Allen Iverson Playing Quotations

Nine times out of 10, I'm playing Friday.

We thought we had chances to get back into the game. We turned the ball over here and there, and they did what great teams do - they took advantage of it. When you are playing against a good team like (Detroit), you have to take advantage of the opportunities and you can't throw the ball away.

It felt like it was the first game of the season. It was just fun to be back out there and be in the environment and playing with my team and trying to help.

I think he had a great camp. I think it's the first year John's playing relaxed and you can tell by what he's doing out there on the basketball court.

That's what it is all about, coming in and playing a game like it is your last. That's what we did. We fought on the defensive end, we fought trying to get rebounds, and we let the offense take care of itself.

We aren't playing defense and we aren't rebounding the basketball. This has gotten off to a bad start, but we have to find a way to turn it around.

We have a tough week ahead of us and to get those games out of the way was important. It was easy for us to go up against a team that hasn't even won 20 games. They are playing relaxed and we are fighting to get into the playoffs.

We are playing with a lot of confidence right now and we believe in each other more than ever. We are looking forward to trying to get in the playoffs and make something happen.

We're not playing defense. We're not defending or rebounding the ball. That's taking away a lot of baskets because we can't run and we can't stop anybody.

We're not playing defense, ... We're not defending or rebounding the ball. That's taking away a lot of baskets because we can't run and we can't stop anybody.

When you get down like that, you use up so much energy to get back into the basketball game. Then you have to be perfect the rest of the way. And playing this game, there is no way you can be perfect, because this game is so hard.

We moved the ball around today. Everybody did a great job playing off each other.

You have to be a strong teammate when you're playing with me. And I have to be strong myself because of the controversy, just putting me against my team one second, and then putting my team against me the next second.

There's no way to explain it. We just got beat up. We're not stop-ping nobody, man. ... And if we can't stop nobody on the defensive end then it's hard to get into any type of running game, easy baskets. Every time they're scoring on us, and we're coming down and playing against a half-court set.

You can't just put it on one thing. We have been doing a lot of things well. We are playing well together, we are defending, we are doing a lot of positive things out there.

It was a team effort. We did everything that we needed for the win. You can't put it on one thing. We've been doing a lot of things well. We're playing well together. We're defending. We're doing a lot of positive things out there. We're putting ourselves in a (position) to win. We're giving ourselves a chance every night, just playing well defensively. We feel like every night we can score 100 points, but we've got to stop people.

It was important. We know they were a team that's been struggling all year and we just wanted to get this win tonight. Being that we got the one on their home court, we figured they were gonna try to come in and win one on ours and we did a good job of being focused and playing the game and finishing it out.

It probably was a fall and it swelled up on me. I kept playing on it. ... My doctors just said rest it as much as possible.

It's not like defenses are out there just giving guys 50 and 60 points. You have to look at what's going on this season and realize there are just as many great players playing today as there ever has been in this game.

It makes it that much more important. I don't think it will have us play any harder because if you're not playing hard at this point with these games right here, then you're not gonna play hard anyway.

It's going to be hard. But I think that when we are in tough environments, it helps us focus more and it helps us concentrate. We're looking forward to it. We are playing with a lot of confidence right now and we believe in each other more than ever.

Its easy to say that because we have been winning. Obviously we have been playing good enough defense to win basketball games, but we still need to get better.

It was a great feeling (to sit out) because I didn't feel good at all, ... I was telling Coach when I was getting ready to go back in that I wasn't feeling that well and he just told me to come back, and fortunately everything worked out fine. I just didn't feel good. I was dizzy out there the whole game. Once I stopped playing at halftime and came back in, I just never felt right. I think I'm coming down with something.

I'm not pointing fingers at anybody, but as a group we're not playing hard enough to win basketball games. We don't seem hungry. We don't seem like we want to make it to the playoffs.

I know we got guys in here who can get it done, because it happens on some nights. But it doesn't happen in others. This has to start with me, because I am our top offensive player. If I can send the message about playing defense, then I'm pretty sure everyone else will follow.

I just got more aggressive. I didn't have the ball in my hands that much in the first half because I was playing the 2-guard. When they took John out of the game in the second half, I handled the ball more and I was able to make things happen for myself and my teammates.

I don't think the loss will make us play any harder. If you aren't playing hard at this point, then you aren't going to be playing hard anyway.