	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS v PISTONS

May 28, 2007

Richard Hamilton

CLEVELAND, OHIO: Practice Day

RIP HAMILTON: It's exciting for us. We always feel as though in order to be ranked in that class, to be a great backcourt, you've got to win games. Hopefully we can continue to do that and continue to bring more and more world championships to Detroit.

Q. How would you characterize what went on last night with you and Chauncey? I mean, we've seen one of you struggle before, but it's rare that both of you guys have those kind of problems on the same night.
RIP HAMILTON: Well, I just think we've got to be a lot more aggressive. Yesterday I kind of watched the game on TV some, we were out there trying to make the right play too much, other than trying to be aggressive, trying to make a play and things like that. I think at halftime I shot the ball two times, Chauncey shot the ball three or four times. And all season, I'll bet you can't go down any stat sheet and ever see that.
So I just think they're trying to take a lot of stuff away. They're trying to trap Chauncey on pick-and-rolls, they're trying to trap me on pin-downs, and they've got the guys making plays. So we've got to find other ways to be aggressive and get to the basket and things like that.

Q. Were you surprised that you guys were not just -- at one point you were leading in the fourth, even though you and Chauncey were only 2-for-14 or something like that from the field?
RIP HAMILTON: That's why sometimes it's hard to try to be over-aggressive, because we were still in the game. C Webb had it rolling, McDyess hit some shots, so one thing that you want to do, you want to stay poised, try to get them the ball and try to get them to make plays.

Q. Daniel Gibson had a big game for them, could you talk a little bit about that.
RIP HAMILTON: He made shots. He made a big three down the stretch that was huge. We've got to get better at recognizing where he's at because that's why they bring him and Damon Jones on the floor.

Q. It seemed, though, when Damon got on the floor, though, you guys went right at him with Murray?
RIP HAMILTON: Flip played great. He came off the bench, gave us a lot of energy, went in there and tried to make plays. It was great.

Q. What did it look like out there? You guys have seen traps forever and it's never really a problem, is it just looking different? Is it because they're so long that it looks like there's more defensive traffic than there is?
RIP HAMILTON: Well, they're consistent with it. I think that's the biggest thing, that they're consistent with it. They're consistent every time down the court with the trap, to say, okay, we're going to make other guys beat us. We know that, and like I said, our guys were big yesterday. It's just that we couldn't quite finish it at the end of the game, and hopefully we can do a better job of not turning the ball over late in the game.

Q. Flip said he could see in your body language yesterday that you weren't as aggressive as you had been in prior games. Was that your approach going into the game, something Cleveland was doing to you?
RIP HAMILTON: Well, like I said, every time I came up, they tried to trap and stuff like that, and I didn't really try to force the issue because of how the game was going, how we were still in the game. Rasheed had it going, Chris had it going, and I didn't want to be out there out of pocket and try to be over-aggressive while we were still right in the game.
But I see now that that's not who I am. I'm out there running around and being aggressive and trying to make plays, so I've got to do a better job of that.

Q. How does Sasha bother you? Does he do anything different than you've seen?
RIP HAMILTON: No, just got to be more aggressive, that's it, just being more aggressive. I don't think I was. I think that I was just, like I said, trying to feed off my teammates, trying to get to the wide open spot, trying to play off Sheed and Webb and things like that.

Q. What are the chances that you and Chauncey have a game like that combined again?
RIP HAMILTON: Hopefully never.

Q. Are you more anxious for the next game to start? Do you almost wish you were playing tonight?
RIP HAMILTON: Well, that's the great thing. The great thing about it, we ain't got to wait two days. I think the first two games we had to wait two days, and I'm just happy we won them. Now we get an opportunity to play tomorrow, so I can't wait to get back on the floor.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297