Pistons 96, Wizards 87
Q. Corey, what was it like trying to get the offense going for the team overall tonight?
COREY KISPERT: Yeah, we were stuck in the mud and kind of spinning our wheels a little bit the first half. Got away from a lot of things that were good for us for the last couple of games, and by the time we kind of snapped into it and playing a little bit more like ourselves, the lead was just pretty big.
It's all about the way we approach these games, and if you're not ready to play when the ball goes up, any team in the league can beat anybody. We don't have enough wins and we're not good enough to come to games not ready to play.
Q. Coach said that you kind of kept the team in the game in the first half. What's that like when you have the hot hand but the team overall is trying to get it going?
COREY KISPERT: I mean, it doesn't really matter, right? It's easy. A mentally week person would get really frustrated in that situation. It's natural. It's human nature, especially when you are feeling it. But at the end of the day, we were down 20 at the end of the half.
If shots went in the first half, that's great, but it was all about what we needed to do collectively in order to get back in this game, and we did a really good job of that for like 20 minutes.
Q. Brian pretty much took all the credit and said he didn't prepare you guys correctly and that you didn't have the right disposition. Is that kind of usual for him to step up and be like --
COREY KISPERT: Yeah, that is usual for him. He takes every blame and deflects every praise. That's who he is. That's the kind of coach he is and person he is. In reality, we're the ones that go play, and we're the ones that win those games. That's kind of the reality of what it is to me.
We lost that game tonight, and we weren't prepared and we weren't ready, and we didn't put our best foot forward at all. That's not what we've been building, and that's not how we've played the last two weeks. It's been really positive the last two weeks, and this was a step back for sure.
Q. The team has been playing with so many injuries that you're relying on fewer guys to play. How much harder is it to climb out of that hole in the second half of a game when I assume it's less energy than you would normally have?
COREY KISPERT: Yeah, it is hard, but that's a mental hurdle you have to get over. Everybody is fatigued. Everybody is banged up. It's the end of the season. Guys are playing, guys aren't playing. That is like the most -- like one of the biggest mental challenges in the NBA is just to fight fatigue, whether you're game 2 or whether you're game 82. When you give into fatigue and you give into a schedule or injuries or whatever the season throws at you, losses pile up quickly. We felt like we kind of as a group fell into every excuse possible.
Q. When you and your teammates and your coach assess the team's performance in the first half, how do you determine whether it was simply missing shots or not playing the way that you guys have started to become accustomed?
COREY KISPERT: Yeah, that's a good question, and it takes a trained eye as far as basketball goes to see the difference. It's a feel thing. It really is. When you're out there, when you are watching the game, you can feel the difference.
We did have a lot of good shots at the beginning of the game. We missed a lot of really good opportunities. That's true. But the energy that we played with and the spirit that we had and the lack of joy that we had for a majority of that first half, I would argue, caused us to miss those shots. Energy is a real thing in basketball, and we let missed shots affect our defense, and that defense affected our frustration on offense. Those things all go hand in hand and tie in together. When we did miss shots and when we did get open looks, I would argue that that energy kind of plays off of each other, and we just didn't bring it tonight. We didn't have that edge to start the game, and when you don't have that edge and you're not ready to play, then the ball tends to rim out instead of rim in, if that makes sense.
Q. Eight games left this season, what's the biggest thing the team can learn and take away from these final games?
COREY KISPERT: Yeah, I mean, every game is valuable. Each game we play is an opportunity to grow and to get better and put our best foot forward. It's a blessing to play in the NBA. It's an awesome job. I love it, and we all love it. That's why we're here. So to come to a game and not be ready to go, especially with so few left before we have a long off-season is a shame.
It's hard to stomach that when you realize the kind of opportunity that we missed tonight.
Win or lose, if you compete and you compete at the highest level and you give respect to the game, that's what really matters, especially when we're trying to build this thing the way we're trying to. That is the most important thing.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports