Rick Carlisle Group Quotations

One of the things that's real positive with this group is that we can put five guys on the court and run something and be very comfortable with any of those guys taking the shot,

We have the same group that played well and won the other night. We're not going to make excuses. Our undoing tonight was the first quarter when we allowed them to shoot over 77 percent. That got them going early.

When we're playing well, there are very few teams that are as good as us. When things don't go well for us, that's when we have to look in the mirror as a group and figure out how to collect ourselves and continue on a path that's the best way for winning. We've got some soul searching to do.

With 15 games left, we have to get to the group we feel can make a run.

We are, without question, moving into a new era. On the other hand, we have a group of players now who have been together for a while who are ready to carry the torch forward.

We're finding out more about this group every game. We have a lot of guys that can contribute, but I have to evaluate it based on performance, the rotation, all those things. These (past) three games will be important to look at.

We're in a situation now where we're starting to get a little healthier and that's light at the end of the tunnel. The group that we have is really making a great effort to do what they can to help us win. Right now, win or lose, I know our fans know what's really important to them and that's the energy level and the unselfishness on the court. We had that for the last six or seven games and that's something we have to build on.

We've got the same group that played well the other night. We are not going to make excuses.

As a staff we have to keep coaching hard and keep getting these guys prepared to play. The games keep coming. That's just the way it is in this league. We're going to fight our way out of this as a group collectively: players, coaches and everybody. Losing streaks are no fun.

The group that was out there was going good. I didn't want to disrupt that momentum at that point. You're getting into a high frequency of games. If you find a group that's clicking, you have to stick with them.

This is the kind of game we talked about having to play. More up-tempo, more movement, less set offense. The game is in the hands of the players. We have a group out there that's a pretty knowledgeable group. They played well off each other. The critical thing is going to be our decision making. We need to play aggressively, but not frantically. When we played frantically, it got us in trouble.