(On tonight's game): "It's a good team win, good group effort. I thought, especially coming off the West Coast, we'd be a little sluggish to start the game. After that, we played extremely well, especially the last three quarters. One of the things we emphasized was the long rebounds or the loose balls, where anybody has a chance to go get them. Our guys did a nice job of going to get them.
(On protecting the paint): "For the Rockets to shoot 33 percent from the field with only 16 points in the paint means our defense was pretty good around the rim. I like more than anything else that they only got five offensive rebounds. We did a good job boxing out because that's a very good offensive rebounding team. They're athletic, energetic and give a lot of effort to get second chance points. It was a huge step for us."
(On Mo Williams): "He's done a nice job of running our team, getting guys in the right spot and getting the ball to the guys in the right spot. Often, he's going to shoot and score the ball, and you kind of expect that. Right now, you just like the way he's running the team. He's bringing a physical presence at both ends of the floor in that point guard spot."
(On first game back from the west coast trip): "You can't shy away the fact that those road trips can take a toll on you when you come back home. You lose three hours. You are trying to catch up on sleep. We have been on west coast time for the last week or so, so it is mental and physical. But at the same time, you have a job to do and you have to come out ready."
(On the strong offensive output against a good defensive team): "When you create turnovers, execute and get 25 points off turnovers that definitely helps us a lot. It was key for us to just stay in front of them and make them make shots with a contested hand (in their face), and then try to get out and get as many easy points as possible."
(On looking for Shaq in the post): "He gets a lot of seals early in the offense. When there is a break in the defense and they are not really set, those are basically the times you want to try to give him the ball with a lob over the top where the defense is not back or just fire it in to him in the low post where he is sitting down. That is a constant effort on our part to try and do that."
(On the effort to start the third quarter): "It was important. (In) a game like tonight, you definitely don't want a team to hang around coming off a back-to-back even though they are as good as they are. Mo and I definitely came out aggressively on the offensive end and knocked down some threes. We just turned the game around."
(On the team being fatigued coming off of their road trip): "From the second quarter on, I thought the energy started to come up. Our energy coming in the game was low. It's typical coming off the west coast. I don't know why, and I've been in this league seven years, (but) when you come off of the west coast...the energy is not there. We have a great crowd and they picked it up for us. In the third quarter, we came out with a lot of energy and kept it going."
(On becoming more comfortable with his role on the team and confident in his play): "Another year being in this situation, being with this team and having a target on your back every night, yes my confidence is not lacking. Like I said at the end of the year and before the season started, they asked me what I learned from the playoffs and what I learned from last season and I said, ‘It's confidence. (I've) been there, done that now.' I've been in those tough situations. When I get in big game situations, I have to step up with the ball. I put that pressure on myself and I put it on there last year. I accept that challenge."
(On the team picking up their defense in the first quarter after Houston went on a run): "As the game went on in the second quarter, we made plays and they made plays. Then in the third quarter, we just came out and made them miss a lot of shots. A lot of it had to do with our defense and they missed shots. A lot of those shots were open looks in the first half and all of a sudden, we kind of closed the gap a little bit. We did a great job on the defensive end tonight."