Dwane Casey Tough Quotations

Right now it's not balanced. It's going to be tough to play four point guards.

I don't differentiate between Orlando, Miami, nobody. We've got tough games coming up the rest of the season. We have to prepare and play at the level we know we're capable of, which I didn't think we did the other night against Orlando.

I felt for him, just because he's one of my players and he's going through a tough situation. I didn't judge him, saying, 'He's a bad guy. Let's get rid of him.' No I didn't.

He can score offensively, but No. 1 he's a defensive stopper. You can stick him on 1s, 2s, 3s and some 4s and say, 'OK, let's go to work.' That overshadows his offensive game. Once he gets a defender going to the basket, he's tough to guard. And he can post up against some and create mismatches because he's so strong.

I thought defensively he was great. He stuck his head in there and got some tough rebounds. It's just an all-around basketball game that he is playing.

I thought we had a good effort until about a two-minute stretch when Ray (Allen) just went crazy. He hit some tough shots and some tough threes.

Same story in the third quarter, we had a tough third quarter, execution-wise and scoring-wise. They went on a 14-point run. I think we had a lead almost every game on this road trip in the first half. In the third quarter, I don't know where we go to. We go stagnant in the third quarter.

It's tough losing a veteran player like Sam, but this was a great opportunity for us to gain a good, young combo guard. Marko is a big guard who can see over the defense, and he can defend both the point guard and shooting guard position. We feel we've really upgraded our defense and our team with the addition of Marko. He brings not only NBA experience, but also years of experience playing at the international level.

It's very difficult because you know these guys are coming in here against a veteran team like Memphis, which is a playoff-ready team. They are playoff tough. To come in here for our young guys and compete ... it's a tough task. This gives our young guys a taste of what playoff teams are about.

It's who he is. That's what he does. He's that type of athletic, mentally tough guy that I've always liked from afar. No disrespect to Wally or anybody we lost, but I've always liked Ricky Davis' spirit from afar. That type of toughness is what wins for you down the stretch.

You've got to have a mental approach that's got to be as tough as nails because of the way they play here. I thought earlier in the year we had that when we came in here and won. In Minneapolis I didn't think we had that same approach when they brought the game to us.