Pistons 124, Wizards 104
Q. What do you think made the difference for them tonight?
KYLE KUZMA: The difference for them, they just did a great job of hitting shots. They hit a lot of shots down the stretch. They did a good job of just being physical with us. That's one of our bigger problems. Just when we play a physical team, they kind of just punch us in the face, and we don't really react to it.
I think we had a nice little lead -- no, we never had a lead, but we had a nice time in maybe the second quarter. We got it to five. I think that was the lineup of me, Malc and Jonas was out there, had some pretty good synergy, and then we just lost it.
Q. How would you evaluate the defense for the team so far and what areas do you think you can make some progress in in the short term?
KYLE KUZMA: Well, this is going to be the result every night if we don't play defense. It's going to be a long season. We've said that many, many times. It starts on the ball. Definitely starts object the ball, starts on rebounding. A lot of times we're getting punked out of rebounds the past three or four games and teams get second-chance points and it really hurts us. It's really about just a decision you want to make, if you want to stop getting punked around or not.
Q. A string of a couple of tough consecutive losses here. What do you make of the team's competitiveness over the last couple weeks?
KYLE KUZMA: Not good. Not good. You lose by 20 every night, that tells you you're not competitive.
Q. How nice is it to have Malcolm back and what kind of doors does he open up?
KYLE KUZMA: He's just a player that knows how to play basketball. He's played in the league a long time. The more people we can have that have had some experience, it's always going to help us.
Q. With the recent string of play, and you talked about the 20-point losses, how do you help keep the team's morale up?
KYLE KUZMA: We just be positive.
Q. How would you say your morale is at this point in the season?
KYLE KUZMA: I'm positive. I'm positive a lot. Yeah. Positive. Yeah.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports