Rick Adelman Good Quotations

Mike was really terrific again tonight and Brad was good tonight. We really, really needed this win after the last three on the road.

He has a quality about him that draws other guys into it -- the way they play, the effort they put on. He's always pushing. He's pushing the younger guys, saying, 'That's not good enough.' When a guy says that and then goes out on the floor and does it, it has an impact.

He had a bad situation when he was in Sacramento. He didn't have a very good team. Since he's been here, he's had his team playing well. They play together and they play hard. He knows what he's doing.

I think it's been a very good trade for us in that we needed a change in our season. What was happening wasn't working. Getting Ron more than halfway through the year, it's given us an energy level. That's been the biggest thing this team needed.

Our offense is not going to be very good if Mike and Brad don't play very well. When that happens with the team we have (at the moment), it's hard.

Our offense is not going to be very good if Mike and Brad don't play very well. Francisco had numbers, but our starters, I don't know if anybody had a decent game. ... We needed everybody to play well and play at a high level, and they didn't do it. When that happens with the team we have today, it's hard.

Mike had no chance in Denver. They gave him that group, and everyone knew it'd be a bad group, and then they let him go. . . . You get a good group, and look what Mike's done.

We came back with a good attitude today. They've put themselves in a position to have a great trip.

We always talk about basketball stuff, ... She'll talk to me about the practice, what she observed. She's very knowledgeable. She's been very good as a coach up there. They really do play hard, do the right thing.

When you look at the team since we made the trade, we were in games, but we just couldn't get over the hump. The team's really getting accustomed to what we've got to do to win. We think we can beat anybody at this point. ... There's expectations for us now, and that's a good thing. When there's no expectations, it's no fun. It's drudgery.

Tonight, Kobe hit the big shot in the corner which he does all the time. And Kwame Brown got too many second-chance points and tip-ins because we were forced to help on guys. I think we played hard but not good enough.

We had a great trip. We played consistently, and then came out today and played very well offensively. I just felt that if we could make a few stops and maintain our concentration we could pull away. We have put ourselves in pretty good position going home.

We had a great trip. We played consistent and then came out tonight and played very good offensively. I just felt they were going to have a hard time guarding us and that's what happened. We have put ourselves in a pretty good position going back home.

Both of those shots looked good for a guy with a broken thumb.