Rick Carlisle Certain Quotations

I believe (the new rule is) a luxury rather than have guys making up injuries. If you have a team with a lot of depth, there are certain situations where it's an advantage. Right now we don't have that.

The best situation will be for him to completely heal. I don't know what the prognosis or possibility is for that. It's certainly going to be awhile before he plays, because it's hurting too much for him to play effectively.

I think I speak for everybody when I say that we like winning better than we like losing. We're certainly happy to get on the winning side of a game. It's been a while.

Before the game when (Foster) was warming up, before we went out for real warm-ups, he moved a certain way and it went out on him.

We had a whole scheme set up to double-team him. He goes out of the game, it certainly changes the complexion of the game for their team.

That certainly was an important game for us. We were sloppy at times offensively. The key for us was our disposition defensively. It was there today.

That certainly was an important game for us, for a lot of reasons. We were sloppy at times offensively. The effort was really there and it was great to see. We've got some cobwebs to get out.

Anytime you can acquire a player with his abilities as a shooter and a scorer - and we happen to think he's a better defender than people give him credit for - we certainly need what he can bring us, especially with Jermaine out now.

He hurt it at the end when he got that put-back, so we'll hold our breath and keep our fingers crossed that he'll be OK (on Thursday) and the next day. He's going to be sore, we know that, but if anybody will play hurt, he's certainly a guy who's done it time after time.

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.

It certainly was a very important game. Let's face it, it was critical. We're in a must-win situation every night.

They certainly competed on a higher level than we did, and that was probably the most disappointing part of it.

It's certainly a step in the right direction. He continues to make gradual progress. We just hope things continue to get better.

You've got to keep playing and stay the course. We were able to get some big stops and Jermaine had a couple of key blocks. We're certainly happy to get on the winning side of the game.

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.

We're doing some things better, but we're not a perfect team. We have to do things a certain way and we have to be very precise at both ends of the court to give ourselves a chance to win against good teams, especially on the road.

It's a combination of a bruise and a sprain. I'm not certain of his status, but he's probably doubtful for Wednesday night (vs. Dallas).

It's a combination of a bruise and a sprain, ... I'm not certain of his status, but he's probably doubtful for Wednesday night (vs. Dallas).

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.