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NBA FINALS: HEAT v MAVERICKSJune 16, 2006Avery JohnsonMIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q. There's talk about Miami getting the edge offensively and with hustle and stuff that that you guys might be losing it. AVERY JOHNSON: It was the same thing after we won two games. After we won two games, we had the edge, we had the toughness, and maybe Miami wasn't ready. So we've been on both sides of it. We were down 0-2 in the playoffs last year and the series was over and the other team had the edge. Nobody really knows. This is a seven-game series, two teams that are very closely matched, and I don't know if somebody has the edge or not. I know it's still a series, and we have two-out-of-three games at home and we have Game 5 here on Sunday. Q. Last night you invoked the playground and what was the name of the playground that you were familiar with -- AVERY JOHNSON: Lemon Gray ground. It's spelled like "lemon." Q. How do you kind of impart that to the team? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, we've dealt with that all year. When you win 60 games like we've had, like we've done this year, and you're in The Finals, you win the Western Conference and you play against some tough teams like Memphis and San Antonio and Phoenix who is tough in a different way, you don't get here without having to play some tough-minded basketball throughout the course of the playoffs. So again, we're still in this. It's a great series. We're very disappointed with the way we've played. We've been distracted. We've not had the right type of focus or the right type of physicality, but that can come back. Q. Has the Heat spent more time in the zone defense than you thought, and what has it done for them and what has it done to your offense? AVERY JOHNSON: No, they played quite a bit of zone against Detroit, pretty much the same amount, you know, 10, 11, 12 possessions a game, pretty much where we are right now. We've all been kind of mixing it in. And actually, we got some great shots, and they just didn't go in. Then Dirk makes a strong drive in the first half, kind of opposite our bench, and he got called for a travel. So it just wasn't a good night for us. Q. Avery, Stack said last night -- AVERY JOHNSON: If you're from Dallas, you don't have to introduce yourself. (Laughter) Let's try that, all right. From Dallas or Fort Worth, New Orleans, you don't have to introduce yourself. Just ask the question. (Laughter). Q. Stack said last night that offense on this team usually fuels defense. That seems inconsistent with what you guys have talked about all year. AVERY JOHNSON: Well, I think what he was saying is again is, again our offense is very important, all right. Don't take it too literal because we don't want to get to this point and then you'll be writing that everything that you guys have been working on all year is now broken and now and it's out the window. No, it's none of that. I think he was saying that as much as you talk about defense, we've taken pride on being able to get high-percentage shots and be able to score, none of which happened in the last game. Q. So do you think with the shooting problems last night, that may be seeped in on the other end of the court and you guys didn't play as physical as maybe you wanted? AVERY JOHNSON: It could have. We're not doing a lot of things that we want to do right now. We were that way early in the series, but we were still fortunate enough to win games. Q. How shaken is your team's confidence after last night's loss? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, I think if you were talking about a team that had no playoff history together, if you were talking about a team that was never able to come back and play in some tough situations, then I think you would say they would be shaken. But this is a very resilient team. Their coach is very resilient. So I think we're still confident, but I know we're not overconfident anymore. I think we've tried to share with them how good Miami -- the type of team they are, and we have their attention now. Q. Can you talk about if you feel a certain kinship with Darrell Armstrong, how he fought his way up through the minors and battled to make his way into the league the way you sort of did; did you feel a kinship with what he went through to what you went through? AVERY JOHNSON: Absolutely. When you see guys that have kind of taken similar routes, you kind of feel that brotherly type feeling with them, not that you're jealous about anybody else and their routes. I think there are different routes to get here. When you see guys like Adrian Griffin or guys like Darrell Armstrong, or you can go on and on throughout the league, we have a lot of different examples of that. Darrell has been great for our team, great leader, and we need his energy. Q. Did you see him as someone who can emerge like yourself as a coach, student of the game, or is there assistance that he provides in the locker room having been through so many different situations? AVERY JOHNSON: Yeah, I think every coach needs a Darrell Armstrong. At the end of my career, I tried to do the same thing for coaches. But, you know, coaching is not for everybody. Darrell has expressed an interest in coaching on some level. He's just not sure whether it's the NBA or college or high school or whatever. He's been a huge asset for our team this year. Q. Do you feel like you've lost control of Dwyane Wade with him getting 78 points and if not, what do you have to do in limiting him to win games again? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, I don't know if we've lost control. Put it like this. When we've tried to contain him one-on-one, he's gotten around us. When we've tried to quick-trap him, he split the quick-traps. When we've tried to slow-trap him, he's spun out of the slow-traps. So I'm just going to try to come up with another type of defense -- or, maybe at some point, somebody will get angry enough on our team and we'll guard him a little bit stronger and maybe not let him trap -- split the trap. And we've zoned him, too. That didn't go well, either. (Laughter). Q. How concerned are you about Dirk's shot right now, how it's leaving his hand, and is a lot of what we're seeing right now the wear and tear of the playoffs? AVERY JOHNSON: More than his shot, I just think right now is a good time for him to get some rest. I'm really hoping that, you know, a little rest today, lots of shooting tomorrow, work on some different things that we have to work on as a team, just kind of get team refocused a little bit. So I'm hoping with some mental, physical rest, get the team refocused, I'm hoping not only his shot will come back, but a lot of other things about his game and our game as a team. Q. You've talked over the course of the year about how you don't just sign up for the good times, you sign up for the bad times and no team that's ever won a title hasn't endured some adversity along the way. Where do you stand in the series now, is it adversity, good times -- AVERY JOHNSON: I hope it's adversity. Normally when we've been in this situation, we've responded. I know I've been saying that for about two days now, but we're still waiting for them to respond. I'm going to do whatever I can to try to jump-start the team. My coaching staff has been really great this year in helping me. I've tried to push the right buttons. We've had some of our leaders step up from time to time. But I think more than anything, let's give the Heat some credit for playing some tough, hard-nosed defense, which has stymied our offense. And they have crashed offensive boards quite a bit, which has hurt us from getting out on the break. So I think even though we need to be jump-started a little bit, I think it goes both ways. Q. Coach Riley was in here a few moments ago talking about how the physical intensity on both teams has picked up as it's gone on -- AVERY JOHNSON: No, it's been one-sided. No, it's not with the team from Texas. Q. Okay. Well, with that in mind, can you give a specific reaction, having watched the tape of the foul that Jerry had on Shaq last night? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, you know, Shaq was just in an awkward position. When you're going up like that and you're in an awkward position and Stack comes in and tries to give a hard foul and not a layup -- I always talk to them about giving hard fouls. But we definitely don't want to injure players. That's not in my repertoire. Never will be as a coach. Shaq was going up, made a hard foul on him. Just like in Dallas, Stack went up, Shaq gave him a hard foul and practically almost broke his nose. But was that a flagrant foul? No. Q. The league has said they are going to review the tape and made make a decision, and maybe a suspension. AVERY JOHNSON: I don't know if it's a suspension, I don't have control over that, that's not our job but I don't think it's a suspension. Q. How would it affect your team if Jerry Stackhouse was unable to play in Game 5? AVERY JOHNSON: I'm really not thinking about that right now. We've had to deal with that before. I would hope that if it's a fine or something like that, but I don't think it's a suspension. If that's a suspension, then a lot of players -- they will have to go back and review everything that's happened throughout the playoffs and there may have to be some retribution or something and maybe go suspend some other players maybe they forgot. If you're from Dallas, don't introduce yourself. Q. I was told so. Are you guys going to practice at all or just watch film or just give them the day off, and what are you going to do tomorrow as well? AVERY JOHNSON: Nothing today. Q. At all? Okay. What about tomorrow, hard practice, good practice? AVERY JOHNSON: Would it matter? What's your suggestion? (Laughter). Q. I know you like to practice. That's what I'm wondering. AVERY JOHNSON: Oh, yeah, do I like to practice. So what's your suggestion. Q. Probably get a little shooting in. (Laughter) Is that a good suggestion? AVERY JOHNSON: (Nodding head.) Okay. (Laughter). Q. You've been with some of these transcendent-type of players, Robinson, Duncan, having big series in big stages like this, what effect when Dwyane Wade is having these kind of games does it have on the series, does it have on the opponent? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, it has a negative effect in a lot of ways, especially when you're not being as physical with him as you should. And conversely, you know, I just don't think we're making him play enough defense. And I take full responsibility for that, Sam. There are times when we should get the ball to some of our better scorers in the right situation, and we're just not doing that. So hopefully we can, you know, play him much tougher as a team and individually, hopefully we can make him play some more defense. But at the same time, great players play great, but you can still have opportunities to win. He had 42 points on us in Game 3, and we still had an opportunity to win. We were up by 12 with six minutes to go, even with him having that great game. So you can still survive it, and sometime it has a negative effect on you, but we've won with guys having big games on us. Q. Also, does the attention compromise your defense and let other guys get into the game, Posey, whatever the case might be? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, I think that was the first night where their bench really hurt us. Obviously if you're getting broken down with penetration, things will be compromised. Guys will get wide-open shots. You won't have as many people on the boards, because other guys are stepping up to help. So I think that's what I'm saying; we've got to do a better job with our on-the-ball defense and containing and just be a lot more physical. Q. You were talking, you said I hope our team, they are not overconfident anymore and you mentioned you hope maybe someone will get angry and guard Wade right. I get the sense from you that you feel like you're more irritated about what's gone on than perhaps your own team has. AVERY JOHNSON: Well, I think their level of disappointment and frustration during the regular season and early in the playoffs, it was turned in such a way that they would go out on the court and do something about it. That's the team that I've seen this year. I haven't seen that turn yet. I'm hoping that it will come sometime soon. Q. You said just earlier that your team is distracted. What are they distracted by? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, we just don't have the same focus that we've had throughout the playoffs. And again, I'll take care of it. Q. Do you think this is becoming a home series? I mean, how much impact is it? AVERY JOHNSON: We're on vacation right now. We've got a vacation mentality. So I'm going to fix that. Q. Just wondering, when you enter a series, do you assume at the beginning that it's going to be a seven-game series and work your way back, or how do you approach that going in? AVERY JOHNSON: Yes, I mean yes and no, in the sense -- right now, I think teams are so evenly matched, I never go into a series saying, "wow, we're going to sweep this team," or, "wow, this is 4-1," or anything like that. I go in looking at it as a seven-game series. Because I always try to have a healthy respect for our opponent. Now, if it ends up we're winning 4-1, 4-0, 4-2, it doesn't matter. I always go in and I'm thinking, "let's grind it out." There are going to be some highs and lows in the series. I'm mainly interested in our body language, focus, the way we communicate with one another, pay attention to detail, you know, different things like that. But overall, yes, because I think in this series, like I've been saying all along, even when we supposedly had control of the series, I had a feeling that because they are a good team, they would make a run, and we would have to withstand that run. Q. What are you going to do to end the vacation mentality you were talking about? AVERY JOHNSON: Next question. Q. When you were in the spot in the San Antonio series where you had lost two consecutive playoff games and now were facing this Game 7 on the road, you're also coming off two straight losses now, and although this isn't an off-the-cliff type of game, how much of what you did in preparation for that game are you going to draw on in this situation? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, especially for my situation, I have such a catalog of history in the playoffs as a player and now I have a smaller catalog as a coach and I've tried to combine them. There are things that I've some of the coaches that I've worked with do certain things and stick with certain things, get rid of certain things. And obviously now I have a frame of reference on what worked this year, last year. And you just try to pull certain things. But more than anything, you know, I'll try to give everything that I can give, but we've just got to, you know, get back in gear with our team and the way we play and our style of play. Q. The start in that Game 7 against San Antonio was phenomenal, and in this series, your words, have been terrible, but can that be managed by you or does a lot of that just come down to making shots? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, I think it's my responsibility; it's not the players. And that's the way we've been handling it all year. So I'll try to find a better way to manage them and get them ready to play so that we can get off to better starts. But we haven't gotten off to a good start pretty much this whole series. Q. No matter how much you've transformed your team into more defensive-minded, you seem to be at the point where you're wondering if you can actually teach them toughness. What can you tell them? I know you don't want to give away everything about ending their vacation, but what are the Top 3 things that you can tell them? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, it's not -- I think you misunderstood me. I'm not necessarily trying to teach them toughness. How can you not be tough when you've made it to this point? There's nobody else that eliminated the world champions but us on their court. How can you not be tough and eliminate Tim Duncan and that great basketball team; how can you not be tough and play against a Phoenix team that plays unlike anybody in our league and is really good at what they do? So I don't think I'm questioning our toughness. I just think I haven't seen the mental toughness that we've shown all year. It's not that we don't have it; we have it. We wouldn't be here. Somebody else would be -- some other coach would be here giving this interview without this accent. (Laughter). Q. So how do you get it to come out? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, again, we've gotten it out all year. And when you get it out all year, you anticipate that you can continue to get it out. You've seen us in games, how many of you thought we were going to win Game 7 in San Antonio? Don't raise your hands all at once. (Laughter) So, you know, it's there. Q. Mbenga's suspension is finished, will you use him in Game 5 and what can he bring to you? AVERY JOHNSON: He will be on our roster. He will be on our roster. We've missed him a little bit. Q. Can you talk about Devin Harris last night, he started off slow, and the second half, his first shot the second half? AVERY JOHNSON: Yeah, Devin, again, when we looked at this series, we thought eventually this would be a series kind of like the one that I've been referring to where we would need him, and probably need him to start. Because more than anything, you've got to try to match Wade's quickness. We thought he did an okay job on him overall. There were some other situations where Wade kind of got away from us. But if Devin can play well, if we can play to make Wade play some defense if he's on Devin or Terry and not zone up off some of our other guys, we think that can be beneficial for us. So now we've got some stuff on film, we can go back and look at it as a team. But we definitely need his energy and we need that big boost from him. Q. Following up on Devin a little bit, the responsibility is great on his shoulders, defensively throughout the playoffs, how has he handled that responsibility really at both ends, and then a quick follow-up to that, you guys have taken a lot of 3-pointers, you've said "we're not a jump-shooting team anymore"; too many 3-pointers for your liking? AVERY JOHNSON: Too many 3-pointers. I'll answer that question first. The wide open ones that are there, we need to take those. But again, when we talk about toughness and aggressiveness, it's not just on the defensive end. We don't have a post-up five man or a power forward like a Tim Duncan or somebody, Shaq, we don't have that. But we have what's been working for us all year. The way Dirk can attack the paint; Stack and Josh Howard, Devin, Jason Terry. Man, I live and die with these guys. They are a great team. They haven't really shown it in these last two games, but overall, we do need Devin's energy. Q. A lot has been made about Dirk's struggles and rightfully so, but Josh over the last five quarters, what's going on there, is that a vacation problem? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, again, I think it's my fault. I need to figure out a way to get Josh some more shots, try to put him in better positions where he can be successful.
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