Mike Woodson Quotations

Until we figure out that we're not going to outscore teams all the time and that we'll have to defend and rebound before we think about scoring, we're going to be a mediocre team. That's something we're going to have to improve on this summer.

We have had a lot of close games that we just didn't make plays down the stretch, but we refused to lose tonight.

We have had a couple good road wins, but this is by far the best. Our young kids did it tonight and you need to tip your hat to them. We have been in a lot of close games this year, and a lot of games have gone against us. Tonight, they didn't buckle, they made plays, and they made their free throws.

Last year we would cringe when he would shoot the basketball. Now his shot looks like a shot and he is handling the ball a little better.

Neither team played much defense. They shot the ball really well, and we were red-hot as well, so those nights sometimes happen.

Phenomenal. He was absolutely unstoppable tonight. It was a real fun game, going back and forth like it did. We were just the better team tonight. Our young guys are starting to grow up.

I don't have any complaints with our crew. They are playing hard and we have been in every game we've played this year.

I don't agree that it's a risk either way,

I am extremely excited to add a player of Joe's background to our team. He is a great young talent. Atlanta will soon learn how important it was to finalize this deal.

I am extremely excited to add a player of Joe's background to our team, ... He is a great young talent. Atlanta will soon learn how important it was to finalize this deal.

I can't fault our guys and their effort. We were our own worst enemy tonight coming down the stretch.

He's grown up. Last year we would have cringed when he shot the basketball. Now his shot looks like a shot. He's 100 percent better than he was last year, but he still has a long way to go.

He hurt it the other day during a pickup game, and we just wanted to run a few tests to make sure everything was fine. We wanted to make sure he was 100 percent before we put him out there in the mix for training camp.

He is a great young talent in our league and when you couple him with the young talent we currently have on the roster, I can't wait to see them mesh as a unit.

We just have to figure out how to make plays at the end.

We've got to take care of the ball, rebound and defend. I think we'll be able to score some, so offense won't be a problem. That's why our defense has to be a given.

He's been playing unbelievably. He's made plays where at first I am saying, 'No, no, no,' then it's a great play.

He's going to be missed for a long, long time. I don't want these guys to forget him. I don't want them to ever stop remembering him and what he was about. I think we all owe that to his legacy.

He's been here and he's familiar with everything we do.

We made them play their starters big minutes. That's what you want, but their starters are as good as anyone in the league.

Joe is the description of what they're looking for. When you're putting a team together you're looking for guys who can do a little bit of everything. You want guys that can score, handle the ball, pass, defend and make shots in the open court. Joe can do all of those things.

Joe came up big again tonight. You have to tip your cap to him, he made the biggest shot of the night.

I think it goes without saying that Joe is a huge piece to what we're trying to do in terms of turning this thing around and ultimately making the playoffs, which is the bottom line and why I'm here.

I think it's fantastic. I have had an opportunity to work with him. He is one of the best in the business. That is the reason why he wins the ballgames.

I thought eventually we would wear him down and make them play small ball with us, and they did. That was to our advantage.

I thought we had enough guys on the bench to win this game. We just got lackadaisical and the zone caught us. We have to go back to the drawing board and work against the zone.

I thought we just defended. You're not going to stop Allen Iverson. Webber had a big game as well. All you can do is try to contain them and hope for the best. I thought we did an adequate job. I thought our defense was solid in the third and fourth (quarter). Once we caught up, it was back and forth.

I thought there were a few key plays. We just have so much to overcome.

I think we feel comfortable when we play them. We know what's coming. We just seem to play well against them. I don't know what it is.

I thought our effort was great. We had our chances down the stretch. We just couldn't take advantage and pull this one out.

I think we were embarrassed in that first half. They outplayed us in every way. They beat us in all ways that you could. We came out and competed in the third and fourth quarters but were just too far down.

I think we've kind of forgotten who we were, but we were at least trying to defend a month ago. I'm a defensive coach and we are not playing defensive minded.

I think that title team proved throughout the league that you could win and not just have one or two superstars. That team was lethal because you didn't know where it was coming from, and that's how they are now. You can't key on one guy on that team, especially the starting unit. That's a complete team.

Lang has an NBA body. We'll get a good week of practice in next week with just two games and then we can see where he can fit in.

Our young guys stepped up and made plays when the game got tight. We were able to step up and do the things necessary to win the game.

Our locker room is very excited. I think any time you play this team (Boston), they're well-coached. They've got a lot of offensive weapons. For us to come in and play a solid game, and finally finish a game, (is satisfying) because we've been playing pretty well as of late.

I think Joe's worth every bit of being a max player in this league. He's proven that with his play. But just like he was in Phoenix, he's a piece to the puzzle here. Joe Johnson is a big part of that puzzle. He has to be a big focal point.

I think Marvin and Josh Smith are going to make some noise because they can do so many things. If they can get out and run and make some easy buckets they'll be fine. I just have to get them to the point where they can lock down defensively. If we can get five guys locking in and believing in what we're trying to do, we'll be all right defensively.

I thought he had his normal looks. He just didn't make his shots and that happens in this league.

I'm happy for Boris. He didn't want to be here. He's in a place where he's happy and comfortable.

I was pretty pleased with our effort. We came in and competed.

We can't get a reputation for being a team that can't get to the free throw line and can't finish games.

We played every West team pretty good. It's not like we can't compete, but those guys in the locker room had to believe they can win.

We got complacent. That's what happens in games like this. We did everything to get the lead right away by sharing the ball, cutting and setting screens. But when they stiffened up their defense, we just settled.

We fought hard. Their zone hurt us early, and we struggled a little bit, but we were still able to maintain and stay within striking distance.

We fought back and exhausted ourselves trying to get back in the game. We've got to figure out how to play back-to-back (games). We've struggled with that all year.

We haven't had many games like that where we weren't in the game. Give them credit, they needed the win and they played like it.

We haven't had games like this where we're not even in the game. Give Philadelphia credit because they're fighting for something (playoffs). That's where I want to be with this team.

We defended it right up until the end. I think we made proper switches on their last sets and we were able to get the stop when we needed it.

We had some low moments when we got down but we kept fighting and had a chance at the end to win it or at least go into overtime. You just have to forget about it and move on.

Times like these teach us to cherish every moment we have and be more appreciative of the people in our lives. That's why I think it's important for our team to stay close together right now. We need to huddle around each other a little more than usual right now.

We were aggressive tonight. When we got into the paint, we took advantage of it. We attempted 49 free throws, that's a season-high for us.

We showed a lot of character coming back from 12 down. I thought Iverson was tremendous tonight. He created so many problems for us, but I like that we found a way to overcome that and get the win. We had a number of guys step up in the fourth quarter.

There are a lot of guys who are probably going to hate me in the next few weeks, ... Mostly because we're going to work harder than these guys ever have. We're going to work 10 times harder than we did last year because we know we have that much more work to do.

To me, that's it in a nutshell. He doesn't get any calls . When he's driving to the basket, guys have their hands all over him, and there's nothing called. It doesn't make sense.

We just have to learn from this, because that's a great team over in that locker room.

We had 22 turnovers in our first game and 17 in our second and we have to trim that back to 15 or 13,

We were in games like this all year. We never quit.

We were embarrassed in the first half. I've got to take responsibility for our play in the first half. It was awful, unacceptable. We came back in the third and fourth quarters and competed.

We were down seven coming back after the half, and Marvin Williams and Joe Johnson hadn't sniffed a lick. You figure if you got those two guys going we've got a legitimate shot, but we just fell in the tank in the third quarter.

You can't compare. Because Chris is a point guard and Marvin is a 3, sometimes he plays 4. They're totally different games. Chris has played a lot more minutes than Marvin has played, so therefore his numbers are a lot better than what Marvin's are. Eventually Marvin's numbers will go the other way.

This thing of sitting here watching it on TV is not fun for me.

There's no question every team in the league wants to be like the Pistons. They are playing at an all-time high and they're playing for a purpose. We didn't meet the challenge in the second, third and fourth quarters and that kind of disappointed me. I don't like to coach games like this where we don't give ourselves a chance to win.

The scary part is he's going to get better, I think. We've got to continue to build and add more people around him.

The sky's the limit for him because he's untapped. He has a lot to say about what happens on this team and it's nice to see him get a triple-double. I think that's something he can continue to do.

Sometimes it's like we are our own worst enemy. We have stretches where we don't shoot. We don't defend. When San Antonio turned up their defense, we needed to turn up ours.

Salim will be back on Monday and we'll sit down next week and maybe think about bringing someone in, but I don't know who that's going to be. I'll sit down with Billy (general manager Billy Knight) and figure out what to do next.

The bottom line is that I'm going to fight for my team. They're fighting for me, I'm going to fight for them. I don't know what Josh did for his technical. He was mad because he fouled out of the game. He didn't say anything to the official.

The bottom line is that he (O'Neal) just changes the game. He's the most dominating player in this league. He is one of the most dominant players that has ever played our game.

You would think that when you put something together as a unit and an organization that something like this would never happen,

(This game) kind of typified our season. We've been in games like this all year.

They (the Hawks) are playing hard and we've been in every game we've played this year.

The young guys stepped up. Josh Smith made two big shots. He missed a couple and then he stepped up and made the big plays when we needed them. It was a team effort all the way across the board. It's fun playing games like this when you have a chance to win.

They got the job done, and that's the nice thing about our team now. They're playing, they get down, and they don't think they're down. They're playing to win and that's what it's all about.

This morning at our breakfast meeting we put on the tape and here's Jason running up and down the floor. I told them to shut it off. I didn't want to show the guys that tape. We just had to prepare in other ways.

There's a standard of behavior in the locker room, on the floor and everywhere else that I think you have to uphold as a good teammate that just isn't there. I'm not going to tolerate it. Not from Salim or anyone else on this team.

It's just an eerie feeling being back on this floor and not seeing that kid out there.

It says a lot for our ball club that our guys came out and competed until the end. You just gotta move on and continue and play the next one.

It's all about those guys in the locker room. They've been busting their butts. It's fun winning.

It puts more on everybody, but Joe is versatile enough that he'll handle the situation.

It's beautiful to watch those two play. They play the right way at both ends of the floor.

It's great for us to come in here and beat a team like this. These last two games we haven't cracked, and hopefully that's a sign of maturity.

It's great for Larry. He's one of the best in the business and he gets his team ready to play.

It's ridiculous. Our commitment to try and defend is awful. We are not even trying to defend. We're scoring enough points. You're not going to beat a team giving up 125 points in this league.

It's ridiculous. Our commitment to defense is awful. We're not even trying to defend.

It's playoff time. I don't mind games like that, if it goes both ways. We played hard, we battled and you got to like games like that.

It's tough when your best player can't hit shots. And then we tanked in the third quarter.

That's terrible. We don't have any problems with our young guys that are out of the ordinary. None of our guys are bad kids and everybody on this team comes to work every day ready to go. . . . Our camp is just fine. As the head coach, I've got everything under control.

That's the funny thing when you're dealing with young guys, 19-year-olds,

It's nice to see him get a triple-double, but I think it's something he can continue to do. He should build on that. He does a lot of good things.

It's coming down the stretch, but I can't let these guys stop playing. They have to keep competing.

I've got to help them get over the hump somehow. We're right there ... and we threw the ball away three of the next four possessions. You're not going to beat teams like that.

No matter who we play or who is in uniform for us, they have competed. I tip my hat to my guys because they never quit. That's the sign of a team that is still hungry, even though we're not playing for anything.

They are our two best players, and these young guys look up to them. They've got to lead by example, and they've been doing that. And I think when they do that, the young guys see that and get excited about the things that are going on around them.

They beat us in every way you can beat a team. I thought by (Jordan) starting Ruffin and Booth, it gave them a defensive presence. Ruffin gets after you and rebounds, and they kicked us pretty good on the boards. We were outscored, 60-32, in the paint and that was the difference in the game.

They beat us every way you can beat a team. I don't know if that was because of the back to back, but we haven't had a game like this in a long time.

They wanted it a little bit more down the stretch. I thought we kind of took control in the early part of the fourth quarter. And then, at the seven or eight minute mark, we let it get away.

Once they got the lead, we were playing catch up. It was tough for us to get back in it.

I'm a defensive coach, and we're not playing defensive-minded. You can't give up 118 points and beat anybody.

I'm not asking for preferential treatment. All I'm asking is that my guys are afforded the same calls the other team is getting. That's all I've ever asked for.