They were a step ahead of us because of their effort and their energy and their absolute desperation to make the playoffs. When you get a team with that frame of mind, they are going to be a step ahead of you.

Great effort springs naturally from great attitude.

This was a great effort by our guys. One of the keys for us is our defensive intensity. When we play good defense, we're a pretty good team.

It was a total team effort tonight, especially the bench. They gave us the energy in the second half. We need consistently guys like that to come in, when the starters aren't rolling or me and Ray aren't rolling, and give us a little bit of help and keep us in the game.

They played an absolutely great game. They did what they had to do defensively. It didn't help us that Shaquille got in foul trouble. Any time he gets in foul trouble and has to sit down, it sets us and him back.

They gave us a lot of energy and effort. They didn't make a lot of mistakes defensively. That's what we needed.