Larry Brown Game Quotations

My hope is that we keep trying to get better, ... We have to figure out ways to get better. We've been in every game and we haven't figured out how to win.

I didn't curse him. I hadn't talked to him the whole game. Obviously he thought I went over the line and that's his prerogative. Those things happen. It's the first game I got kicked out.

I didn't look at it as a bad thing. I put him back in the game (with 18 seconds left) to have him guard. I don't mind that; I envy that.

I die every game that any of our fans has to watch or (Dolan) has to watch. Hey, everywhere I've been, every place I've ever coached, I always felt we were getting better. I've never been in a situation where I didn't know in my heart we weren't getting better. And I'm not giving up here.

When you're a coach and you see guys trying and you don't get a win, you want badly for something good to happen, ... I sensed after the game they really felt good about it, they were excited about it. That was fun to see.

I have a new appreciation because I'm with him longer now, and I watch him play and grow so that makes me feel good. I can see his game, from my perspective getting better. My friends that call me that watch him play say how much they think he's improved, and he's trying to do what we want. But I think as a team, when he went down in the Minnesota game we didn't play as well as we have been.

Maybe some of Jamal's decisions were a little misguided, but I know he's trying to win the game so I'm OK with that.

(Rivers) told me he felt early in the game it was over.

When you're losing game after game after game it's tough. It's hard to keep them up. It's hard to get guys to keep competing. It's really tough on the young kids. But you can't stop coaching and trying to get better. You hope you have something positive to talk about.

When he gets into a little better shape and stays out of foul trouble, he'll stay in the game for longer stretches.

Every game matters. At the end of the year, this is what they do: They put the wins and losses up. Obviously, we're not going to make the playoffs, but I think the important thing is you get better. Hopefully, that's what we're trying to do.

When you don't have anything to play for, you find out a lot about character. The last two games, obviously, were really disappointing in a lot of ways. I looked at the end of the game last night and I didn't see anybody quitting.

I've spoken to you after 28 games, and there was one game I was disappointed and I said that. Everybody makes a big deal (about it), I coached him (Marbury) for the next two days just like I always coached him. He's done what I asked and tries to win the game.

We had some slippage. We were careless with the ball, our shot selection wasn't as great, but when the game was on the line, we got back and sucked it up.

During the game I tried to run a few things for him and he said he couldn't. He was trying to get other people involved, so I just told him to be aggressive and act like you're trying to score. He was struggling, but he came through under the circumstances.

A lot of things that happen off the court, that I don't think are big deals, here seem to be magnified a thousand percent. It's part of it. But that's why I love being here, because if you ever played the right way, our game will be better for it.

They used to beat us like a drum when I was with Indiana, ... And I told our team, 'Let's just get him to uncross his legs.' And we succeeded in the last game I coached at Indiana. But I have a lot of respect for what he's done.

I'm happy for the team that they can go home and enjoy this game and be energized. For me, I'm going to try to find ways to coach better and help these guys. I can feel better because these guys needed something positive.

I loved the way he was aggressive, ... I loved the way he tried to get other people involved. I loved the way he tried to guard. I told the people before the game he would play great.

If you don't examine yourself after every game there is something wrong. I don't get too caught up when we win. I don't get too caught up when we lose. But I do try to evaluate where we're going. ... And then the thing that I never thought I'd see, I don't think we've matched our opponents' energy in a number of games. That's disturbing.

It's important both teams get better. If you look at what Boston meant to our league, every game they played was a huge rivalry.

The game got away from us during the first two minutes.

You can't fault the effort. Guys are trying to win the game. But when you make mistakes during the guts of the game and you don't have time to overcome them, it magnifies the mistakes. We just had a horrendous fourth quarter and they had a great fourth quarter.

It's all about making shots. The key to a Game 7 for a coach is to treat it like any other game.

Everyone in the league will respect us. ... We have to bring our A game every single night.

It was the kind of game where you hate to see anybody lose.

I don't look at him as a sub. ... I want him to get major minutes. He's on the floor at the end of games. I always say that it's most important who's on the floor at the end of the game - that's when it counts.

He beat me in my first college game and made me feel good. He was a pretty special man. He was always wonderful to me. He's what all coaches should be about.