Rick Carlisle Last Quotations

Last year, we went through one of the most difficult years that a team could go through in NBA history. Even in the toughest times, I love coming in and trying to figure out ways to win. When you are able to feel that way about what you are doing, it is a great blessing. My experience at Virginia had a lot to do with being able to get where I am now.

I can't remember the last time we had 25 assists. That had a lot to do with it. Everybody hung in and played an important part.

For us, we have to remember what they did to us last time. They came out and just railroaded us with shot-making and dribble penetration. You name it. We're going to have to dig our heels in defensively.

He has an affinity for the 'everyman' type of player, ... He's been here the last two summers working out with summer league players. It's something he has a liking for.

He has an affinity for the 'everyman' type of player. He's been here the last two summers working out with summer league players. It's something he has a liking for.

He hurt us the last two games and we did a lot of different things on him defensively. Johnson played great.

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

He may have moved his schedule up because of what happened in Memphis last night. We knew he was getting closer and closer. I thought it could be this week some time.

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).

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've gotten to the point where we understand that we're a veteran team that has to play to our strengths. We have to be efficient and have a certain toughness about us. We've shown a lot of those qualities over the last week.

We've had great execution in the last two games; we won one and lost another. These types of one-possession games come in waves. The way our team is set up, we have players that can make plays.

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.

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.

The second and third quarters hurt us defensively. We struggled and had some stretches where we couldn't stop them. Detroit is a team that is going to do a good job in the last play type of situations, but I'm more in tune to what happened in the second and third quarters than on the last play.

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.

We wanted to get the ball into Stephen Jackson's hands. He had been a major force for us the whole game. That last basket of ours was indicative of the whole game. He made the unselfish pass to the open man.

(O'Neal) felt something pop in his groin and tweaked something in his shoulder on one play, his bad shoulder from last year.

They switched everything and got crossed up. I was real happy Jack got a chance to hit the game-winning shot after he stepped up so courageously in the last game, but couldn't get it to go down.

There's a feeling that our players are misinterpreted and a little misunderstood because of various factors. Dress would be one of them. As a league, we know we have good people. We have great guys on our team. . . . I feel like what our team did last year (after the brawl) is a much better indicator of the character and quality of people in our league than anything else people might want to surmise in terms of perception.

Anytime you're on a losing streak you want to get out of it. As we found out last year, they're no fun. They never are. You have to fight your way out of it as a team. I thought the guys really did that by playing together.

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.

The last six games, we've done a lot of things very well. We've done certain things better than we were doing them before.

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.

That move gives them more scoring off the bench. Gordon is a guy that proved last year he's instant offense. They have Chandler also coming off the bench, giving them size and mobility and energy there.

It's important to be playing well and we played better the last three games. If we hadn't won three straight games, we could easily be out of the playoff picture.

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

It's clear off the last few games that he's a difference maker for us. I'm not going to look to play three guys just to play three guys. I'm going to look to try to have a rotation where guys can be comfortable. But you have to be accountable and play your minutes hard. Otherwise there are good players behind you; that's the fact. Our point position hasn't been this strong in a long time. It's good news for us.

You've got to have character to bounce back from a disappointing night like last night. You've got to have character and poise to withstand a furious run in a very loud building. You've just got to keep your boots strapped up and keep playing. Our guys did that and they earned the win.

You could tell it was affecting his game offensively just because so many things involved with shooting the ball happen with your left hand. Rhythmically, he just wasn't the same over the last week or 10 days.

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.

You can't look at their record. They've been a problem for us the last two years. We did some good things to put us in a strong situation and made some mistakes.

They are a well-balanced team that has become very efficient at both ends of the floor. I think (coach Maurice) Cheeks has done a great job of figuring out a lineup. A lot of it is going to come back to Iverson and Webber because they are two great players. Iverson, in the last two weeks, he's been playing by his standards at a higher level.

It's a tough loss, but we fought back to give ourselves a chance at the end. Over a 48-minute game, you hope it doesn't come down to a last play. That last play didn't tell the story of the game.

It's going to be a tight race for whatever position you're competing for in the last week of the season. The history of five through eight this year has been that it's been tight the whole year. I think it's going to continue that way.

For the last 10 days, we've spent a lot of time on fundamentals, individual work, screening and footwork. We know that doing the little things at a high level is going to be key for us winning some games.