instead he kept his mouth shut he kept working hard and that shows he’s a pro. Tonight he had 20 points but his best attribute is his defense and the length of his arms on defense. He gets a lot of steals and disrupts a lot of plays.”
On the Knicks finishing games: “We just knew we wanted to get off to a good start. We have been finishing games strong. We just haven’t had that good start to sustain runs and lows on our end. We got that good start tonight and we held those guys off when they made runs and getting off to that good start helped. We know we can score and we know that we can buckle down late in games and do some positive things but we haven’t been getting off to a good start.” On his playing time: “I worked hard and I stayed in the gym you know the preseason was just trying to feel my way. Only playing a couple of minutes here and there and I couldn’t really get a feel for the game. The regular season is where everything counts.”
On his injury: “I thought somebody punched me in the eye. I didn’t know what happened, when I came up I saw the blood and said ‘man my eye was killing me’, and I had to get three stitches…they [the stitches from before] were out.” On tonight’s game: “It was a huge win for us. Just to come out and play at that level, against a team that’s very good. It was a huge win for us. So hopefully we can build on this and keep going”.
On tonight’s starting lineup: “This line up gives us a lot of versatility. Larry [Hughes] is a guy who can guard a bigger guy, or also guard a point guard. It gives us more scorers, Larry can score the ball, Gallo [Danilo Gallinari] obviously, David [Lee], and Will [Wilson Chandler] can score. I think energy level wise, that lineup is a line we’ll probably see more.” On the pick & roll with David Lee: “With David, I just keep telling him that he has to be patient. In the first and second quarter, that’s what they’re keying on. And once Gallo [Danilo Gallinari] hit a couple shots, or Al [Harrington] hits a couple shots, or Larry [Hughes] hits a couple shots. Then late in the games then we’ll be able to exploit it.” On Wilson Chandler playing the power forward: “Wilson is probably our best inside big defender. He can guard a lot of ‘bigs’ by himself even at his size. Offensively it causes a mismatch. Especially if they put a big on him, he can take guys on the run, especially with his ability to shoot the ball from outside. We just like that combination with Wilson at the four.” |
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