It's one of those things, if you put him out there for 10 minutes, he wants 15. If you put him out there for 15, he wants 20. That's the toughest thing about young players coming to championship-caliber teams.

Coming in from the outside, you could see that this team was hurt from what happened last year in Game 7. Sometimes you think over the course of time, they say that time heals wounds. But time just didn't seem to heal that wound.

I thought, 'You're coming to a team that just won a championship and was five minutes away from winning another,' so your question is how receptive will they be to what you want to do,

It's like he's coming out of the weight room.

I was worried coming into this game because I heard at shoot-around some guys mention Miami. I was concerned that they'd overlook Atlanta.

Carlos works extremely hard on defense. He is big and extremely strong. Now he is starting to understand where the help is coming from. He is learning how to pressure his man into the help, and he isn't feeling like he's out there on an island so much.

This was a workmanlike performance coming off a big win. That's what you like to see.

I think if I didn't enjoy this team so much and wasn't having so much fun, things could become really difficult with being away from my family. But everything is fine. I love coming to work every day.

I was more concerned coming in with the defense. I feel in time, we're going to be able to do preparation to be effective offensively. Let's make sure we don't lose our identity defensively.