Carlos Arroyo Quotations

We're not going to win all 82 games straight. Guys get tired, sometimes we lose our focus. We lose games. But right now we're on top of our game, I believe. We need to continue to do that to succeed. We want to win and be able to go into the break right. You feel better.

We're playing our best basketball right now. We're playing together. That's the main thing.

To practice, knowing you're not going to play, is hard. He took it, he learned and he grew. Now he's got an opportunity and he's taking advantage of it.

Me and him were talking a lot about us coming here and him having an opportunity here. And basically what he was telling me was he wants to get the love for basketball back. That means a lot to players who don't get a chance to play.

He has a smile almost every day, and just his game speaks for himself. You can tell he's having a great time.

I think the energy we play with at home, we need to bring that on the road. That's what it's all about.

I think we stayed hungry. But ... we can't put ourselves in a position to be down 20 (points) to be able to start playing basketball.

I saw an opening and I took it. It was important for us to get a win like this. Every time we win one like this it makes us stronger for the future.

My situation couldn't get any worse in Detroit. I was playing what, six minutes? I was just there. I was a little annoyed, you know? But I got through it. Our job is to maintain ourselves ready to play, take advantage whenever called. Hopefully I will get that opportunity here.

I wish it never happened. Not so much for myself - I can handle it on my own - but it involves my family. They're trying to adapt to a new city. Now that I have a daughter, it's way different. That's the sad thing about the whole thing. You leave friends and people you're really close to behind.

I think just looking back at this game, we all have to sit down and think about the energy level that we brought out the second half of the game. We're the underdog every game now and we just have to bring that energy out with us every game from the beginning.

We needed to come together at the end and we did. We helped each other on defense. We were up 20 once, but the most important thing was we came away with the victory.

We got the monkey off our back. It feels great.

We beat Dallas at home. Hopefully we'll have a game like we did against Dallas. We're looking forward to playing a team like that. It gives us an opportunity to know where we're at as a team, how much we've grown, and where our confidence level is.

To value every play is crucial at the end of the game. The fourth quarter we came through with a lot of energy and stayed focused of what we were trying to do as a team.

They've already proved so many things, but they always feel like they have to prove something. That's part of what makes them the No. 1 team.

A lot of people have opened their eyes now. The game is getting played more and more all around the world. We get more respect now than we used to.

That's our job -- to come in the game, bring energy and change the tempo of the game.

It's very hard to make an impact in less minutes. I try to do my best, and I've had games when I come in and I do my distributing job as a point guard, get my assists going. It's just very hard.

After the season, he'll go for it. I'll be there, front row.

I have nothing to say to him. I mean, we didn't talk when I was here, so, why talk now?

I never ran into somebody that big. I'll be all right.

In the first quarter we were a little slow to get into our motion. Our job is to come off the bench and provide energy.

I love playing the game and to me, that?s part of being creative. People come out to see a show and be entertained so why not? It?s part of being the point guard and understanding the game and how it?s played.

I didn't think it was going to be kind of weird, but it (was). I was having fun. I love those guys and I miss them.

Hopefully he's still hungry, and he's going to get a chance here. It's up to him to take advantage of it.

He's very quick and fast on the break. Very crafty and he gets his teammates involved. Every time you get a player like that, he's hard to stop.

This has given us confidence. Next year is going to be great.