Rick Carlisle Tough Quotations

We're in a tough deal and we've got to fight our way out of a tough situation. We're celebrating tonight, but we've got to play Detroit in two days. That's not going to be much fun either, but it's an opportunity and you've got to feel that these games are opportunities.

He's had this problem in his elbow for over a month and it's not healing. We're going to hold him out for a while until he's really right. It will be at least a week, with a possibility that it could be significantly longer. We're not going to go on like this, having him in and out of the lineup, thinking he's going to be able to play then not being able to go. It's too tough on everybody.

He wants to play. It's a significant situation. It's day to day, but it's one of those things that's tough to gauge. We're hoping he feels good enough for Game 6, but we don't know. We'll have to see.

I thought Tinsley did well considering he hasn't played. I wanted to make sure we didn't put him out there for too long a period of time. He did some good things, but it's going to be tough in some areas because the conditioning isn't going to be the way you want it to be. It was good to see him back.

That's a tough one. It was a tough way to get a lead then lose it. They kept playing. They kept coming. I thought we tried. We just didn't capitalize on our opportunities.

That's a tough one, a tough one to lose. It's too bad, the guys really fought hard. If we had gotten a couple more stops the last couple of minutes, it would have been a different story.

Three days ago it looked like it might be a possibility. He is doing better. It's just not the right time to push it. Also, if we would have did it, he would have been playing a game without almost any practice time leading up to it, which would have been hard. It makes it tough because he does a good job on (Shaquille O'Neal).

We're excited to move up in the standings by winning. I wish I could say we are playing really good basketball, but we obviously have struggled. It's been a tough road. We've got some things to do to look more like a team that can really compete at a high level in the playoffs.

We competed hard from start to finish. It came down to Duncan making some tough shots. They hit that lucky 3 from the corner, which was a bad break for us. We hung in and played and gave ourselves a chance till the last minute. It's three losses in a row. There's no moral victories. You have to find a way to win games.

Every win is important when playoff position is at stake. We've had a string of road losses that's been really tough on us so getting back on track was important.

Every win is important. Playoff position is at stake and we just had a string of road losses that were tough on us so getting on track was important, and we're starting to get a little confidence in our overall situation as well.

When you make the kind of mistakes we made throughout the course of the whole game, you just leave too much to chance. They were aggressive, they did some things that made it tough on us. But you've got to meet force with force in this league. Early fourth we didn't do it.

We hung in and were able to get stops when we had to. It's really tough because Iverson is a nightmare out there. The combination of timely stops and the ability to get the ball in the basket when we had to made a difference for us.

Things weren't looking great after the first quarter. But our guys hung in there and got two sub-20-point quarters, and that's tough against a team like Sacramento.

There won't be any tough decisions when it comes to determining who to keep on the playoff roster. Our hope then is we can get back to 100 percent good health.

Our decision making and turnovers were our undoing in the fourth quarter. We were forcing them to take tough shots, and then we just made terrible errors down the stretch.

That's what you call hanging on for dear life. (Boston) has been tough for us to play all year. It's important for us to get wins now however we can get them. We can't worry about what other teams are doing. What's really important is concentrating on ourselves.

They didn't do a great job with the coverage, but, hey, the way Tinsley played tonight, he put the defense in a tough situation. That was a huge play because it was so hard for Jermaine to get open looks around the basket. It gave our team some energy at the defensive end.

They are a tough team to play at any time. But from a schedule standpoint, our fourth (game) in five nights, it's really tough. That on top of the fact that we shot poorly in the first half, and we're without some key guys made it tougher.

It's a significant situation. It is day to day, but it's one of these things that's tough to gauge. We hope he feels good enough to play in Game 6, but I don't know; we'll have to wait and see.

It's a tough loss, but we fought back to give ourselves a chance at the end. Over a 48-minute game, you hope it doesn't come down to a last play. That last play didn't tell the story of the game.

It's been tough for Fred this year because of the thumb; he's been in and out of it. He played great in the first two games, and I wanted to give him the opportunity to start and play a real significant stretch of minutes. We struggled to get him the ball (Saturday). I have to do a better job of putting him in a position where he can attack the basket and make plays. He wasn't able to do that, that's his game.

It looked like he labored a bit. I think it's a tough situation to not be in for a while and now be in the middle of a hotly-contested playoff series.

How we play against Chicago will go a long way in showing what kind of character we have as a team. We've had two games now where we've had disappointing stretches. We're going to have be better than that to keep legitimate playoff hopes alive because we're in a tough stretch right now.

This has been tough for him. He's been out of the rotation the last couple of weeks. He keeps working and keeps himself ready to play. Guys like him, you don't worry about.

A.J. had a great night. In the second half he did a great job of running the team. His efficiency in shot making and courage to step up in some tough spots put us in a position to win.