"I Don't Think We Play Hard Every Night."

So sayeth Mo Evans. The quote in full:

"Honestly, I don’t think we play hard every night. It’s not about the right team catching us on the wrong night or anything like that. It doesn’t matter. If we don’t give the right type of effort, it doesn’t matter if it’s the worst team in the league or the best team in the league. They’re going to give us the business if the effort isn’t there."

"I had a coach tell me once that there are bad teams in the NBA, but there are no bad players. So you’ve seen it happen to us a lot of nights this year, when players get it going and make it rough on you. And if you don’t play hard, that’s what can happen to you on any night."

I demurred on the subject of effort in my recap of Saturday night's game. Evans, though, makes it three votes (Marvin Williams and Mike Woodson both brought the issue up after the game) from those who are close enough to the situation to know better.

And Josh Smith makes it four:

"...our defense should be immune to who is and is not playing. Mo is right. It’s about our effort and the fact that we don’t bring it every night … and that’s something we have to fix."