That's What He Said - vs Bobcats 4/11

Celtics 106


Brad Stevens
Re: Bouncing back after losing the lead:
"I think the biggest thing from my standpoint is I’m happy for those guys. You know, like, it’s not easy to go through that and you get kind of – I guess the term would be ‘writers block’ when you go through that - and it happens a couple of times and then you get more fearful of a negative result than you do of just doing your – and your focus is on – your job and the task at hand. That’s what I talked about before the game. We wanted to play well, we wanted to play every possession, we wanted to play with great focus and we did that. We played with great energy, I thought we attacked better offensively late in the game than we have, and then we turned it up a couple of times defensively. They missed a couple shots now, too; I mean (Josh) McRoberts missed a couple open ones that he made in the first half which helped. But I thought we really competed – I thought we really competed, especially in the second half – defensively. And we thought we lost Sully (Jared Sullinger) for the game but then he came back from a twisted ankle, Jerryd Bayless hyper-extended his knee; he’s going to stay back for an MRI and if he’s okay he’ll fly and meet us tomorrow. And then (Rajon) Rondo, I didn’t know until 6:15 or else I would’ve told everybody at 5:45. I knew that he’d gotten kneed in the shin and I knew that he was sore, but he went through walk-through. But when he got on the court he did not feel good, and so that was his call. And so I told Phil (Pressey) at 6:20, ‘You're starting.’ Or 6:15, ‘You're starting.’ And he played a great game in his place."

Re: If Rajon Rondo will play tomorrow:
"I don’t know. Obviously if he feels good he can, because it’s not a back-to-back for him. But I don’t know. I haven’t talked to (Head Athletic Trainer) Ed (Lacerte). Ed came in and told me, he said, ‘Rondo is out,’ and I went straight to next plan because we only had about an hour and a half before the game."

Re: Phil Pressey' late-game dive for the ball and overall effort:
"Every coach in the country wants their guards to get back on the shot and not offensive rebound, especially their point guards. And then he makes a play like that and we’re all like, ‘Hey, that was a huge play, great play.’ So, yeah, great play. The diving on the floor was great. This is what gets me so excited about coaching here, is everybody gets that. This place erupted at that moment, and they understand it. And I talked about how great the fans have been to us all year in a tough year, and that was really a neat moment. I wish we could’ve stopped and cheered but we had a game to play and we almost gave our lead back."

Re: What he'd say to fans who want the team to lose for draft positioning:
"ou know, I have a job, and my job is to get this team to play as hard and as well together as they possibly can. And at times, and to execute and to hopefully be on the right side of the scoreboard at the end of the day, or the left side of the scoreboard at the end of the day. And all of us are disappointed in our overall record, and all of us are certainly aware of talk, but that’s not our task. Our task is to play as hard, coach as hard, and do right by the game. And I think that that’s what those guys in the locker room have pretty consistently done. We’ve had a couple of clunkers, but we’ve had a lot of games like this and a lot of them that didn’t go our way, unfortunately."


Phil Pressey
Re: His thoughts on Rajon Rondo not playing:
"I was getting taped and Coach (Stevens) walked in and was like, 'You are starting.' From there on I had to get my mind ready. I mean I’ve started before so it wasn’t that big a deal it was just so soon, forty minutes before game time. I felt like my teammates all embraced me, like I was coming off the bench. It was the same mindset."

Re: Flipping the switch from bench to starter:
"It kind of took me a while to have that same mindset the whole year, because coming out of college you have that one mindset that you’re starting every game. Now you play thirty minutes, you play five minutes, you play fifteen minutes, you don’t play at all. Brandon Bass has been telling me, just to walk in, when you start to walk in just walk in, and have that same mindset throughout the whole game and you should be fine."

Re: Doing the intangibles:
"I mean, that's just one of the winning plays that Coach Stevens talks about – diving for a loose ball, boxing out, taking a charge, getting the offensive rebound. That’s the winning play that he talks about day in and day out. I had a good look at it, tipped it out, and made a great play."

Re: A relief winning this game:
"We had a couple games we should have won, kind of let it go towards the end of the game, but we just had to buckle down and win this one. The fans really got in to it and when you have fans like that you have no other chance but to give it your all."

Re: Hearing the fans:
"It's crazy to think that were out of the playoffs and only have three or four games left and your fans are still that much into the game. Like I said before, when you have fans like that you have no other choice than to give it your all."


Avery Bradley
Re: Getting the win:
"It starts on the defensive end and I feel like we played great defense today. Phil Pressey gave us a great lift on the defensive end, I feel like that’s why we won the game tonight."

Re: What helped close the game:
"They made a run, we went back to our bad habits, like not finding guys in transition and they were able to get it to their shooters for jumpshots. We just stepped up with it, at the end of the game we were able to get stops."

Re: Phil Pressey's game:
"His defense, he was everywhere. He was just hustling. He got the fans into it. Phil’s a very good player and he played very good on both ends of the floor. He got everybody going. If you weren’t into the game, he definitely got you into it. He played really good, player of the game to me."

Re: Momentum in the last three games:
"A lot. The way we played last game we wanted to come out and make an improvement. I feel like we did on the defensive end. Tomorrow we want to keep building. Event though there’s only a few games left, we can still make a statement and show teams that we are still fighting no matter what, even if we’re not going to the playoffs. We still have pride to go out there and play for ourselves and our fans."


Bobcats 103

Steve Clifford
Re: Shooting 50+ percent from the floor and still losing:
"We just didn’t put much into the game. I thought they deserved to win; they played harder than we did. I think offensively, what happens some nights, we were scoring early in the game but we had very little defense in that game. Talked about it at halftime, we had played a poor defensive first half and we came out, except for when the game was on the line in the 4th quarter we tried a little bit harder, but the bottom line is that our defense wasn’t close to what it used to be."

Re: Fourth-quarter huddle that sparked a 10-0 run:
"Well that’s why you need to play for 48 minutes, that’s the point, and that’s what we have to learn. We should be a team right now that should be hungry to get better, to get ready to play in the playoffs. We play a playoff game at this intensity, defensively tonight, then they are going to score a 110 a 115 and its disappointing and ultimately I’m most responsible and the captains: Al (Jefferson), Kemba (Walker) and Gerald (Henderson), its going to come down to us, it always does but if we come back tomorrow night and play at this same intensity level at the defensive end of the floor they’ll score more than these guys did (Celtics)."

Re: If Kemba Walker will play tomorrow night:
"I don’t know. I really have no idea, but right now I’m really more concerned about the guys on the floor and then putting in the necessary work and effort so we can play well."

Re: Changing up his practice schedule:
"No. At this time, we do a lot in shoot-arounds and our preparation is fine. Tonight is approach, you win 5 in a row and guys come in, whatever, you score early in the game, its easy to let your guard down, but we just didn’t want to play defense tonight."

Re: Luke Ridnour's performance:
"Luke played well, Luke wasn’t the problem at all. If you look at our offensive numbers it had nothing to do with offense. We had the one stretch at the end of the 3rd quarter where we had some bad turnovers and that’s when they got the cush numbers. Except for that the offense was fine. Its again, it was our defense and Luke defensively was fine, he wasn’t the problem. Josh (McRoberts) played well but again we had more than enough offense to win."


Al Jefferson
Re: Frustration following the loss:
"We got what we deserve, why didn’t play the way we were supposed to play on defense. They had a hell of an offensive game. But we got what we deserved there was no way we can go in the playoffs with that time of mind set. We have to be better than that no matter who we play."

Re: Lapses in defense:
"We did have the mindset the last five minutes but it was a little too late. It was a big key rebound and then we had a foul I think we had a good look out in the end but it just didn’t go our way. I feel like we had the mindset to do what we had to do to come back into the game."

Re: It being an advantage or disadvantage, playing tomorrow:
"I think it is a plus, because it’s the NBA and two it will give us a chance to redeem ourselves from this lost. Go home to our fans and try to get a win."

Re: Lessons learned:
"Great lesson if you don’t come out and play the way we are supposed to play then we are going to get our butts kicked."



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