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Magic Players Discuss Their Victory over Milwaukee

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The Orlando Magic defeated the Milwaukee Bucks to win their fourth straight game on Tuesday night. Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy had some interesting things to say after the game and you can find that here. Click the link below to see the Magic players’ postgame comments (with a few from the Bucks, too).

Matt Barnes

On Orlando’s recently improved defense

"“We needed to pick it up obviously. I know he (Van Gundy) prides his teams on defense and we went through a point when we were struggling, we weren’t playing defensive and weren’t putting out effort. Now I think were back on our defense, it’s definitely showing.”"

On transition

"“We had a lot of fast breaks. It’s something that we’re trying to get back to do doing. At the beginning of the season if you remember, we weren’t really running. Now I’m out there running and I think it kind of rubs off on other guys to run to lay-ups instead of running to the free throw line and it just opens up the floor more.”"

On Vince Carter

"“Vince played great tonight. You know Vince is in a little slump right now but I mean he’s been a great player throughout his career. He’ll get out of it and I think games like this are going to help him.”"

Vince Carter

On his early success in the game

"“It’s just like we’re missing some guys, and of course they’re going to try to get Dwight in foul trouble, we’re trying to get him going bright and early. I just took the initiative to step it up and try to make plays for the team.”"

On attacking the basket

"“Just take what’s there. Especially off of Dwight, I think my first basket came off a pass from Dwight. After that I was trying to attack, and pick-and-rolls, whatever the situation we were in.”"

"“Teams don’t want to take their body off Dwight sometimes, so I just try to be as aggressive as possible and take what was there. If the lay-up wasn’t there, we had some guys that were open. Especially in the second half, we were starting to get open shots, Rashard started to his open shots because of me trying to attack so early in the first half.”"

On his season-high 10 rebounds

"“Yeah, I told Dwight that I was going to try and outrebound him so he better look over his shoulder (laughs). Just kidding. Most importantly, they attack the glass so it’s important for us to help out and try to be as active as possible. Matt does a great job of having a body in there, getting some rebounds, so I just wanted to help out.”"

On what the win means

"“We were able to get the win. I was able to produce and step it up when Dwight was in foul trouble. Of course, Jameer’s out so our leaders and guys who have the ball a lot weren’t on the floor so I tried to take initiative.”"

On his confidence

"“You just have to shoot yourself out of situations like that and that’s what I’m going to do.”“I believe in my game – it’s not a lack of confidence.”"

On if the Magic have turned a corner

"“I think we’re understanding and feeling good about what we want to do. We still don’t want to have those dry spells – those five minute dry spells or we want to win the turnover game. I like the unselfishness we play with – we overpass sometimes because of our unselfish nature but those are fixable. And I think our energy and effort are a big part of what we do. We come out, we can score anybody. We have to continue to defend for 48 minutes or as close to 48 minutes as possible limiting the dry spells and the dumb mistakes. If we eliminate that, we’re a pretty darn good team.”"

Rashard Lewis

On if the team has turned the corner

"“It’s part of the marathon. Most definitely haven’t turned the corner yet, still have some improvements to do. We are playing a lot better than we did but at the same time, we want to keep building on it for the second half of the season.”"

On depth

"“We have a lot of guys on this team who can play – one through twelve and on any given night we have guys who can step up.”"

On Vince Carter

"“Vince is a great player. I talked to him on the bus after the Detroit game. I told him you got to keep playing, got to believe in yourself because we still believe in you.”"

On his improved play

"“I’m just playing with a lot more energy. I feel like I’m really starting to get my rhythm going especially shooting the ball, penetrating to the basket, mixing it up. I feel like I play better when I mix it up instead of shooting threes all night.”"

Dwight Howard

On defense

"“We tried not to let them get it into the paint. And then if they did, me and Marcin would try to be there to block their shots. That’s what it’s going to take for us to be a great team. We have to protect the interior, not let them get to the basket and score. So we did a good job of that.”“Our main focus tonight was to try to contain their pick-and-roll game with Brandon Jennings and I think we did a pretty good job on them…just happy we came out tonight with a great defensive effort.”"

On Vince Carter

"“He was attacking. He was being very aggressive. And that’s what we want him to do. We’ve been telling him that all season…I’m happy that Vince had a great game tonight and I’m looking forward to many more.”"

Milwaukee Power Forward Kurt Thomas

On Dwight Howard

"“He is a tremendous player inside. The offense is designed to give him complete freedom inside and they surround him with great shooters. It is definitely hard to get help when you need help. He is a tremendous athlete. He can run. He can jump out of the building and his shot is improving each and every year. He is a young talent and will be playing in this league for a lot of years to come. Van Gundy is going to push him each and every night and make him the very best possible player that he can become. The sky is the limit for him.”"

On Vince Carter

"“It seems like every year there is a team out there that seems to have your number. For us, he seems to play well against us even though he has been shooting the ball poorly. He seems to shoot the ball well against us.”"

Milwaukee Point Guard Brandon Jennings

On Dwight Howard

"“He played good. I thought once he got those two quick fouls in the first quarter, I thought we were going to be able to push the lead and really get after them, however they have other weapons.”"

Milwaukee Center Andrew Bogut

On Dwight Howard

"“He really got them going in the second quarter and they outscored us. We couldn’t get that lead under 10. They are a championship caliber team and that is where we are trying to get to. Hopefully we can get there one day…they know how to win. They have guys that have been on winning teams. They have been in playoff series and good situations. They have a good team one through 12.”"

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)