Rick Carlisle Win Quotations

We're in a situation now where we're starting to get a little healthier and that's light at the end of the tunnel. The group that we have is really making a great effort to do what they can to help us win. Right now, win or lose, I know our fans know what's really important to them and that's the energy level and the unselfishness on the court. We had that for the last six or seven games and that's something we have to build on.

We're in a must-win situation every night. We have to win games. It's important to be a playoff team. We have a string of years and we want to keep that going.

We're going to have to win a lot of games, starting with getting our first win, and that's really the only thing that concerns me right now.

We know any win we can get is really critical, especially on the road. We have a very busy month in terms of frequency of games. We're going to have to continue to hang in and fight every night and give ourselves a chance. We're right in the midst of this thing. There's a lot that's going to be going on over the next 25-30 games. You're going to see a lot of jockeying and a lot of position changes.

We have no one to blame but ourselves. I give Boston credit. They hung in and did what they have to do to win the game.

Jack is such an important guy on our team. Our players view him as one of our leaders. You have to have your top players involved and playing at a high level. I thought tonight Jack understood the defensive end was going to be what was going to win the game for us.

It does affect us not having Jermaine O'Neal for sure, but if you don't have him, you have to find a way to win without him. Right now, that has got to mean playing at full capacity all the time and playing with some real efficiency.

We've moved on. It's unfortunate. But we're just trying to win without him.

We have to help him get into some more positions where he doesn't have to use his off-arm to get open. We have to adjust. He's going to have to adjust a little bit. We've got to have him on the floor. We're not going to be able to win the series with him playing 31 minutes a game. There's just no way.

We're doing some things better, but we're not a perfect team. We have to do things a certain way and we have to be very precise at both ends of the court to give ourselves a chance to win against good teams, especially on the road.

With 18 games left, I think everybody is getting into a playoff mode here. Let's face it, from five on down to eight, there's going to be two or three games separating (the teams). So each win is really vital.

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.

It's bad news that we had an opportunity to move up and didn't, but it's good news that everybody lost. Right now, that stuff isn't as important as how we're playing over a course of 48 minutes. We have to tighten some areas to give ourselves a chance to win against anybody.

It's a huge win. As big a win as I can remember in a long time.

It's always good to win and we had a lot of good things happen. The way we are structured right now, we have to play more up tempo, but the key to the game was the way we picked up our intensity on defense in the second half.

It's been tough. We're still in the midst of the playoff picture and we'll have to win our way in. We aren't going to back our way in, that's pretty clear.

It's critical, let's face it. We're in a must-win situation almost every night. We have to win games. I just thought the guys came together as a team and did some really great things. It's important to be a playoff team. We've got a string of years we need to keep going.

It was a good effort by our team. Very solid and our shot making was there. We feel like it was a really good win for us, especially coming off the West Coast road trip.

Any time you're without your best player, it's going to present a challenge. There's no doubt Jermaine is our most important player, but collectively we're going to have to find a way to win games.

The last couple games we've gotten things back on track a little bit and we've got to keep going in that vein. We still are not in (the playoffs). We have a long way to go. We're going to have to win our way in because everybody else we're fighting against has got favorable schedules and are playing well.

You've go to keep playing and stay the course. We're in the midst of the playoff picture, and we'll have to win our way in. We're not going to back in.