NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PISTONS v HEAT

June 4, 2005

Damon Jones

DAMON JONES: We hope he's going to be with us, but the mood in the locker room is, you know, we have to put this game behind us. It's only one game. We didn't lose the series tonight. We worked hard all year long, won 59 games for one reason, and that's to have home court in a Game 7 situation. That's the positive that we have in front of us at this point in time.

DAMON JONES: You know what I think we have to work the game better. I think at the end of the first quarter, we were down one point, going into the first time-out in the second quarter still only down one point, and I think from there on, they tried to turn the pressure up and make us play faster and that's something we've done good all series long is we've played at our own pace. They speeded us up a little bit. We turned the basketball over too many times and they got to the open court and got some fast break points, and, you know, it was a free-for-all from there.

DAMON JONES: We just have to work the game better, be efficient offensively. We have to be able to move the ball throughout their pressure and make plays.

DAMON JONES: We're not New Jersey, period.

DAMON JONES: I think we had the formula down pat at the beginning of the game. We were working our Big Fella, getting the basketball to him in good position. He was making some great moves there. We were running catch-and-shoots, Butler was making plays off the catch-and-shoot, and we just have to be able to work that game consistently for 48 minutes.

DAMON JONES: Well, I think we sent that same message in Game 5 in Miami, that, you know, we wanted to take hold of the series and we did that 3-2. They came home, protected their home court and now it's 3-3, Game 7 in Miami where we have the best fans we think in the NBA. You know, playing against those guys, it's no big deal. It's a war out there.

DAMON JONES: No, not really. You know, guys are just thinking about what went on in the game tonight, how can we change them and do things better, but the morale on our basketball team, we've been down before. Good thing about this situation, we're going home and we've been good at home all year long and, you know, win or go home. And I don't fish.

DAMON JONES: I don't think so. There's no reason to watch film from this game. We understand what we did wrong. I think defensively we played well. I think we held them, they shot 41 percent. The other areas that we kill in every game we didn't do well. We didn't rebound the basketball as well. They got some offensive rebounds. We turned the basketball over and we didn't get back in transition, but we all know when you turn the basketball over, it's hard to get back in transition. If we just control the tempo of the game, cut down on our turnovers and rebound the basketball, maybe it's a different game. But this game is over, we're ready for Game 7.