Rick Carlisle Hard Quotations

Nine 3s is going to make it hard to beat you. If you go anywhere around making 10 3s, you're looking at a great chance to win.

He was one of my favorite players to work with because of how hard he played and the things he does on the court.

He got cracked pretty hard the other night in the Chicago game.

Our undoing was in the first half. I thought we played really well, really hard and really together. It's hard to dig yourself out of that big of a hole. We have to learn something from the last two games. We got fortunate in Chicago because we were able to pull it out when we played a poor first half. But we weren't able to get over the hump (Monday).

Our start to the game was OK. But the second quarter, they had 32 (points) and we couldn't keep them under 30 after that. They played great offensively. During this 15-game period, we've competed hard on a consistent basis and tonight we had a letdown from that.

I think we could throw him out there tonight. He'd go out there and he'd have a good feel for the game. It would be hard for him on defense with the schemes we run.

I thought we got some pretty good looks at the end. It's disappointing to work that hard to get the lead and lose it. It's tough.

I think it's a continuance of the same things we've said for a while. The margin of error for us is not great. They had 13 second-chance points and 50 points in the paint and those numbers are hard to overcome.

You do learn a lot about hanging in there. You learn about hard times and the fact that character is often identified in the hardest of times.

We just can't afford not to have him available to play 38 to 40 minutes in a playoff game. It just makes it too hard on the rest of our team.

We played hard for the most part, but that has to be a constant. We gave ourselves a chance to win, but had execution problems down the stretch. It's a game of inches for us right now and we have to be better.

We played hard for the most part. We have to do that on a consistent basis. We gave ourselves a chance, but we had some mistakes down the stretch with execution.

We played really hard, really together. It's hard to dig yourself out of that big of a hole.

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 competed hard from start to finish. It came down to Duncan making some tough shots. They hit that lucky 3 from the corner, which was a bad break for us. We hung in and played and gave ourselves a chance till the last minute. It's three losses in a row. There's no moral victories. You have to find a way to win games.

During this 15-game period, we had competed hard on a consistent basis. And tonight, we had a let down from that. We just didn't have it. Every time we would make a run, we'd make a defensive mistake and they'd get a three.

We didn't play a full, hard 48 minutes of basketball and we left too much to chance. You have those types of let-ups and tempt fate with a Pierce bank shot. We're not in a position to do that.

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.

They're working hard to try to get it right.

It's been like this the last two or three times he's come back. It's been hard to get what you call real practice time because of the frequency of games.

It helps to have him available because of how it changes things on the offensive end for us. They're going to have to guard him wherever he is on the floor. Defensively, it makes it hard on him because he's guarding guys who are quick. We're going to have to have a lot of help ready.

He's working hard to get to the point where he can come back. Hopefully it's sooner rather than later. We'll see.

They didn't do a great job with the coverage, but, hey, the way Tinsley played tonight, he put the defense in a tough situation. That was a huge play because it was so hard for Jermaine to get open looks around the basket. It gave our team some energy at the defensive end.

It's just too bad, because we really played hard for three quarters. The second quarter was really a disaster for us. It put us in a bad position at halftime, but we fought back and really put ourselves in a good position to win.