|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PISTONS v HEATMay 23, 2006Chauncey BillupsDETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game One Q. Chauncey, how much was the fatigue a part of the problem tonight? CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: We came into this game really just saying we're not really worried about playing this seven-game series, we'll be fine. I thought we played with a lot of energy. Obviously I was missing so many shots, so many shots that we usually make. It kind of points to, I guess, we hit the front rim on a lot of shots, but I'm encouraged that we're going to be fine. As bad as we played, we still closed the gap. They won by five points. They shot almost 60 percent, but they played good. You've got to give it to them. They played like they were rested. They played very aggressive, and I look forward to Game 2. Q. Given everything you just said, is there a little more concern because they were able to beat you with Dwyane on the bench for so much of the game and with Shaq in foul trouble in the first half? CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: Uh-uh, no. That really doesn't matter to me at all. He wasn't sitting on the bench because he wanted to, you know. We forced him into making some tough plays. Shaq wasn't sitting there because he wanted to. Ben and those guys did a great job. You know, they had other guys that stepped up, played great for them. Gary was good, Antoine, everybody, their supporting cast was good. That was the difference. Q. Being that after Thursday the next two are in Miami, is it something to be really concerned about, or do you see that, A, this is a long series and we've got a long way to go? CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: When you get to this point in the season where it's Eastern Conference Finals, the road, playing on the road doesn't mean that much, you know what I'm saying. We're looking at the best two teams in the Eastern Conference, two of the best role teams in the league, so it's one game at a time, really. Neither one of these teams are going to be fazed with where they're playing at. A lot of experienced guys, both teams got a lot of personnel that have fought a lot of different battles on the road and at home, so that really doesn't concern me. Q. Talk about if you would, please, the shots -- you guys were getting the shots but not hitting them, so is there a silver lining that we were getting our shots? CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: Yeah, we're going to go back and look at the tape, but obviously we know we can get the shots that we talked about we would have open before the game; we had them. We just couldn't knock them down. You really can't control whether the ball is going in the hoop or not, but we got what we wanted. We got exactly what we wanted and couldn't capitalize on it. Q. The adjustments for Game 2? CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: Well, we're going to play the same way. We're just going to play extremely hard. When we have our opportunities we want to try to throw it into the post. We're going to do the same things, and hopefully the shots we know we can make, we can make some of them. Q. Considering how tough this last series is in this first game, is it kind of an emotional roller coaster for you guys? CHAUNCEY BILLUPS: Well, it always is for us. We seem to always -- when our backs are against the wall, be very attentive and very focused. It's nothing new for us. We always put ourselves in this situation, not on purpose, they put us in the situation tonight, but we're going to be fine, man, going to be fine.
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
|