NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PISTONS v HEAT

May 24, 2005

Larry Brown

LARRY BROWN: We didn't talk about that. We just talked about respecting who we're playing against and understanding that we had to play our best game. I think that was the edge. Nobody thought this would be easy, and I don't think after last night, anybody has any visions that this is not going to be an unbelievably tough series. Hopefully with us understanding that, we'll keep an edge.

LARRY BROWN: Nobody was in foul trouble. They only had three fouls the second half, we had five. In the first half I think it was very similar. One guy had two fouls, Eddie Jones. Everybody else on both teams had one. That was the way the game was reffed. I didn't think there was dirty play, I didn't think it was excessively physical, I just think both teams are pretty good defensive teams. People kept everybody in front of them, you know, there wasn't a lot of dribble penetration, which, of course, causes you to foul. You play against them, that's why you've got to have depth and size with Shaq and Zo, you'd better have a lot of front court depth.

LARRY BROWN: As I said before, I looked at the film, both Rip and Dwyane had a lot of good shots. I mean, shots that they normally make. I think he got a couple of shots blocked, which is not something that he's accustomed to, but he's not going to go 7 for 25. Like I said, when I looked at the film he had a lot of good shots, so did Rip. And I think both of those guys are going to shoot the ball better, and we've got to realize that. You know, you go to Dwyane, then maybe Shaq doesn't get as many touches or Eddie doesn't get as many touches, I don't know, but I just know that we had so many advantages last night. They hadn't played in nine days or whatever, you know, Shaq had been out and not practicing. We had a great opportunity coming in here because of things that they had to go through.

LARRY BROWN: I mean, you can't stop him in the open court because usually you've got small guys back, and he's just a great finisher that there weren't a lot of transition baskets last night. You know, there weren't a lot of easy baskets. He had to shoot more jumpers than he would normally shoot, and any time that happens, it's going to cut down your percentage. But again, you're not going to stop him. I mean, he's pretty darn special, and I'm sure he'll make a lot of the shots that he didn't make in Game 1.

LARRY BROWN: I think we execute pretty good offensively, and we share the ball pretty well. We don't have one guy that kind of dominates things. We're not like Phoenix or some of the other teams, though, offensively. I don't think you can defend like we defend and shoot quickly. But we've got some pretty capable guys offensively, I think.