Pistons 96, Wizards 87
Q. How would you describe the effort on offense tonight, trying to get things going, but obviously it wasn't easy?
DENI AVDIJA: Well, some nights it's not going to be easy. We expect that. What can I say? We stick with it. The ball didn't really go in today, fine part of the game. I feel like we did pick it up in the second half, and I feel like if we played like we played in the second half the whole game, we would have won by 20. But we woke up a little late, it came down to the wire, we missed a couple of shots and the game ran away.
But we've got to pick ourselves up. We've got eight more games to finish strong as much as we can, and we've got to learn from this game like any other game.
Q. Anything you can pinpoint as to why you guys woke up late, as you said?
DENI AVDIJA: I don't know, honestly. Maybe players at halftime drank some coffee, woke up. I don't know. We all kind of just picked it up in the second half. No specific reason. I don't know why.
It's not the first time it happened to us. But other than that, I have no other explanation.
Q. After the game Brian Keefe's comments were similar to ones he made after you guys lost in Memphis, and he said it was his fault that the team didn't come out to play. When you hear that your coach is placing all the blame on himself, what's your reaction to something like that?
DENI AVDIJA: I have a lot of respect for that because I really appreciate he's taking the blame. But it's all of us. We are a unit. Obviously he's the head of the unit. But we're all together. We're all one group. It's on every single one of each other. We've all got to do a better job.
But him taking the responsibility is dearly appreciated. Can't really say anything about it.
Q. Eight games left this season; what do you think the biggest thing can be for the team to learn, to take away from the last few games?
DENI AVDIJA: Moments like these tonight. I feel like when the game is a little scrappy, we don't really open the game really good. The ball doesn't go in. But we manage to find plays and collectively play good defense to come back to the game. I feel like we did it tonight. Hopefully it just carries over. That's about it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports