Rick Carlisle Basket Quotations

It's about learning the league, learning the guys he's playing against, what their tendencies are and what their strengths are because those are important things to defend well, ... We have a system of defense that's solid and he's in the process of learning that. For him, he's an experienced enough player and certainly has a high enough basketball IQ that he can pick it up quickly.

We hung in and were able to get stops when we had to. It's really tough because Iverson is a nightmare out there. The combination of timely stops and the ability to get the ball in the basket when we had to made a difference for us.

It's different, but he played college ball at Maryland in the ACC so he's very familiar with American basketball and he knows the NBA game because he studied it a lot and he's played against a lot of the players. The learning curve for him as a 29-year-old shouldn't be that great.

We're going up against a guy who's playing a superhuman brand of basketball. He's looked invincible.

It's been tough for Fred this year because of the thumb; he's been in and out of it. He played great in the first two games, and I wanted to give him the opportunity to start and play a real significant stretch of minutes. We struggled to get him the ball (Saturday). I have to do a better job of putting him in a position where he can attack the basket and make plays. He wasn't able to do that, that's his game.

We're not a very good basketball team right now. This was very disappointing. We couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle. The ball not going in in the third was key.

We're not a very good basketball team right now. This was very disappointing.

They've become a very strong-willed team. Their defensive toughness is in evidence. They're more consistent on defense and in their rebounding. This is an adjustment in their style that they were playing. They were more of a free-flowing team and that has changed.

He's been a major key in this series.

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.

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.

We have to be honest; we're not a very good basketball team right now. We have to address things that need to be addressed.

We just gotta try to continue to build on what's been a pretty good week of basketball and we've got one more opportunity before the playoffs start and it's important for us.

We had the game going pretty well and we were playing good basketball. They made a run at the end of the half and they got the game tied and I thought that gave them a lot of momentum going into the second half. They did a great job of finishing off plays.

I'm sad for him, for his family. A situation like this couldn't happen to a more undeserving person. Jonathan really is a great kid. He wanted to play basketball in the worst way and he wanted to help this franchise in the worst way.