NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PISTONS v HEAT

May 23, 2005

Chauncey Billups

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: I did. Rasheed was on tonight. He was very aggressive. Of course he's a great shooter, so he's going to hit a lot of shots, more shots than he misses. You know, once he started going, I started to go to him. We all started to go to him. I think our big guys were unbelievable in this game. All of them. We gave them some hard minutes defending Shaq very well. Ben was unbelievable in everything he did, McDyess was great coming off the bench, so our big guys were unbelievable.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: I don't know that we got the same respect that other champions have gotten in this league, but we use that as motivation, that's why we always play with that chip on our shoulder. Miami is getting that respect before this series started, and they should have because they really dominated our conference the entire season with the new acquisition of Shaq and a couple of other guys. They dominated, so they deserve everything that we have gotten, but we won the championship. We brought back most of our same team. We don't really worry about not getting respect. I think that the teams that we play against respect us more than the outside world.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: It was a big win. That team had a lot of time off, so we came here and caught them off guard a little bit. We defended a lot better than I think the teams that they played. So they've got to adjust to that. I think they got any shot that they wanted, and we're not going to allow you to shoot any shot you want. We're going to take you out of your sweet spots and challenge you, take you out of your comfort zone. We did that tonight. It takes some adjusting, and they will. They'll be adjusting and be ready for the next game.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: I thought Tayshaun was unbelievable. Man, he's got to be one of the top two defenders in the league, if not the best one-on-one defender. His length is just unbelievable and he's quicker than people think, and he's wiry and strong. The guys that play against him really respect him. But just to watch him out there, you really can't understand it and know how great of a defensive player he is. But with Dwyane Wade he does a lot of pump-faking before he shoots. Tayshaun is so long that he has the ability to stay on his feet and stay focused, still contest when he shoots the ball. I'm sure he's going to make some adjustments in the way he plays, so we'll be ready to make our adjustments, too.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: Like I said, it's a big win. It's a big win. Not having a home court advantage sometimes is an advantage for us because we play with that chip on our shoulder from Game 1. We came here, like I said, we snuck one out here, snuck one away. This team hasn't played in a long time, probably was a little rusty, getting Shaq back, playing on a lot of emotion, and we snuck this one and we'll be looking forward to Wednesday's game.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: I just seen him, he was being very aggressive, but a lot of those looks that he's used to getting were a little tougher. He had a hand in the face, and once he got by Tayshaun he met our second line of defense: Ben and Rasheed and Dyess and everybody, it helped so much, they blocked the field of shots. Anybody that's used to having it their way is going to be a little frustrated because he's a great player. We're a good defensive team, and we pride ourselves on that. We're not get to let him get comfortable. He's going to have some big nights where he's shooting the ball, but we're going to play the same defense.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: Yeah, I do. I'm one that always believes that unless people are banged up, I don't like a lot of rest. I just like to get it on, get to the next series and start playing and start to develop a little momentum because time off kind of kills that. I'm glad we played a tough series and we were tough in this last series with Indiana. I think that plays into our favor.

CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: We were very poised. We've been in big games before. We've all been in the fox hole together, so when we get into tough games, like when it was 80 to 80, we've been there before and we're going to get a good shot, no matter if it goes in or not we're going to get the shot that we want. We did, and that's a championship team and that's championship poise right there.