What They Said!! Grizzlies vs Pacers 12-19-15

POSTGAME QUOTES

GRIZZLIES 96, PACERS 84

GRIZZLIES HEAD COACH DAVE JOERGER

Opening Statement:

“Overall a very pleasing week for us. We got a chance at the Miami game. It could’ve gone either way. Feel like it maybe didn’t go our way. Otherwise you come out of this week 3-2. An emotional win for us because you know, our guys pulling together. They are playing hard. They are sticking together. They are pulling for each other. We had some tremendous performances tonight but we did it as a team. They cut the lead down to seven, we got three stops in a row and the Mike hits a three, Mike hits another two, and Marc hits the free throw line jumper. We did it at both ends of the floor and that’s a fantastic team effort win. Playing the right way and helping each other and doing it with a pure heart. Matt Barnes was just terrific. We just talked about with the young guys what a professional Vince Carter is to not play and keep himself ready. I thought he gave us a big contribution tonight. Marc was fantastic. Matt Barnes was just all over the place. You know, just a great team win.”

 

On keeping it small when Pacers went big in second half:

“Vince (Carter) was able to play their bigs and stretch the floor out a little bit and give us different looks and give us a little more space. At the end of the day I kind of felt like if they were going to try to feature Lavoy Allen being guarded by Vince Carter and not Paul George, Monta Ellis, or Rodney Stuckey that was good for us. You know what I mean, so what you give up is some on the glass early in the game, in the first half especially. Their bigs had five offensive rebounds. I don’t know what they ended up with but I think they had seven as a team. A lot of that due to Marc (Gasol) coming over to help and then not hitting back on the back side with enough size or enough effort. But Vince did a terrific job and makes a couple of shots, get crack back and got a big steal down on the other baseline. I would’ve kept going with him I just thought maybe he couldn’t finish with the minutes I haven’t been playing him this season.”

 

On keeping the energy in the second half:

“We talked about it. A second night back-to-back for both teams and both teams sometimes you can have the mentality of trying to get through the first half, keep it close. You know we’re on the road and then come out and turn it up. Maybe also because last night we tripped a little bit coming out of the half time. First four, five, six possessions we didn’t play with enough force and even though the game didn’t get away from us. Those first five minutes last night in Dallas didn’t change the momentum they were able to take shots at us after turning the basketball over. We did turn it over but we played through some mistakes with a great deal of effort I thought tonight.”

 

On disrupting one of the better offensive teams:

“Yeah, it would be easy just to. It’s been a tough week. It’s been heavy slogging. But it shows the heart and the care for each other that our guys have. Which is just tremendous because it would be easy to go, ‘Hey it’s been a tough stretch, we got a day off tomorrow. Let’s just not lose badly and not embarrass ourselves.’ There was no thinking of that. We went out to get it the whole time. I don’t know if we led wire-to-wire but you know, pretty impressive win against a very good team. Certainly have come a long way in figuring themselves out of how they want to play from the first time we played them. They are hard as heck to guard because they can really shoot. CJ Miles had a tough night tonight but they’ve got a lot of offensive weapons around the perimeter.”

 

GRIZZLIES FORWARD MATT BARNES (15 POINTS, 10 REBOUNDS)

On the game:

“We needed a win.  It’s been a roller coaster season to this point where I think this team has transitioned from their traditional grind it out to kind of small ball, what the rest of the league has turned into.  I think it’s taken us a little longer to gel and catch our rhythm.”

 

On the second half:

“You can’t control which shots go in, but you can control how hard you play.  I think sometimes our effort lacks, and that’s where you get in trouble.  We’re not really a high-scoring team, so we can’t afford to play effortless at times, and I think we do.

“I think we were 500 or close to 500, and this team’s a lot better than that.  I just think we need to pull it together and get it together.  There can’t be any more excuses.  I think we’re 29 or 30 games in.  It’s time to get going.”

 

On being engaged defensively:

“That’s the key.  We’re not a high-scoring team, so our defense has to be there every single night.  That’s something we continue to work on in the game and in practice.  We have to continue to take steps forward and not steps back.”

 

GRIZZLIES GUARD MIKE CONLEY (20 POINTS, 8 ASSISTS)

On the game:

“Playing with the effort we showed tonight consistently, I think we have too many weeks where we go one out of three games and play like this.  We played really hard and upbeat and a lot of energy.  We have to continue to learn from what we’re doing in the good moments and continue to learn with the transitioning of guys and different lineups and the way we’ve been playing and continue to work.”

 

GRIZZLIES GUARD COURTNEY LEE (2 POINTS, 4 REBOUNDS)

On the game:

“It was good for us to get a win and get some momentum started for ourselves.”

 

On the second half:

“I think we just have to come out ready after halftime.  Get out there and try to get loose as much as possible.  Guys stepped up big.  Matt (Barnes) had a lot of energy from start to finish.  Mario (Chalmers) came in and gave us energy and JaMychal (Green) also.  Jeff (Green) picked it up in the second half.  It was huge for us.”

 

On setting the tone:

“It helps us out a lot, especially when everybody’s engaged and we get stops, and we get out and get layups, and we get to attack the opposing team in transition.  We were able to do that tonight.”

 

 

PACERS HEAD COACH FRANK VOGEL:

On Pacers’ overall performance:

“We didn’t shoot the ball well. We didn’t play well enough in any area tonight. We didn’t defend well enough, we didn’t run well enough, we didn’t cover for each other on the defensive end well enough, and obviously we didn’t shoot the ball well enough. I thought we tried to move the ball, but it wasn’t crisp, a little bit out of rhythm and it was just one of those nights.”

 

On Pacers’ defense:

“We didn’t get stops when we were trying to get back in the game and get over the hump. It wasn’t good enough.”

 

On Pacers’ being 2-4 on back-to-backs this season:

“It’s always tough to the play the second night of a back-to-back, but we have to do better than that clearly.”

 

On C.J. Miles’ problems against the Grizzlies:

“I thought he had some good looks, a couple that weren’t good looks. It was just one of those nights. He’s been red hot for us, he had an off night tonight.”

 

On Paul George providing most of the offense for Pacers:

“He was aggressive and in attack mode, both in the catch-and-shoot game and off the bounce, trying to find people. A few too many turnovers and when he did find people guys weren’t making shots, so it was just one of those nights we were a little bit out of rhythm.”

 

On what they can take into San Antonio on Monday:

“We have to put it behind us and it’s a new game Monday, 0-0 start come Monday night, so we just have to regroup and look to get those guys.”

 

PACERS FORWARD PAUL GEORGE (29 POINTS, 6 REBOUNDS)

On if Pacers plan of avoiding perimeter against Grizzlies:

“Of course, but a team like this that’s so good at loading the paint up, you almost just have to play the game, make the right reads, draw help, and make the extra play. With a team like this, they load the paint so well, it’s kind of hard to play in the paint and get easy baskets at the rim.”

 

On Pacers’ 23 three-point attempts:

“We took what the defense gave us. I thought some possessions we settled, but overall that’s been our identity. We’ve been up 40 percent a majority of the season from behind the three-point line. We have a lot of capable three-point shooters on this team, a lot of great three-point shooters on this team. Tonight they just didn’t fall. That’s two nights in a row on a back-to-back where we couldn’t get the perimeter game going and it resulted in a loss for us.”

 

On difficulty of adjusting to the Grizzlies’ lineup changes:

“My matchup was the same, guarding the same person all game. I didn’t really see a difference in it. They imposed the same style with both lineups out there, which was hard for us to get into a rhythm.”

 

PACERS GUARD MONTA ELLIS (13 POINTS, 2 STEALS)

On effect of a back-to-back:

“I don’t think it had anything to do with it. It was just a better team tonight. We had a lot of good open shots that just weren’t falling tonight. I think it was more that our shots weren’t falling and they made plays.”

 

On turnovers:

“We have to limit our turnovers. Some of those shots we had wide open and we turned it right over.”

 

On moving forward:

“It’s a tough one, but we have another one on Monday and we have to get ready for San Antonio. We have to put this one behind us and keep moving.”