Friday night the Washington Wizards lost to the Orlando Magic, 110-92. Here’s what various members of the Wizards said after the game:
WIZARDS HEAD COACH FLIP SAUNDERS
On Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic’s play tonight: “Howard was so effective. He really got going early, but when it really came down to it, as I said earlier before the game, the people that decided how the game was going were the other four. Howard had a lot of his points early in the first half of that, but the situation as far as what Redick did, Ryan Anderson, what those guys did when the game was close, Richardson, the 3’s that those guys hit. That pushed us from a competitive game to a game where they were able to basically close it out.”
On John Wall being ejected from the game: “I think he’s frustrated. He is getting knocked down a lot. I think he is getting knocked down and he is not getting many calls when he goes to the basket.”
On how he felt his team played: “Our bench was great tonight. Booker was great. He had great energy, playing with a great amount of enthusiasm. Hinrich was great tonight.”
WIZARDS GUARD JOHN WALL
On whether the team came out in third without energy: “I don’t know. Sometimes in the third quarter we come out good, and sometimes we don’t. We’ve got to figure out a way to come out good every game. Some games you might be down 15. I think those are the games you really come out aggressive, when we’re down. When we’re close or we are up, we come out lackadaisical. We’ve got to learn how to switch it around.”
WIZARDS FORWARD RASHARD LEWIS
On the tough stretch of games: “We’ve played some good teams. Some of the ball games we’ve been in and some games we haven’t been in. Playing some of the top teams, you have to put 48 minutes together. I thought we’ve only been playing a half over three quarters. Against top team, you have to play for 48 minutes to beat them.”
On putting the game behind them: “We have to put that game behind us immediately, almost like right now as we speak. Now we have to be focused on Josh Smith, Al Horford, Joe Johnson, Mike Bibby. We have to get ready for those guys. If we come in thinking about the Orlando Magic, we’ll be facing another loss if we don’t get ourselves prepared for the Atlanta Hawks.”
WIZARDS FORWARD TREVOR BOOKER
On becoming a crowd favorite: “I just try to come in and bring energy, bring energy to the team and bring energy to the crowd. For the most part I think I’m starting to do it.”
On being surprised by his big plays: “Maybe a little, but I know what I’m capable of. It just gets me excited every time I do it.”
WIZARDS GUARD NICK YOUNG
On the game: “My shots weren’t really falling for me tonight. Things didn’t turn out good for us. Kirk (Hinrich) really carried us tonight and Rashard (Lewis) and Yi (Jialian) had a good game as well. There was a lot of good energy in the building tonight, it was good to see a packed house with a lot of fans but disappointingly we lost. We came out trying our best but our shots were not falling through for us tonight. We just have to put this game behind us and move on to tomorrow’s game.”
On Gil’s return: “He was talking to me throughout the game but I really didn’t hear too much, I was keeping my focus. He came in as regular Gil, doing what he does best with us and the bench but we tried to look past it.”
WIZARDS GUARD KIRK HINRICH
On the game: “Coming off the injury I think I’m getting a lot better and hopefully not have any issues for the rest of the season. I don’t think we came out great in the second half and it looks like we are still struggling on the pick and rolls. It was a tough matchup because they are able to spread the floor with Dwight (Howard) in the middle. We didn’t do a good job of stopping them. We were just trying to get something going but we couldn’t get the stops going or get our shots down.
On the current stretch of games: “It is tough because the opponents are good but this is the NBA, and everybody has good players. We are playing some really good teams in this stretch but we really need a more consistent effort.”
WIZARDS FORWARD ANDRAY BLATCHE
On losing at home after long trip: “It was very disappointing. We always play well at home and we always take care of home. On the bright side, we have a game tomorrow. We’re going to come out and be aggressive and pull one out tomorrow.”
On Booker’s performance: “That was huge coming off the bench. He’s been playing great lately, period. That’s what we are going to need from him and Yi to back up me and JaVale. That kind of effort and that kind of play is huge for us.”
