NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PISTONS v HEAT

May 23, 2005

Richard Hamilton

RICHARD HAMILTON: It was definitely a great tone setter for us. We wanted to come out here and do everything possible to win. The guys did an excellent job tonight, and for us playing together, sharing the ball and defending that spot, and we did what we wanted to do. We came to get a win, and hopefully we'll get another one.

RICHARD HAMILTON: Yeah, that's what we do. I think our defense gets better as the game goes on. The one thing about us, we're not just concerned about individual defense or anything like that; we play defense as five. When it was a tie game we knew we had to dig down and we did a good job of that.

RICHARD HAMILTON: You know, we're just trying to defend him, letting him know that we're going to have a whole lot of guys on him. We're going to make him try to make plays and things like that. The guys did an excellent job of helping out and we did a great job of holding him down tonight.

RICHARD HAMILTON: I think it doesn't just put pressure on one guy. You've got a lot of guys switching it up and things like that. It gives guys a breather and things like that, not worried about fouling and things like that. That's the good thing about us, a lot of people can guard.

RICHARD HAMILTON: It was great. He made a shot, he defended, got a steal, got a block. Ben did Ben. That's the great thing about it. He held his own and did a great job of helping us win.