Rajon Rondo shows signs of what's to come
Rick Carlisle: "I love Rondo. I thought he played well. He didn't shoot particularly well, but he did a lot of great things. He did a lot of things that most guys in that position just don't do - rebounding, making plays, things like that."
Rajon Rondo: "It was exciting. The best part about it was that we got the win tonight. It was a tough, grind-it-out win, but we fought with it, stayed with it and got the win."
Rondo, on his comfort level: "I've been here 24 hours and I've probably practiced more in 24 hours than I have all season. I've been on the court with coach Carlisle, coach Mike [Procopio] and they've been testing me with running plays left and right. For the most part, we played with a great flow tonight and got the win."
Carlisle, on getting him into the middle of the zone: "We did that in the second half. That was a change that we made to try to make plays in there. It was effective for a stretch. That is one of the things that is unique about him. You can put him in some unusual situations and he got Chandler a dunk one time, got Dirk a wide open shot, got someone else a three on another play. San Antonio had a good game plan. They were going to shorten the game and junk it up with the zone and try to get us in the bonus every quarter. It almost worked - it was a very good plan but we overcame it."
Rondo: "I love it here. You know, the fans have been great, the reception tonight was amazing, and that's what it's all about."
Carlisle, on how Rondo and Monta will mesh: "We're one game in. Come back to me at the All-Star break and I'll tell you where we're at. I mean that sincerely. You don't judge anything on one game. Our team is structured quite differently now. We're going to have to adjust to it, and we will. Tonight was part of the adjustment process."
Parsons: "You could tell he can do a little bit of everything. He's smooth, he pushes the ball and gets us in our sets. He can obviously pass the ball really, really well. He rebounds for his position, and he causes havoc defensively with his length and his size. I think he's going to help our offense just pushing the ball. He's got great players playing around him, so we should be able to make his job a little easier. I think he'll be a great fit."
Rondo: "I just try to do the intangibles. I didn't make a lot of shots tonight so I just wanted to go on the defensive end of the floor and make big plays for the team. I wanted to get the ball back for more possessions."
Rondo: "I think we were too stagnant. We shot too many jump shots in the first half. They slowed us down and that's what they wanted. Coach Carlisle made an adjustment at halftime. He threw me in the middle and I tried to get in the paint, attack and make plays for my teammates and myself."
Rondo, on what Carlisle has emphasized to him: "Stay aggressive, continue to attack. Especially with that zone, he wanted me to get into the paint."
Short-handed Spurs always make it a challenge
Rick Carlisle: "Well we needed to take it to another level. We weren't very good in the first half. San Antonio played really a great 3 and a half quarters and we were just able to chip away and stay in it and get the lead to get a little bit of cushion at the end. We were fortunate. We didn't play our best and we didn't shoot the ball well. But it is a really good win and it's the kind of game we expected."
Chandler Parsons: "When they sit their top guys like this, their top 5-6 guys are out, they played with their hair on fire. They have absolutely nothing to lose. These guys want this opportunity and they work very hard every day and don't get these minutes every day like these other guys do. They played hard and they competed. We knew there was going to be a dog fight just because they weren't playing their top guys they were going to be a push over. We obviously didn't play great. I'm glad we hung in there and at the end of the day it's still a win against the Spurs. We'll take it however we can get it. It doesn't always have to be pretty."
Parsons: "That definitely wasn't the Spurs tonight, but at the end of the day it's a win for us in a crazy, competitive conference and every single game counts. Come April, it's going to say we beat the Spurs and no one will remember who didn't play. Either way it was their choice go not to play those guys and it was a big win for us to protect our home court and get our feet wet with (Rajon) Rondo. You guys can see what he's capable of doing. He can fill up the stat sheet and do a little bit of everything. No one really shot the ball great tonight except for Monta and he was huge in the fourth quarter. We needed everybody tonight."
San Antonio Spur Aron Baynes: "We knew what it was going to be like going into the game. The biggest thing for us was we wanted to play within the system and when we do that we're always in there competing. That's what we want to do. We want to take care of the ball and play good defense. I think for most of the game we did that. We had a few breakdowns that hurt us in the end, but we played pretty well for most of the game. They're a great team and they have great players. All the credit to them for coming down and making plays at the end of the game. You know that's just way this game is. We have to be even more sound, better on defense, and we just had a few breakdowns that we have to fix."
Monta have it all, always
Carlisle: "He was the best player on the floor tonight without question. Without him getting 38 points, this was going to go the other way."
Parsons: "He's unbelievable. He's one of the most clutch players I've ever played with. He's got a knack for scoring the ball, especially late. He's fearless. We need home to continue to close out games for us because we're going to have a lot of close, competitive games in the conference."
San Antonio Spur Matt Bonner: "We played as hard as possible and we left it on the court. It was tough only having eight active bodies out there. They're a great team and Monta Ellis kind of took things over. He made some big plays and we just couldn't hold on."