Byron Scott Game Quotations

I don't think you can just throw this out and forget it. I think you have to see why a game like this happened, see why all of a sudden we go from 59-49 and then for more than 10 minutes, we don't score.

No fear or concern at all. We're going to take it for what it is, a real important game for us. We probably have to win the next few games, simple as that.

I told David at halftime to stay aggressive and that his shot would start falling. He had several big rebounds and put-backs that really helped us win this game in the fourth quarter.

We're still not confident in what we're doing from game to game. I'm still not sure what I'm going to get from everybody. There's certain guys that I know what I'm going to get, but there's too many guys that I don't.

When I looked at the schedule, I thought he could miss 10 games at the worst.

He was well-adjusted in October. He's just having fun. He's playing hard and he knew this was a game that we had to win.

They said he was going to be out a minimum of two weeks and he misses one game. It just shows you the type of person that he is. He's doing some unbelievable things for this basketball team. It just shows the type of character (he has).

Fourteen down, in this league, with 12 minutes left in the game is nothing. We relaxed. On the defensive end, they get any shot they want. And then you try to pick it back up offensively, and you're dead. We have done that three or four times already this season.

We played like the game did not mean a thing. That was everybody, obviously, but as a team, collectively, we were awful. Simple as that.

Even though we won the game we have a lot of things to learn from. Our athleticism and our quickness are the keys to our team and we need to use them to our advantage.

I think everyone started to hang their heads a little bit when Chris went out of the game. It looked pretty bad. I think it took a few minutes to remember we had a basketball game to win.

There's going to be games when you don't make shots. That cannot make you not defend or not hustle or not play hard on the other end of the floor. You've got to learn that in this league, OK, my shot's not falling, I can do other things to stay involved in this game and stay on the floor.

Hopefully this is something that will be uplifting and bring happiness to the fans that come to the game and cheer us on.

When you can take the thinking part out of it and you can just play and react, it makes the game a lot easier. Right now, he's just playing.

He can score. He has a knack for putting the ball in the basket. He's a natural small forward. All the little things that we have to teach him to play the game at 20 years old is going to take him a little time. But I think he's worth it.

He just had a game of his life. Hopefully he can keep playing like that or somewhere near like that.

With all the adversity we've faced, I told them before the game that you guys have always done a good job of coming together in the face of adversity. That is something we're going to have to do, not just tonight, but the rest of the season.

It's big for us. It's too bad the All-Star break is now, I kinda wish we had a game to play tomorrow or Friday.

Terrible. I thought we started off terrible, no sense of urgency, no resistance on the defensive end. We played like the game didn't mean a thing. It's not everybody obviously, but as a team, collectively, we were awful. We looked more like we were scared than anything.

I don't think Chris will play tomorrow. I would love to just let him relax for the next two games and see how he feels for Monday. Right now, I think he's still pretty banged up. I know how bad he wants to play, but I don't think it would be in his best interests to play the next two games at least.

I don't think Chris will play (today). I would love to just let him relax for the next two games and see how he feels for Monday.

I think it's a good thing for our team right now. If we can win games without Chris, I think it gives these guys even more confidence. And it also shows when he comes back that we'll even be better.

We came out in the third quarter and acted like we were walking in the park. Then as the game gets tight, we try to turn that light switch back on. Very rarely in this league are you going to be able to do that.

You hope, sooner or later, the young guys understand and get it. When you have a lead like that, you can't come out in the third quarter and think the game is over. Maybe a loss like this, when we know we should have won the game, that will do it.

We keep finding ways to win. Our confidence is sky-high. You think we're dead in a game and we find a way to win.

Just the fact that all of those guys had a chance to be here for a few days and get around the city and see some of the devastation that Katrina left made them feel a little guilty. I think the guys felt a little guilty after the last game that they had to come in and give a better effort.

He was motivated. He was coming home, he had about 500 people coming to see him today, so he wanted to win the game and play well. We were able to accomplish both.

We weren't ready to play, bottom line. We're a young team and we lacked to play a good game against a very good team in Indiana. We can't do that coming off the All-Star break. We have to be careful with other teams right behind us in our conference.

We weren't ready to play, bottom line. We're a young team and we just lacked to play a game against a very good team in Indiana.

We want to establish some type of a home-court advantage. We've got a great crowd, so we've got to bring an energy and a physicality to the game that we haven't been bringing, and all our guys know that right now.

We just have to win these next five games to give ourselves the opportunity. That's it.

We took care of tonight. That was the first phase. Now we have to get these games on the road. Each day that goes by we continue to get closer to our goal.