Rafer Alston Quotes (32 Quotes)

We had injuries, yes, but there were a lot of games we still should have won. Regardless of anything and everything that happened, we should have been a playoff team.

We will have to learn to play without him. But we've got guys who can get the job done. We've got a lot of firepower that can help us win games without Tracy.

It shows how much he cares, how much pride and courage he has. A lot of guys would say, 'I have a cracked rib,' and pack it in. He keeps going out there.

I didn't appreciate that. You've got the win in hand. You see we're not trying to foul you anymore. I didn't think he was going to shoot the ball. I know they were going for a triple-double. You guys won. Take it on home. Don't pad your stats and try to show us up.

Regret ... I just regret getting into situations. Because it's unlike me. I'm a guy who just loves to leave it on the floor, have a jolly old time playing basketball ... that's the great thing that everyone understands about me I'm going to play hard no matter what.

It's going to be tough without Tracy (McGrady) and David (Wesley). If we continue to play the way we've been playing, we can beat anybody on any given night. If we help each other defensively, rebound the basketball and take care of the basketball, get quality shots, we can beat anybody.

It's sickening to watch it. It's sickening to be a part of it, knowing you're out there for big minutes and you're having to get a clinic run on you out there night in, night out.

That hurts not only him as a player, it hurts us as a team. And it hurts me to see another guy go down, especially him with how well he's been playing and how hard he's worked. To see him go down late in the year, that hurts a lot.

When (Jalen) comes over here, Im going to give him a kiss. Not on his lips, though.

I thought he was going to collapse out there.

You can call it disappointing or frustrating, whatever you call it, but no one understands the nature of not having your guys, especially the guys you count on to play the bulk of the minutes and take the bulk of the shots. Whenever one came back, the other went out. We never had a full season playing with the nucleus we envisioned.

This was a big opportunity for us.

You can still win games shooting a bad percentage. You've got to do the little things, and for some reason we're not doing them. I don't know why. We've got some great veteran guys on this team and we know better, but we have to find a way to get to loose balls and secure the rebounds.

That was a tough one to lose. That's a game that should have been won in regulation. We were up three with a little bit of time on the clock and we had so many ways we could have played that. We're left pondering what could have been.

Preparation is my biggest thing. I knew in Toronto we didn't prepare to have what it takes to win the game. We didn't know what the other team was doing. We didn't have a clue how we were going to defend. That frustrated me. We were going out there cold to try to win games.

You want to play up-tempo. You always want to come out aggressive and set a pace for your team to play. We were making them have to defend and we were making them run up and down the court.

I'm a good pace guy, a guy with energy. They got to watch us. I'm going to come off the pick-and-roll hard. I'm going to turn the corner. It helped that I stepped behind and hit the shot, something I was doing the last three or four years in this league. That's something I have to keep doing.

You're supposed to get better. When other teams turn it up a notch or two levels, we turn it down a notch or two. Teams make it hard for us to get it to our best player (Yao Ming). We don't make it hard to get it to some of their best players.

You're a professional, you have pride, and you have a contract to go out and play hard. But we do have things to play for, whether personal agendas or team goals. You have to play hard and stay hungry.

We had more consistent injuries than we had consistent basketball plays. We could never get that consistent feel of a starting lineup, playing with a set group of guys for a long period of time. That's hard to deal with.

I enjoy him being harsh on us. It's motivation to go out there and play better. I enjoy him challenging us.

I'll give it a go. It felt good today getting up and down (the court). If I had some more practices, my wind would be a lot better. But the good thing is I did a lot of cardio while I was out, so I'm not that far behind as far as my wind.

We had good shots down the stretch. We just didn't make them.

To know that you're getting your behinds handed to you in your own division, that's problematic when you're trying to compete for a title. On this team, you think in title terms. If you want to win a title, you have to take care of your division as well.

Yeah, we're still in the playoff hunt, but it's still a big hill to climb to make it. We probably have to win out the rest of the season.

Yao once again tonight was hitting, doing his deal for us, like he has been since the All-Star break. We've got to give him a little more help and support on the offensive end and the defensive end.

Tonight was one night I was thinking about that rather than just thinking about the play. Losing (six) in a row, you just want to come down and get a win. Really, mentally, I was thinking if we lose this one, that's a killer.

I loved to be prepared. I love to go in there and understand what we are doing defensively, offensively. I like to know what the other teams have been doing the last five or six games. Going into games I didn't know.

It comes down to sticking with our game plan, not getting away from the things we know we need to that's continuing to find Yao, and keeping our turnovers down. When we turn the ball over and we're not getting the ball to Yao, letting him create shots for us as they double team and if they don't double, letting him score, we're just giving away the game. We were right there. We should have played the game the same way we did in the (first) half.

We were able to get Yao the ball any time.

You always envision a night like that, where you come out and hit on all cylinders.

Every time down, you know they're going to them. When they get it going, they can pretty much shoot from anywhere on the court.