Rick Carlisle Chance Quotations

It's bad news that we had an opportunity to move up and didn't, but it's good news that everybody lost. Right now, that stuff isn't as important as how we're playing over a course of 48 minutes. We have to tighten some areas to give ourselves a chance to win against anybody.

It's about winning games, and right now, we have to focus in on the guys we have and doing our best possible job at playing at a high level to give ourselves a chance to win.

We probably played 30 possessions of zone, which is more than we played all year. It gave us a chance to hang in the game because fouls were becoming a factor early. With zone, a little bit of it is luck and you have to hope they miss some shots. We were fortunate that they did with a lot of those possessions.

I don't know the exact description of it, but it doesn't need surgery and there's a chance if it feels better and feels OK next week, he could play with a protective splint.

If we hadn't won three games, we could be well out of the playoffs. That's not what we want. We want to be in and have a chance to get as high a seed as we can.

We competed hard from start to finish. It came down to Duncan making some tough shots. They hit that lucky 3 from the corner, which was a bad break for us. We hung in and played and gave ourselves a chance till the last minute. It's three losses in a row. There's no moral victories. You have to find a way to win games.

Opportunity is available for everybody. I think it's pretty clear that the coaching staff doesn't care who gets the minutes. We have to find guys that are opportunistic, that take advantage when they get a chance and can do it over a period of time. It was great for David to have a great game; now he has to do it again and keep doing it. That's where it's going to get tougher.

If things look good, there will be a chance he can play. It's the combination of the frequency of the concussions and his symptoms. It's something you can't rush.

Nine 3s is going to make it hard to beat you. If you go anywhere around making 10 3s, you're looking at a great chance to win.

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.

Danny is fortunate he's had the chance to really get some extended time, a chance to be a starter, to come off the bench, and he's learned a lot of what it's about. It's about developing a routine, not just relative to basketball, but relative to day-to-day life. Like keeping things organized and (perfecting) that. If you can do that and have some consistency with it, you can be successful.

The key part of the game was the end of the second quarter. They did a great job finishing plays and giving themselves a chance to win. ... We couldn't get over the hump.

We played hard for the most part, but that has to be a constant. We gave ourselves a chance to win, but had execution problems down the stretch. It's a game of inches for us right now and we have to be better.

We have a lot of confidence in all of our guys. If you have good players you need to use them, because not every team has this kind of depth. If guys play well they stay in the game. It gives us a chance to keep our starters fresh. It was a real key.

We had some chances down the stretch, but we couldn't string together consecutive scores and stops. That was the story when all is said and done.

Unbelievable sequence of events at the end. When you have opportunities to close out games, you've got to take advantage of them. On the play at the end of regulation, we had a chance to get the rebound, the ball gets knocked loose, and Johnson hits the three.

They switched everything and got crossed up. I was real happy Jack got a chance to hit the game-winning shot after he stepped up so courageously in the last game, but couldn't get it to go down.

It doesn't need surgery and there's a chance if it feels better and feels OK next week, he could play with a protective splint.

He'll be re-evaluated next Monday. If things look good, there will be a chance he can play (Feb. 15 against Milwaukee). It's the combination of the frequency of the concussions and his symptoms. It's something you can't rush.

(Assistant coach) Kevin O'Neil came up with the idea of playing some zone. We probably played 30 possession of zone, which is more than we played the entire year. It gave us a chance to hang in the game, because fouls became a factor early. With zone, a little bit of it is pot-luck. You have to hope they miss some shots.

It just goes to show you even if you shoot well, the turnovers are going to get you. You would love to have a chance to see if you can continue to shoot a good percentage, but those balls you lose to turnovers are fast-break opportunities for the other team. The wins, you take them and run.

(It) just didn't seem like we were really right all night. I don't really have an answer for that. That guy that got us was Arenas. Unfortunately, we couldn't get him under control. We got the lead back, but couldn't sustain it. We had our chances down the stretch.

We dug ourselves into a hole and spent the rest of the game trying to dig ourselves out. We managed to give ourselves a chance in the second half, but the Wizards were able to put together a few scoring runs, and we couldn't stop them.

We need him to continue to play well to have a chance to keep having some success. He's making a strong case to be the starter.

It's a tough loss, but we fought back to give ourselves a chance at the end. Over a 48-minute game, you hope it doesn't come down to a last play. That last play didn't tell the story of the game.