On the game:
“Being at two points at the end of the third quarter, I thought the fourth quarter, with the exception of the time Anthony Carter was on the court, that the team did not play with energy. The kind of energy that we need. The tenacious, relentless energy to run, to defend, to cut. We had a couple guys absolutely sleep walking for four or five minutes. It was probably my mistake as far as substitutions. That can’t be tolerated. We had an excellent opportunity tonight to win.”

On the performance of Caron Butler:
“He’s has to play better than that. He’s has 50-60 games under his belt. I don’t think he read the situation well. I thought he was forcing the issue. He didn’t focus on the lay-up attempts that he had. His intentions are right. I don’t care if he is a rookie or a ten-year veteran. He’s mature enough. He knows what it’s about. He wants it. I don’t care if you are 17 or 20 or 25. If you want it you don’t go 5 for 20.”

On the combined performance of Caron Butler and Rasual Butler:
“The Butlers are the Butlers but sometimes they are like butlers. They’re serving everybody up the wrong stuff. That’s the trouble. I’m not trying to be funny but when you get 6 out of 28 from two guys you depend on, somewhere they’ve got to play. I think they have to understand that it’s not OK because they’re young.”

On the fourth quarter:
“It wasn’t as much as an offensive problem in he fourth quarter. We missed some shots but we just did not defend with the tenacity we need to stay in the possessions. We have to recognize with Eddie (Jones) out, we need more out of Travis (Best). Travis needs to create more plays for us. He needs to be pushing and attacking and dishing and kicking. All of our point guards need to be aggressive right now and the only one doing it was Anthony (Carter).”

On the game:
“I think it was defense. We didn’t get stops when we needed to. We let their backcourt control the game. When Sam (Cassell) is on a roll like that, you just have to tighten up the defense. He was getting calls and getting to the line. Anytime he’s playing like that it’s tough. We just need to continue to work hard and come out with a lot of focus.”

On Eddie Jones being out:
“When you lose your leading scorer, everyone needs to step up their game and try to make plays for their team.”

On having a bad game and Coach Riley’s post game comments:
“I played bad. I’m human. I’ll bounce back from it. I won’t let one game hold me down. That’s my coach. He’ll say things to get me going. He speaks the truth. It is the truth, I had a bad game. My energy wasn’t high today. I played hard and tried to do things. It just fell short today. It happens sometimes. I had some good looks, but the ball was going in and out. I just need to finish.”

On the game:
“I came out and tried to do my part. We just need to try and get it right tomorrow in practice. Everyone needs to be on the same page, playing defense and offense. If we get the defense down, then everything will basically be okay. We don’t like to give away a game.”

On the 4th Quarter:
“In general we did a good job on (Caron) Butler most of the night. Eddie House gave them some juice in the second quarter. We missed some shots, they got some transitions.”

“In general I thought Desmond’s (Mason) defense on (Caron) Butler, was perfect. I think we made good adjustments and defended extremely well.”

“I thought Ervin (Johnson) was a big factor, he was roaming, doing a good job bouncing around and getting some shot blocks. He gave us a presence in the paint playing a little bigger. I thought (Anthony) Mason generally did a good job on (Brian) Grant. We had a good defensive game plan, you can’t ask for much more defense.”

On Eddie Jones:
“I’m not going to sit here and say I’m not happy he didn’t play. He is a big part of their team.”

On the playoffs:
“We’ve got about two or three weeks. If we don’t play serious basketball in March we won’t make it. If we can get through March, because we have eleven road games, with a winning record, I think we are going to make the playoffs. If we don’t have a winning record in March, then we are going to have to have a hell of an April. I like where our team is going, we are coming together, we’ve been a good road team all year long and we are going to have to continue to be that.”

On Payton:
“He is really good on both ends of the floor. He makes people better. One thing he does better now than he did when I had him, was that he makes people better. He makes people better passing the ball, he makes people better reading the game, and he makes people play defense.”

On the game:
“The only way to beat them is to turn up your defense. Then you need to find a way to score points because they are going to turn up their defense.”

On the game:
“We started playing defense in the fourth quarter. We didn’t play any defense in the third quarter. We then started playing defense, which made rebounding the basketball easier for us. We crowded them a lot, stayed man-to-man and forced them into taking some tough shots. We took a lot of quick shots, and we should have held the ball a little more and got a little momentum. But we stuck with it and it made all the difference.”

On making the playoffs:
“We need to get better defensively because playoff time victories are all about defense.”