What They Said!! Sounds vs Timberwolves 02-19-16

POST GAME QUOTES

GRIZZLIES 109, TIMBERWOLVES 104

 

GRIZZLIES HEAD COACH DAVE JOERGER

Opening statement:

“The last couple of days have been pretty interesting. I had to take care of a few things in the back. We have a happy locker room. I think we recognize that on a nightly basis this is how it’s going to be. It’s going to be kick, scratch, bite, claw. We come out swinging every night and we’ve got to do it together. I just spent some time with Lance Stephenson explaining what our locker room—the dynamics are. I don’t want to just throw a guy in there. I’m excited to have him and look at what we can do, there’s opportunities. I thought every guy that played tonight brought energy, brought a good spirit to the game. We can do this together. What we talked about before the game was certainly those types of things, but certainly, when you look and say that Dirk Nowitzki is a Maverick. Kobe Bryant is a Laker. Paul Pierce, I’ll always think of as a Celtic. Kevin Garnett I’ll always think of as a Timberwolf. Mike Conley, Tony Allen and Zach Randolph are Grizzlies and when their career is over I think I will always—we were all together so I’m a little biased. They are our Mount Rushmore. Sometimes players come and sometimes players go. Things get changed on your roster, but it’s incumbent upon those three guys to be great leaders for us going forward. If they believe we can get it done then everybody else can believe that we’re going to get it done. Maybe we do, maybe we don’t. We have the expectations within that we can get it done and certainly, there’s plenty of naysayers. I’ve seen all the jokes and Dr. Phil texts that I can handle and we’re fired up to go forward.”

 

On the plan for playing without Marc Gasol:

“It’s changed within the last 24 hours. We’ll try to spend some time figuring out tomorrow in Toronto. We looked at tonight’s game as a game where we’re down three guys. We had three guys get hurt and we’re going to play without three guys. I told the guys, you guys are great players and I don’t know if I’m a good coach or not, but I can’t get this thing figured out in 24 hours. Yesterday was a reaction day for me. We all felt it, it didn’t feel good to lose friends and components of our team. Now, we’ve got some other guys. I thought PJ (Hairston) did a nice job, throwing him in there. I told him two minutes before the start of the second half, ‘Hey you’re starting which plays do you know?’ and he went out and gave us energy. What it’s going to be, it’s not going to be perfect and some nights we’re going to be sitting here going, ‘oh my goodness,’ but if we play that hard I think everybody in this community will care about these guys and we’ll get some results that we like.”

 

On limiting Minnesota’s points in the paint:

“They got in a couple times where the ball was bouncing around and we weren’t hanging around enough. It’s part of the change we’re going to have. Everybody is going to have to pitch in and rebound. Brandan (Wright) is still trying to get his timing. I thought a couple times he went up to jump and block a shot and the guy missed, the ball is bouncing around and he’s still coming down, I don’t have that problem, and the ball is bouncing around and they kept picking it up in the paint. We’re going to need everybody. We can’t be leaking out. We’re going to have to help each other rebound. It’s something we talked about before the game. I thought JaMychal Green did an excellent job with Karl-Anthony Towns. We tried to front him early in the game to discourage a guy who can get rolling. They go to him and (Andrew) Wiggins early in games and I thought he (Green) did a great job on that. We mixed it up a little bit and threw some different things at him (Towns) at different points, gave him different looks and struggled shooting the basketball, but I thought JaMychal did a great job. Zach (Randolph) banged away. Great to see Birdman (Chris Andersen) play. I thought he played nervous almost in the first quarter. Second half was just fantastic for us except for passing up a layup, I thought he played very, very well, and I thought the play of the game was the one I drew up at the end of the third quarter. I said, ‘Vince (Carter) if you get it, make sure you shoot it from 75 (feet).’ Everybody was kind of like, ‘Ok, we just maybe—and it was you know what, let’s go get it.’ It was a tremendous moment. We do practice that.”

 

On Tony Allen’s injury:

“I haven’t gotten a report yet. I got an in-game report. I don’t know if it’s hip, ankle, knee, we’ll put something out as soon as we can.”

 

On Mario Chalmers’ defensive performance:

“He did a good job. In the first half, we had a break and every player can sometimes be slow going, but we didn’t close all the way out to Kevin Martin. We gave him space. We didn’t close out all the way to Damjan Rudez and he can really shoot it and we know that. You have to take away their space. Then, that carried over to those other guys.”

 

GRIZZLIES FORWARD BRANDAN WRIGHT (6 points, 2 rebounds)

On what he has learned by watching from the sidelines during his injury:

“For me, I just pick it up. I’ve been in the league long enough to know what to do. I pick up those things well. Like I said the biggest thing is just getting back out there and playing, getting my conditioning up. The first couple of weeks have been pretty scripted. But hopefully the team can keep it up.”

 

On the new personality of the team:

“We just got to play; it’s as simple as that. This is not the first time this has happened, it won’t be the last time it happens. Just get out there and play. Next man up, whoever can play has to play. We got to find a way to get it done. Every game is going to be tough like this for the rest of the year.”

 

On the energy of the crowd:

“I think they were excited to see, per se, a new team. This is pretty much a new team, different philosophy. We will try to push the ball a little bit more. We will try to get a lot more steals, get out in the open court, and probably shoot more threes. We are excited about what we have going forward.”

 

GRIZZLIES FORWARD ZACH RANDOLPH (17 points, 8 rebounds)

On the ‘Grit-N-Grind’ mentality:

“We’ve been like this since I’ve been here. We’ve got to go against adversity and keep battling. You know, scratch, claw, do whatever you’ve got to do to get a win.”

 

On playing with a chip on their shoulders:

“Like I said, we are low missing one of our best players of the season. You know, traded off a couple of our best players. We just got to keep battling. Take one game at a time. As long as we give 100percent, it’s going to be a team win every game. We are going to need everybody to win. Everybody has to step up.”

 

On Mike Conley in the second half:

“Mike is one of the best point guards in the league and a great person. He works hard. That is no surprise and we have to do what we have to do. We’ve got 27-28 games left. We are still in the playoff position. We are still in fifth place. We have to just take one game at a time.”

 

TIMBERWOLVES INTERIM HEAD COACH SAM MITCHELL:

On the game:

“We missed some shots, but we had 20 turnovers. We had 25 assists, but if we don’t turn the ball over 20 times, the way we were moving the ball, we would get some good shots. We missed some shots tonight and made some mistakes defensively. I thought some of the guys were rushing a little bit, and a little rusty with the time off.”

 

On the turnovers:

“Well you have to give them credit. They had their hands in the passing lane but you have to fake high and throw low sometimes and vice versa. But we just turned the ball over too many times. You just can’t turn the ball over 20 times.”

 

“After a certain while, you have to figure out how they are playing you. Then you have to make the appropriate pass. We were just careless with the ball. You have to try to make the right play, but you have to fake out sometimes and throw low. But we just made too many careless turnovers.”

 

On the ball movement:

“Well 75 shots is not enough for us the way we have been playing. If we cut those turnovers down by six or seven, we normally have about 12 or 13 turnovers per game, and get seven or eight more shots, the game could be different. Even Vince Carter’s three-quarter court shot was off of a turnover. We just can’t turn the ball over like that.”

 

On the aggressiveness:

“I like everything we did except for the turnovers. It’s tough. Those turnovers led to fast break points, easy points and free throw attempts. We just have to do a better job of taking care of the ball.”

 

On scoring droughts:

“We had some stretches and they had some stretches where they didn’t score. We did a lot of good things. I thought Zach (Randolph) played well. We didn’t make some shots down the stretch. It seemed like when Vince Carter made the three-quarter court shot, it just kind of sucked the life out of us, and it just kind of shocked us. By the time we got our bearings back, we were down one. But we fought back, I think we even took the lead, and we just couldn’t hold it. We just couldn’t get enough stops and we couldn’t score enough.”

 

On the Grizzlies:

“You look out on the court. Everyone one of those guys that played tonight, except for PJ Hairston, has been in conference finals or NBA finals. They know how to play defense. They put their hands on you and they got a little physical with us. When that happens, young players tend to take a step back. That’s when you really have to set your man up. You have to make hard cuts, set better screens and we didn’t do that.”

 

TIMBERWOLVES CENTER KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS (11 POINTS, 15 REBOUNDS)

On his performance:

“We didn’t play well. I didn’t play well, so defensively we were down. Stuff happens.”

 

On the game:

“We passed the ball well.”

 

TIMBERWOLVES GUARD ZACH LAVINE (22 POINTS, 2 REBOUNDS)

On the game:

“We were being a little careless with the ball and the outlet passes. We were a little careless with the ball, and we were making some dumb passes. You know, just not the right ones.”

 

On how to improve:

“It’s turnovers. Turnovers and down the stretch. You know, they converted, so that’s what we’ve got to tighten up on.”

 

On Vince Carter’s big shot at the end of the third quarter:

“It could have affected the game big time. You know, if they came out in the fourth quarter and scored the next basket, that’s a five or six point swing.”

 

On the physicality of Memphis:

“That’s definitely Memphis. You know, Marc (Gasol) wasn’t even out there, and Tony (Allen) got hurt, so, that’s them.”