What They Said!! Grizzlies vs Lakers 12-27-15

POSTGAME QUOTES

GRIZZLIES 112, LAKERS 96

 

GRIZZLIES HEAD COACH DAVE JOERGER

On the game:

“Good win for us. I thought it was a good team victory. I thought we played with a lot of passion and a lot of emotion. It was difficult playing back to back. I’m really proud of our guys’ battle last night; it came up a little short. We played with a lot of passion. Marc Gasol really set the tone. Mike Conley was tremendous early. They moved the basketball.  We got stops with only 38 percent shooting. For most of the game we only had four or five turnovers, which was a big focus for us last night. We were disappointed last night. The turnovers led to two easy baskets for Charlotte and missed free throws. We missed two free throws for the majority of the game there till the last three minutes. Guys came in real focused and were exhausted physically and mentally. We’ll take tomorrow off. It was just a real good team win.”

 

On the Grizzlies’ offense:

“I don’t know what they (the Lakers) did or didn’t do, but I know that any time you make shots you get assists. We shot a high percent all game long.  We tried to make a point of not settling. We tried to really get in their paint and attack the basket. If we got drop-offs or we got kick-outs from there, I didn’t think we settled a lot. I didn’t think we took a lot of pull-up threes. Jeff (Green) had the one, but it was kind of a heat check, and he made his last three shots. So sometimes you have to let guys go on that situation. I thought we didn’t settle. I thought we took care of the ball.  We got what we were looking for.  We screened hard. We executed. Something we’ve been looking for from our offense.  It was there last night against Charlotte for stretches. We just have to keep building on it, and be able to play for 48 minutes.”

 

On Zach Randolph’s new role:

“He’s tremendous. He went seven for eight tonight. He knows by and large he’s mostly going to be on the floor at the end of the game too. We’ve had a lot of confidence in him.  Sometimes it can be a struggle if he’s getting put into a ton of pick-and-rolls and it’s a stretch four. He makes people pay at the other end as well. He’s a valuable part of our team, and we’re not going to be able to do this thing without him. He has to stay with it.  He’s still going to play his minutes. That’s not to say somewhere down the line things might change again.”

 

On the rest of the season:

“The message was, last night after the game, either we’re going to be an above .500 team at 8 pm tonight, or we’re going to be a below .500 team. It was a big crowd. It’s the Lakers. We talked about it with different teams. It doesn’t matter who you play. There’s so much parity in the league that teams are playing every single night, and we need to win no matter who we’re playing or where we’re playing. It’s an opportunity for us to take a step forward. We have one more game (vs Miami). It has been a tough stretch. I know people are tired of hearing that, but we have one more game.  Then we have three days between games. Then we don’t play a back-to-back for five more weeks. We’ve played 10 back-to-backs. I’m really proud of our guys. They’re sticking together. They’re not letting go. The last two weeks we haven’t gotten blown out, and I know you don’t get an attaboy for that. It’s a mindset of we can still get this thing turned around, which is what we’ve always had and have always been. We’re just doing it a little bit differently. It’s going to be a battle against Miami. We feel like we had a great chance to win at their place.  We had a five or six point lead coming down the last minute and a half. We want to get those guys, and they’re a good team. After that we have three days off before we go out west, and then we come home for almost the rest of the month. Our guys are excited. There’s a good energy, and they’re playing for each other. I do believe the best is in front of us.”

 

GRIZZLIES FORWARD VINCE CARTER (2 points, 2 assists)

On importance of tonight’s win:

“It was a great bounce-back game. I think we’re at our best when we defend, we play together, we move the ball, and we make plays for each other. I think Marc (Gasol) was tremendous tonight because he set the tone for us. He was very aggressive, he got things going. From there we just got the ball moving, hit shots, got in transition. Everything we wanted to do, we were able to do tonight.”

 

On mutual respect between he and Kobe Bryant:

“A lot of battles. There’s definitely a lot of respect for each other. We’ve been teammates in high school, on the AAU circuit and of course we played against each other a lot in All-Star games and regular games, big games. A lot of battles, so it’s definitely respect for Kobe.”

 

On team’s resilience with multiple back-to-back stretches:

“I think we’re doing a pretty good job. Of course, we definitely wish our record was a little better, but at this same time we’ve done a good job of just maintaining and finding a way to stay afloat and stay in the hunt. I think from there, we can just keep our foot on the gas because I think at this point we just need to win games, just keep playing. We have a few days in between now and don’t have to worry about back-to-back, back-to-back or four games in five nights or eight games in ten nights or whatever. It’ll be a relief for sure.”

 

GRIZZLIES CENTER MARC GASOL (16 points, 3 rebounds)

On importance of tonight’s result:

“We just wanted to win. Last night I think we played two and a half quarters of good basketball and it’s not enough, so now we want to be a little more consistent, try to play a whole game of good basketball and hopefully we’ll put a bunch of them together and get in a good run.”

 

On Grizzlies having fun:

“Thirty-one assists, you share the ball, you move your body, you screen, and everybody gets touches. The game is just more fun when you share it. That’s the way it should be every time. Not just tonight, but every night. I don’t see why not, why everyone can’t do the same thing over and over again.”

 

LAKERS HEAD COACH BYRON SCOTT:

On defense:

“Well first of all, I think we need to focus a lot more. Tonight and the last game, against the Clippers, we just made too many mistakes. Seems like we are stepping too slow and reacting on everything right now. I don’t think it’s physical to be honest with you because I think tonight the effort was there. I think from the mental standpoint we just look like we’re fried. We are just not reacting accordingly and everything is a step or two behind. So we just have to do a better job at focusing on what we’ve talked about doing, game plans and try to carry it out and if it doesn’t work, I’ll change it.”

 

On offense:

“Well, I think it is getting stuck at times. There are times when we move the ball really well then we revert back to old habits of holding and trying to beat guys one-on-one. It’s never really one-on-one. When a team is loaded up, especially this Memphis team and as good as they are in their half-court defense. If you try to beat them one-on-one there is going to be somebody else there waiting. So at times we’re stumbling with trying to do it ourselves instead of just moving the ball.”

 

On Larry Nance Jr.:

“I love the way he played tonight. I mean his confidence is growing and growing. You know, the things we’ve been talking about with Larry is taking those open shots on a consistent basis and tonight he didn’t hesitate and he was able to knock them down. So, I love the way he played tonight on the offensive end as well as the defensive end.”

 

On competitiveness change:

“Like we just talked about a minute ago sometimes it’s on the offensive end where it’s a lack of ball movement. Sometimes defensively, we’re stepping too slow or we’re missing assignments. It’s a little bit of everything. It’s not one specific thing really on both ends of the floor. It’s a little bit of everything on both ends of the floor.”

 

On making a change:

“Well like I said, I’m going to play this out until the new year and we’ll see. We’ve got two more games, obviously, before we have the new year and then when we get back home to LA. I’ll evaluate it and see what type of changes I’m going to make, if any.”

 

On Kobe tonight:

“Nothing different, I mean he is still playing hard. You know, tonight was one of those nights where his knee was a little sore so I wanted to limit his minutes and see how he feels tomorrow. He is in there getting treatment trying to get that ready and we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”

 

LAKERS GUARD NICK YOUNG (7 POINTS, 2 REBOUNDS)

 On playing with Kobe Bryant:

“It’s feels like a rock star atmosphere. Coming out of hotels, seeing the fans, fans sneaking on floors and stuff. You see them when we come outside our hotel doors—they’re right there. It’s been crazy.”

 

LAKERS GUARD DEANGELO RUSSELL (10 POINTS, 3 ASSISTS)

On losing momentum in the second half:

“They threw that first punch. When a game starts, the team that throws the first punch will be ahead. Then at half, going into the third, the team that throws that first punch will be ahead. They did it both times.”

 

On Mike Conley:

“He’s in this league for a reason. To get the opportunity to play against him and compete against him at this level is great. We have backgrounds at Ohio State. It’s just great. I know I can learn a lot from him.”

 

LAKERS FORWARD KOBE BRYANT (19 POINTS, 3 ASSISTS)

On his knee soreness:

“Yeah, it was sore. Honestly, I wasn’t going to play, but I got on the bus and saw all the fans. I would feel really, really awful if I didn’t come in here and play.”

 

On balancing rest and making fan bases happy:

“Just go out there and do what you can. Get nice and loose in the first quarter and try to rest second quarter. You try to come out in the third quarter and get nice and loose again to play another quarter. Just get what you can.”

 

On Larry Nance Jr.:

“I like the way he’s been developing. He’s really been working on his game quite a bit, working on his shot quite a bit. You saw it tonight, we trusted him. He was taking shots, taking those opportunities when they were there. He was extremely active. I thought he looked strong.”

 

On Tony Allen:

“He’s fundamentally extremely sound. Long arms, very athletic. He does his homework. He’s old school. He’ll sit there and watch film and know where you’re going to go before you go. I enjoy competing against him. I just think he’s fantastic.”

 

On his relationship with Vince Carter:

“It’s amazing how that relationship has grown. We played on the best AAU team of all time. Him, myself, Tim Thomas—we had a team that was just amazing. We played in New Jersey. That was the first time I’d ever seen him play up close. He’s one of the highest jumpers I’ve ever seen. When he came to the league, at the time I was pretty established and he was coming up. We had a nice rivalry. Anytime I played against him I was really adamant about going after him. To see him out there still playing, competing, dunking tonight, now I take a great sense of joy and pride.”