That's What He Said - Celtics @ Suns

by **bobheckler** Tue Feb 24, 2015 6:17 pm

That's What He Said
Celtics 115 vs. Suns 110
US Airways Center - February 23, 2015

Brad Stevens
RE: The game:

I thought they played with really good poise. You knew that 17 point lead was going to be really tested. We’ve all been through that enough to know that they’re going to make a run, it’s going to get close and what happens when they do? We answered every time. Obviously the two Bledsoe threes got it real close but that four point play by Isaiah was huge. There were a lot of big plays throughout the course of this game. The guys have been good on the second nights of back to backs, they’ve been good all year that way. We had a lot of guys do it and we needed it all. It’s one game but it’s a good win.

RE: How the Suns made their run:

I thought they had some open looks in the first half that they missed and obviously we game up that big run at the end of the first half. We lost Knight and Bledsoe a little too often in that run.

RE: How the Celtics can be a winning team:

It goes back to having a good idea of who you are and knowing where your spots are and taking advantage of them. We have to be a team first and foremost, and then we have to be a team that plays to our individual strengths. If we don’t do that, we get beat. It’s pretty simple.
Isaiah Thomas

RE: His late four-point play:

It means a lot. I just wanted to get a win at the end of the day but it feels good to beat the team that traded you away. It was a lucky play. I just shot the ball and he wouldn’t let me come down and it was a big play. I just shot the ball with confidence and tried to make a big play and it went down.

RE: Phoenix pressuring him early:

They probably thought I was going to go off on them, which I was, I was trying to. But Coach just said make the right plays. You have the ball and you’re able to score, score. If they double you, find the open man and I tried to do that in the first half.

RE: Closing out the game:

At halftime I told the guys with this style of play, they’re in every game. I mean, we had a big lead and they made a run and got back in the game. Bled made two big shots but we kept our composure, executed down the stretch and got the win. I love the big moment. I want to be the hero. It’s just emotion. I was just going out there trying to win the game. There’s no hard feelings between me and the Phoenix Suns. My closest friends are on that team. It’s just about going out there and doing whatever it takes to win. When I get out there, I don’t have any friends.

Avery Bradley
RE: His performance:

I have a lot of confidence. My teammates are finding me in my spots and I’m able to knock down shots. We knew we were going to win that game if we played hard and when it got down to it, I felt like we were able to get stops and make good plays on the other end.

RE: Isaiah Thomas' night:

I mean, Isaiah is just Isaiah. He makes big plays. He lives for games like this. He has confidence in himself and he’s going to be big for this team.

Jeff Hornacek
RE: Not being able to overcome a slow start:

Well when you get down 20, you’re fighting an uphill battle the whole game. Then we hit a couple right there at the end and got right there, but then had a couple of turnovers. It’s hard to battle back. We gave up too many points again. I think our last five games – 127 from the Rockets, 115, 117, 155, 113. You’re putting so much pressure on the offense to score and outscore a team. We’ve got to figure out a way to stop these guys. It’s a combination of all kinds of things – taking pride in guarding a guy by yourself, pick-and-rolls or just throwing it around and we’re closing out hard. It’s almost like we’re playing to keep them in front of us and let them do whatever they want. We need to start getting after it that way and if you foul out, you foul out. I thought they out-hustled us, especially in that first half. There was a lot of balls that bounced at the free-throw line area and we were nowhere to be found; we were backing up. You’ve got to want it more than that.

RE: The Suns' offensive mentality:

We kept telling them to try to drive it in there and we were getting anything we wanted offensively. Then when we started shooting the threes, they were good shots, they were open. Again, for us to shoot 9-of-32 and make three or four of those and shoot our normal 38 percent, then it’s a different story. They were 14-for-29. It’s kind of like the Bulls game the other night – they made them, we didn’t.

RE: If Phoenix is aggressive enough taking the ball to the basket:

I feel like they are going in there. We need more of our big guys to get in there and not maybe shoot jump shots, but really try to take it in there. I thought a couple of times they did get fouled, but didn’t get calls. Our guards were trying to take it in on those guys and we just, again like I said, it’s not like we’re telling them to shoot all jump shots. We want them to get to the basket and for a while there we did, they just didn’t foul us when we got to the basket.

RE: If he chalks the loss up to his new players not being acclimated:

No, I don’t think that’s ever an excuse. These guys practice with each other all the time. Yeah Brandon is new and Marcus is new, but it’s still the same basketball. They were in the right positions all the time, so that’s not the case. I don’t ever think that’s an excuse. You’re out there playing with guys…it’s the game of basketball. If your man’s on the weak side and you’re supposed to help, you help. You don’t need to be directed to do that.

RE: Isaiah Thomas' performance:

We got it to one and he made the shot and they called a foul. That’s a tough shot. He was 6-for-16, so he didn’t shoot 50 percent but he made that one which was really the game-winner to kick it up to five when we made the run. We just shoot ourselves in the foot too much. When we have opportunities, we get careless with the ball. We do some crazy things out there at inopportune times.

RE: How to fix the slow starts at home:

I don’t’ know. I wouldn’t say it’s a change of lineup thing. I think at the beginning of the game, you should focus on nothing but defense – really get after it defensively and get yourself going and then maybe you get some easy buckets and get going that way, get some confidence. But the aggressiveness has to start at tip-off. For whatever reason, our starts are slow.

Brandon Knight
RE: His first home game as a Sun:

I felt good. It’s not perfect, don’t expect it to be but it felt pretty good. I mean there’s definitely some things we got to get better at as a whole, but we’ll get there though.

RE: Developing chemistry with Eric Bledsoe:

It’s only been two games. Like I said, chemistry doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not two games, three games, four games, sometimes it takes a while. So like I said, we got to continue to keep working on it and it’s just going to come with time.

RE: The second quarter:

They were making shots, but we weren’t really helping them. A lot of them were shoot-a-round shots, not contested so we got to do a better job just contesting shots, making sure that every shot is contested. Everybody’s a NBA player for a reason, so we got to acknowledge that and respect the players.

RE: Differences between Phoenix and Milwaukee:

Just the philosophies. Every team has different philosophies. Milwaukee was defensive-based team, everything was defensively drilled and here it’s a little bit geared to our offense. Every team just has different philosophies.

Eric Bledsoe
RE: Getting back in the playoff race:

We’re still not out. As bad as it may seem right now, we’re still not out. At the end of the day, we still have to think positive. We got a Denver team that’s struggling, just like we are. We’re looking forward to going in and try to get a win.

PJ Tucker
RE: Fighting back but coming up short in the end:

You fight back so hard, it’s tough. It’s tough to turn the corner and it took so much out of us to fight back.

RE: The Suns' recent propensity to start the game off slow:

If we start off good, the team usually makes a run and we’re in a dog fight in the end anyways. We haven’t put teams away, very few games this season. Slow starts have been the story of our season, so I don’t know if we can change it.

bob

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