Rick Carlisle Half Quotations

He just wasn't able to cut on it and move the way he needs to. We are just hopeful that with another day and a half of rest, it'll calm down and he'll be able to play.

We now have to prove we can put two great games together. Orlando has proven over the second half of the season that it's one of the better teams in the league.

We fought back after a horrendous first half where we really didn't play with much passion and we really showed signs of being a selfish team. That can't be what our team has to be about. We talked about some things at halftime and our guys really came out and fought and earned one of the toughest wins we've gotten all year long.

We're trying to condition him into a position where he can play with consistency. My decision was to play him heavy minutes the first half and then ice him down, have him for practice tomorrow.

The third quarter did us in, because in the first half I thought we played very intelligently and very hard. In the third quarter, they got going and we just couldn't get stops.

You're on a back-to-back, Chicago has been sitting here for three days and you lose Jermaine O'Neal in the first half -- our guys showed a lot of character. It was great.

The first half was disappointing again and we have to solve that. This is a very important time for us if we're going to be a team that makes the playoffs.

A.J. had a great night. In the second half he did a great job of running the team. His efficiency in shot making and courage to step up in some tough spots put us in a position to win.

We had the game going pretty well and we were playing good basketball. They made a run at the end of the half and they got the game tied and I thought that gave them a lot of momentum going into the second half. They did a great job of finishing off plays.

We got ourselves in some holes in the first half and haven't been able to dig out of them. They were playing (at the outset) their game better than we were playing ours.