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NBA FINALS: HEAT v MAVERICKSJune 18, 2006Avery JohnsonMIAMI, FLORIDA: Game Five Q. You had said earlier in the series that you take the blame for Josh Howard not having the kind of play that we've been used to seeing, that you've been used to seeing. In the fourth quarters of all these games, I think he has one total shot and no points. Is there something particular that you plan to do or can do regarding that, or has he just been nervous or not getting the ball in the right positions? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, Sam, I think one of the things is because of his success and everybody kind of knows now, we're good when he gets 20 or more points, I think teams are paying much more attention to him. Sometime in the fourth quarter when he starts to get on the roll or when he gets the ball he's not getting as much single coverage as he did earlier in the playoffs. So they are paying a lot of attention to him. They are playing him really physical, but we've still got to find ways to get him the ball in positions where we know he can be successful. Q. Just wondering, when you were playing and you got into a fifth, sixth, seventh game of a playoff series, did you see your players or did you see your teammates behave in any kind of different way than they may have earlier in the series, because these were the deciding games coming up? AVERY JOHNSON: Yeah, similar to what we have here. As it moves on, we kind of get a grip on what we need to do offensively and defensively. Shoot-arounds are a lot more concentrated and quiet and focused, practices are; questions are being asked a little bit more in film sessions, just to get clarifications on stuff. So there is a tendency for teams to kind of have more of a bunker mentality and get focused even more as the series go on, and that's what our team has done, and that's what teams have done that I've been on. Q. Does Jerry's absence and, I guess, Marquis's history in this series of being unable to produce offense, create the potential for a 45- or 46-minute night for Jason Terry tonight? AVERY JOHNSON: I think, could be, you never know. But we want to take a look at Marquis. He's had some big games for us. So if he can get out there tonight, we have an idea of what combination really works well when he plays. So we'll try to throw it out there. He's had some pretty big games. He's been quiet. He has not been as aggressive as we want him to be. So hopefully he can get out there and give us a boost. But even if he does, we need a total team effort. Q. Were you pleased with what you saw from your team the last couple of days, being up in Fort Lauderdale? A lot of players felt like it was a college atmosphere and kind of felt a little bit more relaxed when talking about it. What did you see from them? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, part of the problem, even before we talk about that, again, this has been a new experience for pretty much all of our guys except maybe one or two, and coaches, except for one or two. So a lot of the things that we talked to them about before the series, they really didn't understand it until we got here to Miami. Sometime when you're at home, you can see the media and a lot of different things, but once you got down here, then you can really understand what I'm talking about. So we got a little quiet time for ourselves kind of the way it was in the regular season and early in the playoffs, and again, it was just us, the same people that we've been seeing all year. And hopefully not only for this game, but I think it sent a message for as we move forward. Q. A lot of attention on Dirk's shooting percentage so far in this series. Can you win the series without him breaking out? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, we'd like for him to break out. We'd like to think about that, first of all. If Dirk had this game in November or February, somewhere on the road, you just pack up and go to the next city. But if he has a game like that in The Finals, it's magnified. But again, we've known him to bounce back, and bounce back in a big way. But even if he doesn't bounce back, I think we've still got to play better defense. We haven't really guarded Wade well this whole series. Their bench kind of got away from us the last game, and we've just had too many inconsistent performances across the board from our guys. So if we can get some consistency from all of our guys there and rebound, in doesn't matter what kind of game Dirk's having, we can still have a chance to win. Q. How has Diop been a value to the team? AVERY JOHNSON: We've got a lot out of DeSagana this year. More than we expected, yes. He's come a long way. And now we're having an opportunity for him to try to have a better game and rebound for us tonight, along with Damp and we'll have Mbenga back tonight. We'll have 18 fouls. Q. What did you see in him in Vegas last summer -- AVERY JOHNSON: Diop wasn't with us in Vegas last summer. He came and we worked him out after Vegas and had a meeting and watched a ton of film on him. So that was the evaluation process. Q. There's been a lot talk, particularly in light of Jerry's suspension about physical play, and the physical nature of the series. You had a lot of success in the semifinals against the Spurs speeding up the game. I know you're not rebounding like you'd like to, but have you gotten away from that too much, and is that something that you mainly want to get back to? AVERY JOHNSON: Well, I think you basically answered the question. You can't run unless you rebound. And if you're shooting 34 percent from the field, they are probably going to get more rebounds than you, especially if you're not getting enough offensive rebounds. A sign of a bad game is Adrian Griffin got two or three rebounds on one possession and we had two or three wide open shots and none of them went down and they are the shots we normally get. Conversely when we're getting beat on penetration or caught in between on double-teams and not rebounding, we don't have a chance to get out and run. So we like the run more, but you've got to have the ball.
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