NBA FINALS: PISTONS v LAKERS

June 10, 2004

Larry Brown

COACH LARRY BROWN: Were you here before, when I -- I didn't know if we -- if we would play great, but I think I told everybody that very few times, I've been around pro athletes where they didn't give their best, teams I've coached. And this team, I knew we'd play hard and try to play the right way. I didn't think we played the right way the first half. We had five assists. Our guards didn't have any. I thought we defended great. I was a little disappointed. I thought our effort was great, but we were trying to win by ourselves in some cases offensively. But I knew we'd play hard. Like I said, we were crushed, but after we landed, I think we started thinking about the next game and the next possession.

COACH LARRY BROWN: Oh, I'm shocked. But, I mean, we played so good defensively. You know, we kept people in front of us, we limited them to one shot for the most part. You know, we kept people off the free-throw line. I think one of the keys to keeping any team off the line is being able to prevent dribble penetration off fast break opportunities and we did that. We did that in Game 1. In Game 2, I thought, you know, they controlled those areas. So I'm shocked. You know, I'm a big fan of the Lakers. It's difficult with Karl's situation. You know, I'm aware of that. It is certainly not the same team without Karl Malone, and that's disappointing. But, you know, I'm really proud of the way we played.

COACH LARRY BROWN: Well, I don't think we can defend better than tonight. You know, hey, we held them to 68 points, shooting 40 percent. For us that is an incredible accomplishment. I'll tell them that, you know, I told you guys, this is as good as we can play. You know, the first half, no, we didn't play the right way. You can't have five assists and guards not having any assists. But the second half, I think we had 19 field goals and had a considerable number of assists. We made extra passes and our defense allowed us to get out and run a little bit. And then, you know, they had to try to score more against a set defense, so that really keyed a lot of things.

COACH LARRY BROWN: I don't even want to think about it. God, you guys, I almost committed suicide on the flight back from L.A., and tried to get over that. I'm going to enjoy this. I always say this. My wife is here. I don't get to see her a lot. I get to hug my kids. But to really answer your question, they are a special team. They have a special coach. You know, they won nine championships with Phil. I don't think they have panicked. I've watched all the playoff games. When I'm sitting here and telling you guys I felt our team would be ready to play, I have no doubt that they will be ready to play. They have got some prideful guys, and we're going to have to play our best game the next one.

COACH LARRY BROWN: Again, like my players reminded me, we are not the same team as Philly. I just watched that on Classic Sports today. We had Raja Bell, Jumaine Jones, Rodney Buford, Todd McCulloch who was a rookie and Kevin Ollie, and that was our bench. And they beat us all three games, and they were great, but I thought we played great. This is a different team. The Lakers, you don't win championships if you can't win on the road, and we're all aware of that. This game is over. I don't think it's going to have any bearing on the next one. And I truly believe they will play their best game, and I've got to make our guys understand that. That's been a hard thing for me, my challenge to get them to understand that.

COACH LARRY BROWN: Well, I think, I look at their guards, they have pretty good guards. And all year, I think our guards, when they play the complete game, when they take shots that are available, hit open people, you know, start our defense, run the break, that's when we are at our best. And tonight, I think for the most part, especially in the second half, they did all of those things. So, if we have any chance of keeping this series going, we've got to have effort like that from our guys. Last thing. The stats on Rasheed and Tayshaun and Ben and Elden are deceiving. You know, they all -- I mean, you can't guard better than Tayshaun guarded, and I don't think you can guard better than our big people did or rebound the ball, so they all work hand in hand.