Erick Dampier
Tied on a season high in points tonight. You were on the receiving end of some pretty good "ally's" and you finished with the 'oop'.
We just involved those guys in a lot pick and rolls, and we just took what was open. I was open to basket and guys made a lot of easy passes for me to catch and finish. And Jason made a lot of lobs. When we are doing that and guys are collapsing on the inside it's going to open the outside for us.
It got closer than you would have liked towards the end, but you'll take them anyway you can get them I assume.
We didn't close out the way we wanted to. Anything could have happened down the stretch. We're a better team that. We just have to close out games the right way and not let teams back in the game.
After losing those last two, how important was it to get that boost from a home game.
Well, we won those first two games on the road trip and thought we had things going our way. In Golden State we didn't play the way we wanted to and we had an opportunity to win at the Lakers. But just coming home, this win before we go on the road is a confidence builder for us. Just to go out there and play the way we know we are capable of playing. If we're playing and having fun while we are out on the floor we are going to give ourselves a chance to win.
Your attitude with all the injuries...
I think even though those guys are out our attitude is that we still have the talent to win. We have to put five guys out there on the floor every night. Of course they are a big piece of the puzzle. We need those guys back on the floor. Whenever they come back, we'll be a better team, but until then we'll just go out there and try to keep winning.
JJ Barea
How big was Damp tonight?
Every time he plays like that it's big for us. If he plays like that we are going to definitely have a chance to win every night. He's a big guy, he was catching it, he was throwing it down, he was rebounding it, he was doing it all.
Even though you're here for just one game the concentration seemed to be there.
Yeah, I think we a had a good day off yesterday. I think that helped. Then we had a good meeting and practice this morning. We came out ready. This game was important because now we have two more on the road. So we came out ready to play.
Does it almost feel like a road game.
Yeah, I know. We've got to leave tomorrow but that's what makes it so important to get this win at home so we've got positive momentum for this road trip.
You guys have really shown that after a tough road loss you can come home and take care of business.
Oh yes. We've been doing that all year, and I'm glad we've been doing that. We're comfortable at home. The crowd is great so we just play pretty good at home.
You and Kidd we really able to break them down tonight and find Dampier.
Yeah, I think Damp does a great job of coming and setting a great screen. He was doing a great job today of rolling to basket hard, and we found him open and he finished.
You wore the green jersey's for St. Patrick's day. Do you celebrate St Patrick's day.
Well I went school in Boston so it's big over there... four years of partying on St Patrick's day so I know how to party for St Patrick's, yeah. Not tonight though, not tonight...
Rick Carlisle
I've learned not to get too emotional after games. I like to sleep on things.
Did you figure this was going to be tough?
Yeah, every game has been tough. Detroit is a hard nosed team, despite their record and all the things you hear about their problems or whatever. Mike Curry had those guys playing hard and they weren't gonna give up. We gave up too many second shots. That was the biggest problem we had and it's become a recurring theme. So that's something we are going to have to be better with. Especially against Atlanta. It's a good win. We'll take it, and we have two tough games in the next three days.
How big was Damp tonight, especially early on?
He played a great game. He has the ability to have major impact on our team. Some of the time I've got to be a little more patient about leaving him out there or putting him back in. When rebounding is one of your problems, a 7'2" guy is one way to solve it. He was tremendous. He was very active in the zone during the period it was effective. He just had an influence on a lot plays even if he didn't necessarily have the ball in his hands, or get a rebound, or get a block.
Jason Terry
It got closer than you would have liked towards the end, but you'll take them anyway you can get them I assume.
We'll take a good win and head back out on the road. This will be a good challenge again for us to go back out on the road and prove ourselves -- to get some confidence heading into the playoffs.
How important was it to get that jolt of energy from the home crowd before you had back out on the road.
I thought they picked us up real well tonight. The energy from the tipoff was great. And it is St. Patrick's day so we had our 'go greens' on. The guys played well tonight. It's always tough coming back from a West coast trip and playing after an emotional loss Sunday. But like I said our fans helped us out so much tonight. We'll need them to continue to do that with eight games left at home.
What's the attitude of the team knowing you'll be without Devean and Josh for a while.
I think it's just grind it out. You never what happens with those injuries. it could be sooner or it could be later. We wish him all the best and we're going to hold it down until he gets back.
The mentality of this team has to be in playoff mode. It must feel like you've been there for a while. Is that a good thing as you enter the stretch run.
Yeah, it's good knowing exactly how many we've got left at home and on the road. Now we sort of have a benchmark and you meet that mark and you are feeling good going into the playoffs. Confidence should be extremely high if we can achieve the goals we set fourth for ourselves.