Byron Scott Playing Quotations

He just had a game of his life. Hopefully he can keep playing like that or somewhere near like that.

He's playing really well. He's in a groove right now and is playing more comfortable. I told him with the way he's shooting the ball, I need to find ways to get him the ball more.

He had his best year in Phoenix playing the type of basketball that we play.

He was well-adjusted in October. He's just having fun. He's playing hard and he knew this was a game that we had to win.

He's always said that he would love to someday play in Toronto, and that's understandable. That's his hometown. But he's never come in here with a bad attitude. He's been a true professional every single day. He knows this is where he's going to be playing for the time being, and he's giving us 100 percent.

I said a few weeks ago that J.R. wasn't playing well and if it continued, I would have to make some changes, and today was the perfect time to do that.

I think all the players, everybody in our organization is glad that it's over with and the decision has been made and we can just keep looking forward to playing basketball.

We were able to get a young center that we feel is going to get much better and better, that's shown improvement. He had his best year in Phoenix playing the type of basketball that we play. And then we got a veteran in Aaron Williams. We've still got our first-round picks.

We are playing soft right now. Every team we are going against is thinking we are soft, and the only way to change that is to not be soft. If we lose going at it 110 percent, then we can live with that. But we are just not doing that.

There are some guys that didn't prove (they want to play). If they don't look at this as a chance to get some playing time and legitimize the fact they belong in this league, then they are going to be in trouble.

The thing I always harped about is that he didn't play hard enough. The one thing I told him this summer is that he can be a great power forward because of his skills. But he wasn't giving himself a chance because of not playing hard.

He's really good. He's gotten better each month and he knows we expect a lot from him, and he expects a lot from himself. I don't think anybody could envision him playing this well this early, but now that we see how good he can be, we continue to try and push it.

They were playing harder. They were getting after loose balls, long rebounds. We had to match their energy. In the third quarter and fourth quarter, we did a much better job.

He's not playing tonight. I just ran into him in the hallway and he said he'll be ready at halftime. But that's just Chris being Chris.

I don't think we can hope for that much. He'll be playing in a backup role here.