Quotes after the nuggets game George Karl: Pre-game: "If I have my plan straight, it won't be McGrady that beats us. Someone else will beat us." post-game: "I thought we had decent control on McGrady, 'then he blew up on us. We allowed a great player to take over the game." "I should be given a lot of responsibility. I misread them. I thought they were a little more of a balanced team. The truth of the matter is this is McGrady's team." "[Nuggets] defense disintegrated." "They're probably the best team in the league in defending the paint. (Jeff) Van Gundy's been great there his whole career. He's a tremendous defensive coach. We ran into a team that basically controlled most of our offense tonight." Carmelo Anthony: "It was tough. It hasn't been like that since early in the season. This loss may wake up and now we can feel what the teams we were beating up on felt like." "When a guy like Tracy gets hot, there really isn't much you can do to stop him." Andre Miller: "I think defensively they took us out of what we were doing on the court, so we got caught back holding the ball and not passing the ball like we should have." "You've got two big 7-footers under there blocking shots. Even if you got to the basket, they clog it in and force you to pass it out. But we weren't making the right passes." Tracy McGrady: “I tip my hat off to the bench. Those guys came in and gave us great energy, especially Dikembe. When Dikembe’s in the game and he’s playing like that, defending and blocking shots and rebounding, I think it carries over to everybody else because we feed off his energy. He brings a lot to the table. “Mike James and Jon Barry and those guys came in and did a phenomenal job offensively and defensively as well. When those guys are rolling and myself and Yao are rolling, I feel like nobody can really beat us.” "If that was a fresh team we played today, who knows what would have happened,” he said. “They probably would have poured it on us, because they’ve been killing people in the transition game. But we got the job done. That’s really all that matters." Yao Ming: "I think the last few games have been a good chance for us to play our game." "Today was a good way for us to prepare for the pressure that we will see in the play-offs." Jeff Van Gundy: (regarding 1st quarter) “That was very disappointing. Our effort of the last three quarters was good, and yet you can’t minimize them playing back-to-back (games) and not playing Marcus (Camby). I think we’ve had situations where we’ve been banged up and on the wrong end of the travel schedule, and it does have an impact, and that’s where in the playoffs everything evens out.” “I thought Mutombo’s effort was really what changed the game as far as rebounding and giving us defensive presence. But also Mike’s shot making was critical.” [the Rockets bench] "did a great job of getting us back into striking distance." I didn't like that one quote from Karl. from links: http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~90~2821125,00.html http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/18Apr2005_news33.php http://www.tsn.ca/nba/news_story.asp?id=121788 http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=2fbeb4b60fc6e13b -- droxford
I really like how McGrady noted how the Nuggets weren't fresh off the back 2 back and how JVG mentioned Camby's injuries. The Rockets are really a humble team (which is refreshing) and they give credit where credit's due. Too often, players like Carmelo or Amare talk out of there cocky @ss and I think it's a good sign that the Rockets show their maturity level, work hard, and play their game.
