Jerry Sloan Played Quotations

Carlos is playing pretty strong. He should probably start to be about at the level he's playing at now after being out for a long period of time. He's finding a rhythm. He played extremely well tonight. He's played extremely well for a couple weeks now.

He's (Palacio) terrific, he was terrific down the stretch. He made his free throws; he took the ball to the basket and just played extremely well. He seemed to be very confident playing in that position.

Guys played a lot harder. They played a lot more determined to try to win, rather than the way we have been.

I thought we played with a lot more purpose tonight than we did the other night.

I thought we played a lot harder tonight than we have been playing. They out hustled us in the first half, but we got after them in the second half and turned it up defensively.

I think we do believe in the offense now. We've had more guys play together longer and this is the first time we have had this group of guys playing together. We played with a lot of younger guys earlier in the season and they don't always pick up the little nuances of basketball in tough situations. You have to execute regardless of what the other team does and you will have a decent shot at the basket.

I thought he (Palacio) played pretty well. He played defense well, which is tough no matter which of those guys you put him on. The important thing is we did a good job of keeping them on top of the basket and made them shoot over the top of us.

We came out real soft. They put pressure on us and we just kind of would hang out. That's the way we played almost all night long.

We were in the ball game. I thought our guys played pretty hard. We got waxed pretty hard last night (a 110-85 lost to Cleveland), but I thought our guys played pretty hard tonight, but that's the way it goes.

We played a lot harder. That's the main thing. That was interesting that we did that.

We only had about three or four possessions where we got up and played people. That was the only life we had. Somewhere along the line we need to defend people so we can compete.

They played back-to-back games and four games in five days and, for them, there wasn't going to be any difference between the fourth game (and the first). You just don't get tired if you're in good shape.

They finally played a little in the third quarter but we weren't able to come all the way back. We turned it over 23 times and gave them 28 points.

Deron had an excellent game. He is getting to know our system better. He came out and played against the Hornets and ran our offense like we needed him too.

In the second half, they played harder and caused us to take tougher shots. We shouldn't have been worn down in the third quarter when they put pressure on us. You have to give them credit. They brought it to us.

He's probably saying, 'Why haven't I played all year? I was asking the same thing.

I didn't know (which team) was still trying to make the playoffs. They knocked us around. They put us on the floor when we went in (the paint). They were terrific defensively. They played as hard as anyone's played us all year long.

For the most part, ... he's had his moments where he's played pretty well.

Andrei was sensational. He probably played the best basketball game that he's played in a long time. He had the basketball in his hands and did some nice things when he had it.

Andrei played awfully well. He's been dedicated to doing things: helping and encouraging his teammates.