Kurt Rambis said, when he was hired, that you had a chance to be a special NBA defender. Is that still your calling card?
"I feel like I'm a good defensive player. The way I play, that's a big part of it. But I'm just not going to let my game stay still. That's why I have worked so hard to add things at the other end of the floor.
"I'll always play defense. No matter what. That's what I do. That's what's got me into the league, and that's what's going to keep me here, but I'm not going to stop there."
Are there any defensive performances that stand out from this season?
"I don't know. When you're losing, it's hard to get too excited about your defense. I get so mad at losing. When we lose, even if I have a great defensive performance, I just try to block it out."
What's your defensive philosophy?
"I just want to make sure they know that I'm there all night. I'm going to hit them, scratch them, foul a lot. I just want to make sure they know I'm there all night."
Scratching ... are you one of those players who leaves his fingernails long?
"No, I wouldn't do that. I'm just saying that I'm going to bother people. I'm skinny, so I've got to do whatever I can do."
How much do you weigh?
"Probably about 190. I have my weight up from about 180."
Wow. I think an average American who weighs 180 is probably about 5-6. How tall are you?
"6-8, 6-9."
You're skinny!
"I'm skinny. That's a little thing I've got to work on this summer: Putting on some weight."
Who's your least favorite player to guard?
"That would be Carmelo. He's all about going to that block. He's going to be there all night."
You set a team-record by hitting a 3 in 33 straight games. At what point did you become aware of that, and were you doing anything special?
"No one thought that would ever happen two years ago. I wasn't aware of it until we got to like 25 and everybody started talking about it. I was just playing. I just felt like my game was finally coming together. Everything was just flowing. My defense. My offense ... that was probably my best [stretch]."
That was only about half of it.
