|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NBA FINALS: HEAT v MAVERICKSJune 11, 2006Pat RileyDALLAS, TEXAS: Game Two Q. For three days we heard a lot about Shaquille has to get more touches, has to be more involved. Five shots, five points; that just absolutely inexplicable to you? COACH PAT RILEY: Well, first of all, we didn't come out -- being you can talk about touches all you want. It's always about touches, and that's not what this game was about today. You can say whatever you want to say about it. Yes, we need to get him the basketball. But this game was about another team's competitiveness and energy at the start of the game. I mean, they doubled him every single time he caught the ball; he made the pass that he was supposed to make, and the other times they would front him. Any time he tried to throw the ball over the top, we didn't get out of it what we want. So, obviously, we have to go to work on that the next couple of days. I just thought their energy and their effort far surpassed ours. Q. In theory, with them doubling Shaquille, that should free up Dwyane a little bit and obviously didn't have a very good game, does he need to be more aggressive from the get-go? COACH PAT RILEY: I thought he was very aggressive. He didn't have a game that I think you all are accustomed seeing him have. He's missing layups. They did a great job of helping on him. He's a great student of the game. They are doing some things that I think we can learn from at home, maybe attack a little bit different. But they know who to stay home on and they know who to leave open. That's what the answer is -- that's what the question is now. Who is going to be stepping up and making shots on double-team. Q. Jerry Stackhouse is not really known as a 3-point shooter, when you see him going up for those shots at the end of the first half especially with hands in his face, are those shots that you can live with? COACH PAT RILEY: No, I don't think we want to live with any open shots on this team. They got off to a good start. We had a 28-23 lead, it was 39-34; and then it was an 11-nothing run. He had three threes and one was a four-point play. That sent us into the locker room obviously not in a very good state of mind. He's too streaky a shooter. He'll make threes, he'll make shots, and he did a great job for them today. Q. It seemed like your plan was to get more physical with the Mavericks. Did it backfire or was it just -- COACH PAT RILEY: That wasn't our plan -- did somebody say it was our plan? Q. It seemed like it -- COACH PAT RILEY: It seemed like it? No. We want to be aggressive every game, but it wasn't like, you know, we've been preaching every day let's come out and be physical with the team. It's a couple of hard fouls or something like that, doesn't mean that that's the game plan. We wants to attack, we want to be aggressive as much as we can. If there's a team that was physical today, they were more physical than we were, there's no question about that. Q. What needs to change in Game 3 in Miami? COACH PAT RILEY: Well, we don't care if it's 2-2-1-1-1 or 2-3-2; they did what they had to do here. What we'll have to change in Miami is obviously we have to play the game a hell of a lot better than we played it here in Dallas. And definitely, whatever adjustments we make over the next couple of days are going to have to work. So, we're going home, we've got three in a row at home. There's no guarantee that that's going to make a difference, unless you really come and play. They did what they had to do. Everybody's written our team off, even in Chicago. We lost two games to Chicago and then we got buried by New Jersey in the first game. We were history, and then we were history against Detroit. So even when we were ahead 3-1, we were history. I'm sure we're history right now. (Laughter). So, we'll see what happens at home. Q. Does it amaze you that this team has this kind of personality where they can have a game like this and you kind of scratch your head when you talk about not having enough energy in an NBA Finals? COACH PAT RILEY: No, I don't think it had anything to do with energy. First of all, we've been here for six days, that's not an excuse, but you're in a town for six days; we played our best game the other night on the road, here. But no, that's not an excuse from an energy standpoint. I've been in a lot of playoff games, and I've gotten beat by 40, 30, 25; you know, won by 25 or 30. Doesn't make any difference. The whole thing is about the next game and trying to leave this behind us. Maybe it will, you know, set a fire in us a little bit to do something a little bit different than we did down here. But I leave it behind us and we go and we make the adjustments. We come ready and hard, you know, on Tuesday night, and that's all it's about now. Q. A two-part question. Why leave Shaq on the bench the final 15 minutes of the game, and what was his reaction? COACH PAT RILEY: He's fine. Shaq's fine. We were down 25. We were down 25 points, you know. As a matter of fact, it looked as though the game might even have gone. We made the belated run in the fourth quarter. I didn't want to get him hurt or to get Dwyane hurt, but looked like we made a belated run there in the fourth quarter. It had nothing to do with anything other than that was the score. I want his energy, I want his total game for Tuesday night. Q. Just wanted to ask as far as how Haslem is doing, what's his condition, is he good to go for the next game? COACH PAT RILEY: He took quite a fall. So we know he's real sore. It's very hard to keep him out. You know, I just didn't want to exacerbate at all what could be a problem, so we won't know until he gets X-rayed.
End of FastScripts... |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|