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NBA FINALS: HEAT v MAVERICKS

June 11, 2006

Avery Johnson

DALLAS, TEXAS: Game Two

Q. How does it feel to put together a defense that took, as you have said, the most unique player in the game, out of the game?
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Well, I don't know if we took him out of the game. Obviously just had a hard time getting going, you know, on top of it, sometimes when your free throw is not going, that can stimy you a little bit.
So we just tried to keep a body on their guys. They are very tough to guard. And we know it's going to be a different story in Miami. They will probably be more aggressive than they were in both of these games.

Q. But part of their game plan was to be aggressive, they want to get in more shots and he ended up getting less than half.
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: We kind of knew that coming into the game. If you watched the game, you know we were really trying to double-team him quite a bit, even before he got the ball.
So we're just trying to make them go other places sometimes, and sometimes it works and sometimes it don't.

Q. Just wanted to ask you, as far as especially the second quarter rally that you guys had, if you could talk about the comeback that you guys had?
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Yeah, it was big. We just had a really, really bad first quarter. Would we throw the ball all over the gym. We were trying to run. We made a concerted effort to run more. They got in the bonus in the first two minutes of the quarter, they seemed like they were in the bonus, we tried to run more but we just couldn't finish our break.
On top of it, we had a bad first and a bad fourth quarter, but the second and the third quarters were the quarters that really kind of helped us get control of the game.
So our guys are trying. You know, we're not playing perfect basketball. But, again, if you don't play perfect basketball and still can win another game like this, you know, they score 80 and 85 points, we'll take it, but we're not satisfied.

Q. Can you address the other day you talked about Dirk and Josh really didn't get a lot of space in Game 1 and that's why they didn't shoot very well, what did you do to get them more space? Obviously Dirk had a much easier go getting shots hand than he did?
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Dirk, boy, he came back tonight. He got to the free throw line a little bit more. We tried to move him around a little bit. If you don't move them around against this tough defense -- they sit on all your plays, they sit on the front side of all your plays, so we've got to use both sides of the court, and sometimes even the third side. That's how good their defense is. So we try to move them around quite a bit.

Q. Talk about Stackhouse's -- part of that rally towards the end of the second quarter, how big was that that they hit those threes?
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: That was big because we talked about not settling for threes and you'll have your opportunity to get some. We did a good job of penetrating and getting the ball back out. We did a good job of trying to finish our shots, especially had they forced us deep into the shot clock, which they do quite often.
So, again, we didn't want to come out and settle for threes, but if they were there, take them and take them with confidence.

Q. After building that 24-point lead, how do you explain the drought that you had in the fourth quarter?
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: It goes both ways, man. You know, you've got a 24-point lead, you're in The Finals, nobody is going to just pack it up and go home. It's too much time left in the game. You know, when you've got a player of Wade's caliber, he gets to the free throw line, he makes shots. You know, Antoine Walker has hurt us a couple of times with threes.
So they are not going to quit. We've been down by 20 or 26 points and have stormed back during certain games this year. I wouldn't expect our guys to quit. So there's a lot of fight in that team, and we didn't expect them to quit and we got stuck, we got stuck. And we'll take a look at it. Hopefully if we're ever in this situation again, which is a rare deal, we'll try to execute better, and, you know, finish the game strong.

Q. Damp played really good against Shaquille O'Neal, did you expect them to sit Shaq out the rest of the fourth quarter.
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Again, that's a coach's decision. We didn't know whether he was going to come back in or not. Mourning did pretty well in there for him and we'll have to take a look at that because we didn't see Zo much in the first game. But now we've got some film and we can take a look at how he hurt us a little bit inside.
There are big guys that play defense in different styles. We've got to give them a lot of help. By no stretch of the imagination are they playing Shaq one-on-one all the time, but they are working hard, all right. And it's a tough job for tough people, and that's why we got them.

Q. How pleased with your guards' performance against D-Wade and what can you do in Game 3 as you go to Miami?
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Again, J.T., and Devin a big lift for us, 40 points or something off our bench if we're adding it up right, and we need that. We feel that we have, you know, nine or ten guys. Obviously Marquis is not playing a lot, but our point guards, you know, we need their quickness out there with all of the different schemes that we have. And Devin was much more under control tonight, and he and Terry, you know, they play together some and Devin backs up Terry. So we have a couple of different options.

Q. How big during the season has Stackhouse's ability been to change games the way he did tonight?
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Yeah, it's been huge. You saw it years ago with a team like Detroit Pistons with a guy like Vinnie Johnson; to have that guy that can come off the bench and get you points, without you even setting screens for him. Stackhouse is a scorer, and he's done it for a lot of years in our league.
You know, it's rare to have a guy like that on your team, especially with the way the NBA is now. You know, it's hard to have a man of that caliber.
So he's bailed us out a lot this year. I don't think we'll be here without him.

End of FastScripts...

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