Postgame Quotes - 50 Pointer

took some detective work to find this so thought I would share:

http://www.nba.com/sixers/news/postgame_report_070318.html

Philadelphia 76ers Head Coach Maurice Cheeks
On the game tonight...
“There's not even a whole lot I can say about it. From the start of the game to the end of the game they just beat us. From beginning to end, coaches to players."

On whether the game will affect the progress the team has made recently...
"I have been in this league a long time and that is a good team over there, they are a very good basketball team. And it's like I told the team, they aren't 50 points better than us but it is a good team. And certainly the progress we have made over the last few games is not going to be negated by the game we played tonight. We are going to throw this game out the window and come back tomorrow and obviously be a lot better."

On the matchup problems caused by Houston...
"The have Yao Ming in the middle and [Tracy] McGrady, two great players in this league. But they spread the floor with their three-point shooters. If they are making shots like they were they are hard to defend. And their defense is so good. They defended us well, we weren't able to get to the rim and we weren't able to get many foul shots. We took a lot of quick shots and we didn't get a lot of offensive rebounds against them and they were off and running. And when they are making shots it is hard to play against them."

Philadelphia 76ers Forward Kyle Korver
On tonight's loss...
“They ran their game plan to a tee. They are very well coached. They've got two great players and a lot of great players surrounding them - and they were on tonight, boy."
"We probably weren't as sharp as we wanted to be at the beginning. When they started hitting shots, we started second-guessing our game plan a little bit. Our rotations weren't quite as sharp as they should've been - and they were on. It was a beatdown."

On whether the match-up with Houston is just a bad one for the Sixers...
"I don't know. We didn't play well against them either time. Earlier in the season we were having kind of a rough stretch, but I feel like we've found ourselves more since the first time we played them. We fell into the same trap again this time. It's (Houston) a very good basketball team. They (Houston) shot lights out, and we definitely didn't have our best night tonight. That's a great basketball team (Houston), and they were on point tonight.”

On how the Sixers will respond from this loss...
"It's really easy to kind of get down, but as my college coach used to always say, and I try to take it to heart, 'Don't ever get too high, and don't ever get too low.' It's one game, and we've got a big one on Tuesday that we want to play. We'll come back tomorrow and have a good practice, and get ready for Tuesday.”

On Yao Ming...
"Yao Ming is a monster. I've seen 100 times, and every time I see him I'm just like, 'Man, you are the biggest man in the world.' He's got great touch, you really have to crowd him or else he can just shoot over top of you. I thought Sam did a decent job on him, but he's a very good player.”

Houston Rockets Guard Tracy McGrady
On setting the tone early...
“We came out ready to play. Our shots were not falling for us in the first quarter and we established our defense right away. We set the tone and we didn't look back.”

On preparing for the playoffs...
“We only have a certain amount of games left to prepare ourselves for the playoffs. It is all about executing the game plan. We did that right away. We did a great job of rebounding. Everything that we needed to do to win this ballgame we did.”

Houston Rockets Forward Juwan Howard
On the team's performance...
“We just tried to defend them. We did not want to allow them to out work us. We tried to allow our defense to dictate how the game is supposed to be played and truly our defense worked in our favor.”

Postgame Notes:



POSTGAME NOTES



With the win tonight, Houston has won nine of the past 10 vs. Philly and sweeps the season series 2-0… the Sixers have scored below 90 points in eight of the past 10 matchups vs. the Rockets and are averaging just 80.5 ppg during that span.


The Rockets have now won six of their past seven games while the Sixers have dropped three of their last four after winning seven in a row prior.


Philly lost by 50 points tonight, its biggest loss of the season and the largest margin of defeat for the franchise in a home game… it was two points shy of tying Houston’s largest margin of victory (52 vs. New Jersey on 10/18/78) and four points shy of tying Philly’s biggest loss (56 two times; last at Seattle on 3/6/93 which was also the Sixers last loss by 50+ points).


The Sixers trailed by as many as 50 points tonight… on 1/29 at Houston, Philly trailed by as many as 41 points and lost the game by 21.


Houston scored a season-high and a Sixer opponent season-high 124 points tonight on 53.3% shooting… the Sixers fall to 4-27 when allowing 100+ points this season and 4-17 when their opponent shoots 50.0% or better.


The Sixers were outrebounded 54-36 tonight, marking the third time over the past four games Philly has been outrebounded by 10+ boards… the Sixers have been outrebounded by double-digits 10 times this season (2-8 mark).


Philly shot a season-low 33.8% from the floor tonight… the Sixers previous low was 37.1% at Miami on 11/27… Philly is now 0-12 when shooting below 40.0% from the floor this season… the Sixers were shooting 48.0% from the floor in the 13 games prior.


Over the past four games, the Sixers are averaging 85.5 points after averaging 102.5 ppg the six games prior… Philly falls to 5-20 when scoring below 90 points this season.


Andre Iguodala scored just 6 points on 2-of-10 shooting from the floor tonight… it marks the first time he’s failed to score in double-digits since his 4-point performance at Memphis on 1/17… tonight is just the fourth time this season Iguodala has scored below 10 points.


The Rockets hit 11 3-pointers on 44.0% shooting tonight… it is the fourth time over the past 12 games that Philly has allowed its opponent to hit 10+ 3FGM and the 12th time this season (5-7 mark).


Three Rockets had a double-double tonight: Yao Ming (19th this season), Chuck Hayes (fourth this season) and Juwan Howard (seventh this season).

and from: http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Rockets_remain_hot_on_offensiv-216104-34.html

"We came out ready to play," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "(The Sixers) certainly had our attention because they've been playing well at home. We're certainly not 50 points better than anyone. We were just knocking down some shots and they missed some looks."

"When you make seven out of 10 threes, it probably looks better than it is," Van Gundy said. "But it certainly gave us a cushion."

"Lately, we've been coming out with good energy," Van Gundy said.

"We're trying to play every possession," Van Gundy said. "We defended fairly well."

and from:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4641492.html

"I love it, I loved this game," Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo said. "When you're playing that good, it crosses in their brain, if they go there, they know they would have to go a different way. We didnt't give them a line to feel they could go to the basket. If we can keep this momentum going for a while, we're going to see a lot of success."

"We've had some games this year we defensively practically shut teams down," Hayes said. "We took away everything they wanted to do. We were clicking on all cylinders today. Right from the get-go, Tracy got us going, Yao got his, Juwan had a great first half. But the most important thing is we controlled the boards the whole game."

"I've never been part of anything we beat a team by 50 points," McGrady said. "We did a great job shutting everything down. Our defense was superb tonight. For us to be great, that's how we have to play every night.

"This is all about us just executing, really preparing for something special this year. We only have a certain amount of games left to really prepare ourselves for the playoffs. It starts now."