Rick Carlisle Couple Quotations

He's doing a little better the last couple of days. My sense is that he'll play.

He made a couple of great plays at the end. Great players are going to make great plays. In the grand scheme of the game, the third quarter was our undoing.

It couldn't have been closer. A couple of breaks went our way at the end, like the offensive rebound, and he (Johnson) made a huge play. We know we got lucky today because we know Vince Carter is not going to have another 1-for-8 three-point game or 12-of-33 game because he's a great player.

I won't know what our health situation is going to be until probably Sunday. We have a couple of days to try to get guys healthier.

That's a tough one, a tough one to lose. It's too bad, the guys really fought hard. If we had gotten a couple more stops the last couple of minutes, it would have been a different story.

We tried some. Johnson is a guy that was doing a good job of staying out of harm's way when it came to that (sixth) foul. We did a couple of things, but if you go too much out of what's working to try to get a sixth foul, you can disrupt your own team. That's something you don't want to do.

We'd like to get out and run and do some good things on offense. But if you can't get the stops, it's going to be hard to do that. We're going to have to be better at both ends, but after the last couple of games on the defensive end, that is going to have to become more of a priority for us.

We'll see. I have a couple of days to make a decision if we need to do anything with the lineup. We'll go the way we think is best.

At this point, he's going to make a full recovery. He's actually doing very well, but the high level of exertion and the contact has sort of re-introduced a couple of symptoms that the medical people, from a precautionary standpoint, feel he should shut it down for awhile.

Down the stretch, the free-throw line was our nemesis. If we can get a couple of stops and make our free throws, it really shouldn't have come down to an overtime. But if you don't play a full 48 minutes, you leave too much to chance.

The situation with his hip is very positive, ... He has a lingering Achilles (tendon) problem from last year. He has been taking treatment on it the last couple of months. I think his timetable to play at 100 percent is going to be a little further down the line.

It was very tight the whole game and it couldn't have been closer. A couple of breaks went our way at the end. We know we got lucky today because we know Vince Carter is not going to have another (game like Sunday), because he's a great player and he's going to make his shots.

A.J.'s the starter for now. We'll see how the next couple of weeks unfold. We were in this same situation in January and probably rushed him back too soon.

The last couple games we've gotten things back on track a little bit and we've got to keep going in that vein. We still are not in (the playoffs). We have a long way to go. We're going to have to win our way in because everybody else we're fighting against has got favorable schedules and are playing well.

He's feeling better. To what extent, I don't know. It's calmed down a little bit the last couple days.

You've got to keep playing and stay the course. We were able to get some big stops and Jermaine had a couple of key blocks. We're certainly happy to get on the winning side of the game.

This has been tough for him. He's been out of the rotation the last couple of weeks. He keeps working and keeps himself ready to play. Guys like him, you don't worry about.

We knew he could get unbelievably hot. In the fourth, it started with that three from the corner. Then he shook loose a couple of times on other plays. Until then, we had them under control.

We got a little lucky and dodged a hand grenade at the end. West got a good look. You have to get lucky and dodge a couple of those.