What They Said!! Grizzlies vs Celtics 01-10-16

POST GAME QUOTES

GRIZZLIES 101, CELTICS 98

 

GRIZZLIES HEAD COACH DAVE JOERGER

On the game:

“I’m really proud of our guys.  To be down 21 we kind of shot ourselves in the foot.  Obviously, we know we can play better, but it’s a good-news-bad news deal.  We didn’t play well, but we won.  We won, but we didn’t play well.  We got some great performances from some of the guys that struggled in the first half, and you won’t maybe see them in the numbers, but you would if you looked at their plus-minus in the first half and then in the second half.  I thought Vince (Carter) really settled us down in the second half.  We played without a point guard for a long time.  Tony Allen was terrific for the entire game.  I thought Zach (Randolph) put us on his shoulders again, especially in the first half when we were struggling and just kept us close.  By being 15, we were within striking distance.  I’m not trying to be funny, but it was for him to just keep us in that thing, and then Marc (Gasol) finds his groove a little bit.  We got some stops.  For parts of that game we were really really good.  That’s a good team.  Don’t take anything away from that team, because they’re 10-7 on the road coming into tonight.  They have wins at Oklahoma City and some other places that are tough places to play, and they did a good job.  They had three days off.  They had a good game plan.  They kind of rocked us on our heels.  I had to call another timeout three minutes into the game and try and get our attention.  It wasn’t pretty, yet for a Memphis fan, a Grizzlies fan, we found a way to make it the way that we do it.  We ground them down, and we just kept coming and coming, and then we added a little drama at the end to spice up your night.  Mario’s (Chalmers) playing a ton of minutes, but also when we were playing without a point guard.  Tony Allen, Jeff Green and Vince Carter played point guard together, because they kind of know what we’re doing.  We had 21 offensive rebounds.  It wasn’t pretty, but we found a way to get it done, and I’m really proud of our guys.”

 

On the last few games:

“I never wanted to speed up things.  I only wanted to get us better defensively, and our focus defensively has gotten much better the last three weeks.  Our defensive efficiency was under one point a possession or per 100 possession, so that’s positive.  Guys are flying around and helping each other.  It’s not pretty, and there are some mistakes that just make you scratch your head.  You come out of a timeout with the lead and turn the ball over twice on two timeout plays, that’s very frustrating.  But at the same time, the heart and the desire and listening to guys as they walk back in the hallway at halftime.  We’re not going to figure this out if we don’t stay together, and that’s what they keep telling each other.  The other good news on the deal is we haven’t played our best game yet.  I don’t know if anybody in here would jump up and down and go, ‘Yeah you have!’  Well, there’s been some highlights, but there’s been a lot of mediocre, in-the-mud kind of deals.  It’d be great for all of us to get everybody to play well on the same night, to get everybody to shoot well on the same night.  Jeff (Green) had a tough night.  Marc (Gasol) had a tough night, but we just found a way to grind it out.”

 

On the Grizzlies’ defense tonight:

“We tried to give them some different looks.  Isaiah Thomas really is the straw that stirs that drink, and he got in seams.  They’re very equal opportunities.  All of a sudden, it’s like this guy hits and then that guy hits.  That’s all good and well when it’s going, and when it’s not going it can be a struggle to find.  Some guy might not get two or three in a row.  Now you did see Jared Sullinger get it going for a little stretch there also.  If this was the CBA where you win ‘quarter points’, we won the second the third and the fourth quarter, and we lost the badly in the first quarter.  Just a battle and staying in there.  The multiple efforts, you see guys flying around, and it seemed like we had three guys attempt to block the layup by Marcus Smart.  Our guys wanted it.  You see how hard we went to the offensive glass.  There was a lot of offensive rebounds to be had.  That is to say we missed a ton, a ton, a ton of shots, but we battled.  All of a sudden Zach’s got eight offensive rebounds.  We’ve got six guys with offensive rebounds.  That’s tremendous effort and determination.  I think our crowd is fantastic.  All they ever ask is that you just play your heart out.  When we got to that level, we’re playing our heart out and it’s getting close and the place was going crazy.  That was fun.  It wasn’t aesthetically pleasing to the eye.”

 

On Mario Chalmers:

“It’s different when you’re playing with a certain group in the second unit, and that for him has always changed now.  He hasn’t been here and been able to find anything solid.  With Brandan Wright being out, we had in mind a certain look, and then we moved Beno (Udrih) and we got Mario Chalmers.  We changed the lineup up, and he’s playing in a lifted pick-and-roll system which they played in Miami. When he’s playing with Zach (Randolph), Zach demands the basketball, as he should, and we should throw it to him, as we should, but you try to pick and choose your spots.  So I think what you see is, when he can be aggressive and when he’s trying to feed others.”

 

GRIZZLIES GUARD TONY ALLEN (15 points, 10 rebounds)

On playing with adversity:

“It’s never going to be easy. We aren’t just going to come in and dust people on the floor. We just aren’t that type of team. We are the type of team that competes. It is a game of runs and it’s all about how you weather the storm. I thought we weathered the storm today. We came in at halftime and guys looked at film and we just wanted to be better in the second half. We told ourselves collectively that we were going to have to do it on the defensive end.”

 

On playing Grizzlies basketball:

“We are a defensive team and play inside-out basketball. We can’t keep spotting teams this amount of points. They are a good team. We showed that we are battle tested today but going forth we are going to have to come out and have a sense of urgency early. Big kudos to that team over there because they are pretty good.”

 

On playing as a team:

“We have a model and its one team, one goal. We are staying together, everyone for each other. That is the mindset that we are going to have to have from here on out. We have a run-and-gun coming in here on Tuesday and we just have to be ready to play for 48 minutes.”

 

GRIZZLIES FORWARD ZACH RANDOLPH (25 points, 13 rebounds)

On playing with adversity:

“You just have to keep grinding. We cut it to 10 and we try to stick with it and get stops and that’s what we did. That’s a good team and they have a great coach and a lot of great young players. We just kept fighting. A game like this you just have to keep fighting.”

 

On playing shorthanded:

“We could be a good team. We just need to focus on our defense. We are missing our best point guard and some of our best players and some of our best shooters. So we just have to keep playing and keep grinding. We have four more games at home which are important.”

 

On being the underdog:

“That’s how its been, being the underdog. But we just have to keep playing like I said, and believing and getting off to better start. They got off and they were hot and they were running and shooting, but we just kept battling.”

 

CELTICS HEAD COACH BRAD STEVENS:

On the fourth quarter:

“We turned it over too much and that led to fast break points. We gave up a couple of leak outs anyway without turnovers off shots and then they just crushed us on the offensive glass in that second half. They had 15 offensive rebounds in the second half. We didn’t score enough to keep them at bay, nor did we get in there and get enough balls.”

 

On tonight’s game:

“There’s a physical element to getting that ball that we didn’t match them in in the third and fourth quarter. To be fair, that’s what they do well. They go after balls and they get balls off the rim. They’re a rebounding, tough team. We forced them to go double-bigs the whole game with how we played in the first six minutes of the game. It caught up to us at the end, their physicality, not only on the glass and in the paint but also in their pushing catches out. We threw a couple entry passes away for dunks. I thought we did some things that showed good composure and I thought we did some things that didn’t.”

 

On improving:

“I think you focus on the task at hand no matter what the circumstance is. If things are going really well, you focus on the task at hand. If things are going really poorly, you focus on the task at hand. What do you need to do to be successful on a play? If your job is to run the lead and catch the first pass, then you got to run it. If your job is to enter the ball, you got to do that. If your job is to screen, you go to do that. If your job is to roll, you got to do that and on down the line. The more you do that consistently, the better chances you have at successful possessions.”

 

On his team:

“I think that we’ve just go to tighten up in what we are, regardless if things are going good or bad. I didn’t sense that we ever got complacent by any means tonight. I thought we got hurried when things didn’t go well.”

 

On the second half:

“To their credit they turned up their defense and intensity and that won them the game. Because they turned us over and got some easy baskets.”

 

On Avery Bradley:

“He was good. He got kneed in the hip at the end so I don’t know how he feels right now, but he did some good things.”

 

CELTICS FORWARD JARED SULLINGER (11 POINTS, 4 REBOUNDS)

On the game:

“We let them punk us, and they did. They just became the more aggressive… Offensive rebounds, and getting what they wanted.”

 

On the foul sequence at the end of the game:

“I was just trying to make a play. On both ends, I thought I fouled him on the original play going up, but I guess not, and on the foul that they called on me just coming back down the court. I was trying to make a play and I got called for a foul.”

 

On the second half:

“We let them punk us and push us wherever they wanted to go.”

 

On talking with Jae Crowder after a foul:

“It was just two teammates talking about, you know, just telling him we didn’t need to foul there. It was heat of the moment and it was two players, competitors, going at it. We were both mad at each other. I was mad at myself. He was mad at me because I made the play, but me and Jae are good. That’s supposed to happen. I made a bad move.”

 

On losing:

“It stings a lot. Going into the half we were up by double-digits, and I think they were down 21 at one point, and they came back and won.”