What They Said!! Grizzlies at Heat 12-13-15

Memphis Grizzlies 

Head Coach David Joerger

On the game:

“It’s nobody’s fault.  It’s not a blame game where it’s somebody’s opportunity.  It was a different opportunity to do some different things.  You know, we’re going to need big nights out of Marc (Gasol) and Mike (Conley), and it was a tough night for them, 12 points and nine points.”

“We played hard.  We played with a good spirit and they deserved to win.  We just couldn’t, we just didn’t finish the deal.”

 

Mario Chalmers

On his emotions:

“A lot of emotion.  Being here so long and they give me a video like that, it was touching.  It felt like they love me here.”

On his day:

“Just any regular game day.  I spoke to a couple of people on the side, all the players basically and got ready for the game.”

On facing his ex-teammates:

“It was fun.  I always would go against them in practice, but actually going against them in a real game, it was a lot of fun.”

On if there was any chatter during the game:

“Of course there is going to be chatter, but those are my brothers still.  I still love those guys and I wish them the best.”

On his transition since the trade:

“It’s been an adjustment really.  Going from the east coast to west coast, different style of basketball.  Learned (a) new defense, new offense, and then just learning my teammates better.”

On the game:

“I’m used to seeing things like that, but as a team we just got to be better focused at the end and do more of the little things.”

 

Zach Randolph

On not starting:

“Anything I can do to help our team, I’m with it.  I’m a team-first guy, an organization-first guy.  Whatever it takes, I’m with it.”

On getting into a rhythm:

“Yeah, I had to get loose a little.  I felt alright.”

On if it was time for something to change for the team:

“I don’t know.  It changed.  Like you said, we haven’t been winning.  It is a copy-cat league.  Everybody wants to play small.  It’s what we’re doing and I’m on board.”

 

Miami Heat

Head Coach Erik Spoelstra

On the game:

“That was our best, frustrating win of the season and that’s what it felt like for large parts of the game.  At least 40 minutes of the game, it just felt frustrating and even while you’re trying to figure it out being frustrated, getting out played you still have opportunities to find a way to grind possessions, stay close enough, compete and find a way to put yourself in a position to win at the end and that’s really what we wanted coming out of the Indiana [Pacers] game.”

“Even if you’re not always playing well, games don’t have to be played out perfectly to be able to win.”

“It’s not easy winning in this league.  It requires us to put forth that type of effort.  That last loose ball – that has to happen in the second minute of the game.  There has to be that type of desperation to win because look around the league right now, everybody is trying to figure it out.  It’s highly competitive.  There’s much parity at this point in the season more than there’s ever been.  Games are not going to be handed to you – you’re going to have to really earn them.”

“It would have been very easy in the third quarter in front of our home fans to start feeling sorry for ourselves, but instead you start picking up your pressure and see the game start to turn.”

On moving forward following the win:

“I don’t want us to exhale.   We’re getting on this plane.  I want to keep that razor edge we had in the second half.  What it did is show you that if you stay together and show some resolve, it doesn’t guarantee anything, but in this league you’re going to have to show some collective resiliency and some toughness to be able to turn games around when it’s not going your way.”

On Dwyane Wade’s play:

“Dwyane is uncanny.  He can play absolutely horrible stretches of basketball and have the quickest memory and all of a sudden get to the last two minutes and he has incredible confidence going down to the end of the game.”

“I’ve never really seen that many players that don’t carry something that happened before negatively that now it affects maybe their aggressiveness or their confidence.  It doesn’t faze him one bit.”

“He mentioned in the locker room that he really appreciated the guys lifting him up after the one turnover.  He felt like he let the group down but there was a lifetime left.”

“You need closers like that offensively sometimes when you don’t know where to go.”

On Goran Dragic’s play:

“I liked the way he started really aggressively attacking in the fourth quarter.”

“I think it was great to see him show some character when the chips are not going your way.  You can grind through it and help your team.   He was very competitive defensively for us and then he created a lot of those triggers.”

“I like seeing guys go through a struggle to see how they respond and he responded in a very positive way.”

On Memphis’s starting lineup and whether he considered changing the HEAT’s lineup:

“We go to a lot of versatile line-ups anyway and we get to it pretty quickly.”

“There is not one stamp of basketball that you have to play in this league to be successful.  You try to play to your strengths of your personnel.”

 

Luol Deng

On the game:

“Probably towards midway or end of third quarter we just started playing tougher.  Even though they were hitting big time shots, our defense was a lot more aggressive.  Most of the game they were attacking us the whole time.”

“They kept hitting big shots, we just kept going.  We were playing with a lot of energy.  We just kept at it and with the last couple minutes you could see in their face the game slipping away a little bit.”

 

Dwyane Wade

On the game:

“The biggest play was when they fouled Gerald (Green) on that three.  It really gave us the life that we needed.”

“It is always good to win.  When you don’t play well and find a way to win, we like to think as a team that we grow in those moments.  We had to find a way to win, it is tough to lose three in a row and then go for two on the road.”

“The basketball God’s came with us and helped us a little bit.”

 

Hassan Whiteside

On the game:

“We just got stops. We played Miami HEAT basketball. We picked up the tempo. We came back and looked at the film and had to get our weak side more in the paint and make it tougher for them.”

“It was big, especially against a playoff team as good as the (Memphis) Grizzlies. It was a great win for us.”

On not having a block in tonight’s game:

“I don’t remember the last time that happened. They did a great job of just staying away from me and making the extra pass.”

 

Chris Bosh

On tonight’s game:

“I think it would classify as one (an important win) just to see where our mental fortitude is. We got behind again and we had a choice. You can either play harder or say woe is me and let the game go. This was a test for us to play harder. I just told the guys that no matter what we should be exhausted after the game because we were trying to win the game.”

“I told them we need to be exhausted, and if we’re not exhausted then we’re cheating each other and every fan that is at the game. Win or lose we need to be tired, and if we’re tired after I’ll go with the rest.”