Celtics-Hornets Post-Game Quotes

New Orleans Hornets Head Coach Monty Williams On the biggest factors of the road win: “Well the defense in the fourth quarter, that we had ten consecutive stops in the fourth, and Robin just held it down tonight inside – we had a number of guys – Chief did a pretty good job on paul Pierce, I think they had 15 points in the fourth quarter. And our rebounding off those stops was pretty good for us. And guys just made plays. I think they had an off night shooting the ball, but overall I thought it was a great team win. We had so many guys that played tonight, and they made big time contributions. Things that don’t show up on the stat sheet but things we recognize as a coaching staff.

On the guards, and Roberts’ injury: “That’s why your player development is so important. I thought Austin did a better job of handling the ball. Roger played more minutes. Donald Sloan even got a chance to play some. But after a while it just came down to Grevis sucking it up and playing more minutes than we wanted him to play on a back-to-back, but he’s done that for us for a while. We’re just thankful to get the win. Sometimes you make decisions and they work out and you look better than you should. Bottom line is, players just make plays.

On becoming the player he’s been trying to get going for quite some time: “It’s close. You know, wen hes defending like that, running the floor, attacking the basket – everything he did tonight was from the inside. That doesn’t mean he can’t shoot jump shots, but he’s so much more effective when he’s attacking the basket and I thought he did a decent job against one of the better small forwards of this era in Paul Pierce. When he plys with energy like that and he’s tough and effective for us – we just need him to do that more consistently.

On winning a road trip on the East Coast 2-1 being a met goal: “You know me. I’m just glad to get the win. I’m not gonna make much out of it. With a young team, we’re just worried about the here and now. We did have a good trip. But at the same time I’m only going to enjoy this for two more hours and then I’m getting ready for the next game. I’m just thankful for the win. We certainly need more trips like this to help us – it’s good for our young guys to understand that you have to go into places like this in this kind of atmosphere to win games. The way we did it tonight is something we can build on.

On the pressure on Austin Rivers: “Well I’m sure he hadn’t slept in about three or four days. That’s a tough one, you know, playing against your Dad, your Mom’s in the house, I’m screaming at him, and he goes out there and keeps his poise. I don’t understand that kind of pressure. I didn’t grow up in that. The only guy I know that’s close to that is Grant Hill to have all that pressure to perform like that, but this is a different deal. I’m just glad we got the win, and I’m sure that he can enjoy it better because we won the game.”

On this as a sense of achievement/growth: “I’m sure there’s some confidence there. But if you look at our record, we’re in no position to laud or to be happy about a couple of wins. We’ve got a lot of work to do. I’m more concerned about our next practice, how our guys prepare and come focused to our next practice. That’ll tell me a lot about our growth. If we come in and think that we’ve arrived and achieved something greater than we have, than we haven’t grown the way I think we have.”

On Austin Rivers as a one-on-one player: “Well that’s what he’s done his whole life. How good is he? I don’t know – he’s only played three months in the NBA. He has the ability to get to the basket - once he starts knocking his jump shot down a little more consistently we’ll find out. He’s a talented kid. He works at it – he’s had his struggles like most rookies, but we’ll see. Time will tell.

On Rivers being an eager learner: “He has no choice. I’ll just leave that at that.”

On Rivers’ confidence and performance tonight: “Maybe it gave him confidence when he got called to go into the game. He didn’t know when he was going in. And I’m sure with Eric being out tonight, he knew he was going to play. His mind was probably in a different place. He’s just gotta be ready when called. Anytime you get a win on the road in a game like this, which is pretty unique for a guy playing against his Dad, I’m sure that builds some confidence.”

On coming back after being down in the first quarter: “Well we started the game jacking some jump shots. We couldn’t get past Bradley. And with so much pressure on Grevis and we just talked about attacking the basket, and even Ryan was going to the basket, and I thought that set the tone for us. He and Jason were diving and going to the basket and Robin had some stuff inside and that really helped us – and Chief, he always plays that way. That gave us a chance to get to the line and set our defense. Grevis, when he can run the offense that way, if he can get past the first line of defense, it helps our team. We couldn’t get past the first line in the first quarter.”

Austin Rivers Re: What did you feel like out there: “I felt good, just to go out there and compete. You know, at the end of the day I knew it was a different game and I didn’t try to pretend like it wasn’t. And I think that helped me, because I went out and there and I was just like concentrate, it’s a normal game, because then you’re just thinking too much. You know, I just tried to go out there like you know what, I’m playing against a team I know, I’m going against my father, let’s have fun and compete, and help my team, and let’s just see what happens, and I think that helped me tonight. And the team really did the same thing, and we really came out and competed. For us to come out here and beat a team like that after a back to back shows growth.”

Re: How much does your father hate losing: “Well, he does hate losing because he’s a competitor, and that’s where I get a lot of my competitiveness from, just being around him. And I know, he’s obviously down because it’s his job, and part of him is probably happy because I played better and we won, not that we won, but that I played better. So it’s all good.”

Re: Is it nice to have this behind: “Yeah, you know, I can just be like alright, finally, just went out there and played, and played well. Just move forward. Just keep going. You know what I mean, this game’s out the way and I can just go home and get my mind right because we play a good team, I think we play Golden State in a day and a half. So it’s like 48 hours we have another game. So that’s the thing about the league, can’t ever get too hot, you can’t ever get too low. And the same thing I said before the game where I was like I’ve got to keep my head up, and now I’ve got to keep my head, I’ve to stay in it. You know, so I just got to keep going.”

Re: Will the next time be easier: “Oh yeah. We play them at home next time so it will be a different. But yeah, going forward, now that this is out of the way it will be a lot easier. I can just go out there and not worry about, oh man this is weird, because I’ve already been there before so I just have to go out there and compete.”

Re: Did you say anything to each other during the game: “No. I was talking to the players a lot. You know, KG’s obviously talking. Courtney Lee and I are very close so me and him were talking the whole game. Jason Terry, and all those guys who I’ve known. I talked to him. But my Dad didn’t really say anything to me. Just you know, before and after the game that he loved me. And he just told me to go out there and compete, so I did.”

Re: Did it help you to know this team: “Well yeah, I know it’s like a scouting report. I got the ultimate scouting report because I know all of their tendencies. I’ve seen, not all of them, but I’ve seen just about everything. And that doesn’t mean you can stop them because those guys are Hall of Fame players out there. It was a different situation, it was like playing against your old team. You know I didn’t play with them but it feels like I’ve been with them, I’ve been through it all with them. You know it’s been through the stands when I was young, I’ve seen everything. And I’ve always had so much respect for all of them. And now when you’re out there and going after them, you’ve got to stay in it because they’re coming after me. And they weren’t talking it easy on me so I had to have the same mindset.”

Re: Are you going to give your father a hard time: “Oh yeah. That’s what I’m about to go do right now. I’m going to get changed and go right to, not their locker room, but his office. And be like ‘what’s up?’”

Re: What will you remember most about tonight: “Just that we won. We played last night versus Philly. And even though their record might be what it is this year, they’re still a playoff team. They were a playoff team last year and we went in there and won the game. And we came right back to back versus the Celtics and won. And that’s what I remember, that we were able to come here and win, and I had all this emotion and I was able to fight through it and help my team. It was a good game for us all.”

Re: Trash talking to Dad: “I’m not talking him. I’m going in there right now. I’m going to go into the locker room right now and say ‘what’s up’ to my Dad. It’s my household now. Just joking, just joking.”

“I’m no going to say anything stupid. At the end of the day he has a lot more, credentials, or whatever you want to call it than I do. I don’t have, I haven’t done nearly half as much as he has. So this is just one little moment for me.”

Re: Are you a Celtics fan every other night? “Yeah. I still want them to do well. Obviously when we play them I’m trying to win but I watch a lot of there games and I want them to do well because I know a lot of those guys. And obviously I want my Dad to do well. Just because he invests so much time and he never sleeps. In the summertime when I’m home and working out, or hang out and come back at night, or if I go get a snack, at 4 in the morning he’s still doing stuff with . So I just always want him to do well because I love him.”

Boston Celtics Head Coach “We didn’t play well. Just let our guard down, I thought, a little bit. Felt it yesterday and didn’t do anything about it so I’m kicking myself more than them. I always write stuff down, after practices and my first note – ‘guard down, guard down’ – I think I wrote it three different times and I thought we came out and played like that.”

Re what did he notice: “Just in practice, the way we approached practice yesterday. So that’s on us. It’s a good lesson. That didn’t mean we would’ve won, but I do think we would’ve played better. You know, give it to them; they’re playing really well right now and to do that without (Eric) Gordon says a lot about them.”

Re the paint: “Well, they scored in the paint and we refused to go in the paint. You know, we had an electric fence around the paint tonight; we just settled, I thought. I mean, that’s how you play when you don’t know, like, I don’t know what the new word is, ‘bring it’ or whatever you young people say. Whatever that is, we didn’t have. And we settled. We took the easy shots, we didn’t cut, we didn’t space, we didn’t run offensively. I thought we played six great minutes at the beginning of the game; played with a lot of energy and then it just dissipated.”

Re is he disappointed in the bad night: “No, you know, you’re human. You have them. You start feeling good about yourselves and you take a step back. So I always look at me first, honestly, and I just think there’s things that as a coach you’ve got to just keep trying to do. I thought I should’ve played LB () earlier when we were struggling for energy; he’s an energy guy. It was easy now, obviously, but that’s what I’ll probably watch when I watch the film. I’ll see that.”

Re is it easier to brush off the loss after a wining streak: “I don’t know; I don’t brush off many losses, to be honest. We’ve got to get ready for Chicago. The one thing I do, I move on. There’s nothing I can do about it and can’t get it back. You just learn from it. But like I tell them every day about doing your job: every single guy has to be prepared to do his job and I didn’t think we did that tonight.”

Re what was it like coaching against his son, Austin: “You know, it was strange. It was funny, the one time he did something, I was about to say something and I didn’t say it – I caught myself – I forgot he was on the other team. Other than that, it’s just a strange dynamic. I didn’t enjoy it, honestly. I know it’s neat for everyone else, but as a father, I don’t know if I enjoyed that.”

Re did his eye keep drifting to Austin: “No, you detach from it, but you do see him. I mean, you see your son run by you down the floor. I mean, that’s just different. The one time he made the layup in front of our bench and run right by you, you know I’m used to like, ‘Keep going!” and instead I’m yelling at my guy for letting him get to the basket. So it’s just different. George Karl this summer, we were laughing, and he said, ‘It’s going to be strange’ and he said, ‘your guy’s going to play more.’ And he was right.”

Re did he flinch when Austin went to the floor: “No, I don’t. That’s one thing my kids know with me; when you go to the floor I don’t flinch. ‘Get the hell up.’ They all laugh at that, because that’s how I’ve always been. I never flinch. My wife would run out there; I’m not going out there. I mean, get the hell up.”

Jared Sullinger On getting the ball inside enough: “I thought we did. I thought there was times where we just made mistakes outside the post, passing outside the post, bad spacing so we come in tomorrow, rethink about things and have a better Friday.”

On the streak ending: “We’re just gonna start another streak, that’s what we said when we came in here. That’s what we said, we’re just gonna come in and we’re gonna create a new streak.”

On lower energy level tonight than past 6 games: “It wasn’t, and the second unit, we take full responsibility. The first unit had a rhythm going and the second unit came out and it was stagnant. We didn’t move the ball like we did, we didn’t defend like we did, so the second unit takes full responsibility.”

“I think everybody needs a game like this. I think it was perfect because now we know that the second unit needs to come out with more energy, just not gonna walk over every second of it so we’re gonna go back at it tomorrow.”

Paul Pierce On not clicking “Ya I mean there was a lot of inconsistency especially after the first 8 minutes, we got out to a ood lead and then we just broke down too many times. We got momentum, and then we’d lose it, just break downs defensively. It was just an inconsistent night on both ends of the court. We missed a lot of wide open shots, we didn’t . We got a team who’s young and plays hard and vastly improving and it gives them confidence once they get back in a game, and that’s what you saw tonight.”

About troubles in the paint: “They’re long and big and they put Lopez out there with Davis, you know, but I think the lack of ball movement really killed us tonight. I thought they were pretty on the strong side especially with their length. That’s a team where you have to set screens, get the ball from one side to another and try to find open shots, and we didn’t do that consistently throughout the night.”

On Hornets defense: “Ya, they are [physical]. They have 4 quality bigs that they rotate. The guard, Vasquez, he’s setting them up on offense, you know when you get into the paint, they’re very good at help defense. Their record really doesn’t show how good this team really is, especially when you add Gordon into the mix. I could see them down the line and in the near future being a really good team in the West, and really giving some teams some trouble.

The were aggressive on both ends…as you see they out-rebounded us and went to the line twice as many times as we did…that’s a recipe for disaster.”

“We shot the jumpers a lot of time, they packed in the paint, but I thought we got a lot of open looks, but we just didn’t convert them, so sometimes it goes that way. We held a team to 90 points which is pretty good on the most part, but the offense just wasn’t there I think”

“Just a break down defensively. We allowed a lot of double penetration, and when the guards getting to the paint, it allows their big man to step in there to get lay ups. Just inconsistency on that end of the court. We just gotta get back to the drawing board. We’ve been playing well as of late, other than tonight, and try to make another run.”

On Austin: I see a kid who’s gonna grow and grow as he continues to develop. He plays with tremendous confidence and you know he’s gonna have a bright future as long as he continues to work hard. He’s had a lot of ups and downs throughout the season, but a lot of rookies do when they first come in, but he’ll eventually find his niche and be a player in this league.”

On losing moment: “Well ya. It shows that we gotta be consistent. We gotta consistently go out there and execute and go over the things. You know sometimes you go on a winning streak and get real comfortable, that you forget what got you on the winning streak. We have to just get back to the basics and understand why we were winning, and get back to that.”