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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS v PISTONS

May 28, 2007

Larry Hughes

CLEVELAND, OHIO: Practice Day

LARRY HUGHES: I'm really sore today, which everybody expected me to be. I had an MRI done. I do have a partial tear. We'll see how it goes.

Q. Do you think you'll play tomorrow?
LARRY HUGHES: I'm not ruling it out. I'm not ruling it out. I'll just have to see. Just do treatment today, and whatever I can tolerate, just enough to go out and help the team, then I'll go out and help the team. But if not, I'll support from the sidelines.

Q. Talk us through the reverse lay-up.
LARRY HUGHES: I mean, I guess it's just one of those things. Just kind of planted it, and while I was planting it, just kind of turned it around, I guess. It was kind of a freak play, I guess. There wasn't any contact or anything like that. I just probably had it planted and just turned it the wrong way.

Q. It's like on the bottom of your foot?
LARRY HUGHES: Yeah, it's just more towards the heel. I've been dealing with it for probably a couple months now, just it being sore, no indication. I mean, I thought it was getting better. It's just something I'll try to deal with.

Q. Something you reaggravated it?
LARRY HUGHES: No, I didn't reaggravate it because it wasn't torn before. Like I said, I thought it was getting better. I thought it was getting better, but it's been sore, but it wasn't anything that was any real red flags, just sore, and I was pretty much dealing with it.

Q. Did it feel like it was tearing? When it tore could you feel it tear?
LARRY HUGHES: Well, it was hot. It was hot. I've never torn a muscle or anything like that. But I knew when I did it that it just wasn't a normal tweak or something like that. I mean, I knew it was something that was pretty serious.

Q. Did that come back to that original injury? Is that any part of the original injury you had?
LARRY HUGHES: No, that was the other foot. That was the right ankle. This is just -- a lot of guys suffer through the plantar fasciitis throughout the season, and they ultimately say it's better if you tear it completely and that way it gives it a chance to heal completely. So hopefully it's a blessing, and I'll look at it as a blessing and try to do enough treatment, and try to do enough things to take the edge off of it so I can be out there on the court.

Q. If you were playing today would you be able to play?
LARRY HUGHES: No.

Q. What is the likelihood that you'll play tomorrow?
LARRY HUGHES: Right now it's pretty slim, just the reaction from yesterday till now. I mean, it was a late game, so not a lot of hours to rejuvenate.
But for the most part, I'm just trying to do enough to get the edge off that I have now, to at least put some pressure on it.

Q. Is this something where you'll need surgery in the off-season to fix it?
LARRY HUGHES: No, it just heals itself with ice and treatment and stretching, things like that. It heals itself.

Q. Is it tough for you because you sort of had played some of your best ball there before you got hurt.
LARRY HUGHES: Well, I didn't miss yesterday, so that was good for me, to see the ball go in the basket a little bit. I had a mindset of taking the ball to the basket and just figuring some things out. It always happens like that. Once you think you've got the things figured out, something else goes wrong. It's just another hurdle you have to jump over. I'm used to it. I'm used to it.

Q. When you walked off the court, they said it was a plantar fascia strain. I said is that different from plantar fasciitis, and they said yes. What is the difference?
LARRY HUGHES: I think the -itis comes in, just chronic pain of having a sore foot or different parts of your foot being sore. The strain comes in when there's basically a tear, when you basically rupture some part of it. You can have a complete tear or a partial, and I have a partial. I don't really know all the terms of plantar fasciitis, but I know it hurts.

Q. Is this a new injury?
LARRY HUGHES: It's not really new. I've had heel soreness maybe for a month and a half, just been treating it with ice and stretch it, and this was one of those plays, I guess.

Q. Painful?
LARRY HUGHES: Very painful, very painful. Like I said, I'm trying to knock the edge off of it, taking some anti-inflammatories and do more ice where I can put pressure on it, but it is sore today.

Q. What about a shot of cortisone?
LARRY HUGHES: From what I'm told, it's not a small enough area to really do what it's known to do, and that's basically numb one small area. With this you have a couple areas that are sore.

Q. Do you expect to play Thursday?
LARRY HUGHES: I'm not sure. If the game was today, I couldn't play today. I'll have to see tomorrow how it feels. Like I said, if I'm able to help the team in any way, I'll be out there playing.

Q. How frustrating was it and how bittersweet for you to kind of see the ending and not be a part of it?
LARRY HUGHES: Oh, I definitely wanted to be a part of it, playing on the court. But I was involved in the game sitting on the bench. Well, I think this is a series that we can win, so I definitely want to be a part of it and definitely want to be mentioned on the team that -- we can beat a great Detroit team. They are really good. But as a team, I really want to be a part of this because I feel like we can win the series.

Q. What were you doing specifically to Chauncey? He's never been this rattled turnover-wise.
LARRY HUGHES: I think you have to use your length, be aggressive with him early on in the games, knowing that he comes on real strong late in the games. You know, we've done some different things as far as denying the wings a little bit and jumping out and blitzing a little bit, giving him something different to look at, and also once he drives, sticking our hands in there and getting a hand on the basketball.

Q. When you've had this type of pain or injury before, how long have you sat out?
LARRY HUGHES: I've never had it to this extent. I mean, I've had plantar fasciitis, which is just a sore foot basically. Right now what I have is a tear. It's really something going on. It's not just sore. There is a medical condition for it.
I haven't been faced with something this painful like this.

Q. So are the doctors saying you probably won't play tomorrow?
LARRY HUGHES: It's doubtful. It's doubtful. I mean, they're expecting -- they told me that I would be real sore today, which I am. I can hardly put any pressure on it. I think it's definitely doubtful. I mean, I tried to limp through the second half, but if I can get close to that, then I think I'll be fine enough to give us something. But it'll be tough.

Q. Do they seem like it's a situation where it's like, okay, if you sit out Tuesday, you could go Thursday? Are they saying anything like that?
LARRY HUGHES: Not really, not really. It's just basically how much I can tolerate, how much pain I can tolerate. You never know. I mean, one day it's totally different. I'm on some medication now that should help as far as with the inflammation and the swelling. We'll see how it goes. I definitely don't want to look past Tuesday and look towards Thursday, but we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Q. Injuries never come at a good time. Describe your frustration.
LARRY HUGHES: I'm starting to think that May isn't my month (laughter). You know, it's tough. I have to fight through it. I have to fight through it. I can't blame anybody, blame anything or say this or that. I have to see the challenge and take it on. That's the only way I know how to do it. We'll see. You know, we'll have to see how it goes. But I'm not going to show frustration or anything like that. We have to keep a positive attitude around with the guys and our teammates and the coaching staff just to know that I'll do whatever I can do to help the team out, and if I'm able to play, I'll play.

Q. Does it do any good to talk to guys that have had the same injury?
LARRY HUGHES: Somewhat, somewhat. You understand everybody is different, different pain tolerance. I feel like I have a high pain tolerance. My agent, he's also Alonzo's agent and he's had some of the same things go on. He said it was actually better for him in the long run, but right now we're more of in the short-term thing.
I'll wait and see really.

Q. If you had to put your chances at being able to play, what would you say it was?
LARRY HUGHES: Right now, as of today, I couldn't play. That's as far as I'll take it. Tomorrow is different. The adrenaline gets going and stands are filled, anything can happen. You can just wake up and it can be totally gone, you never know. I'm not ruling anything out, but today, if I had to do anything today, I couldn't do it.

Q. How did it exactly happen?
LARRY HUGHES: It was a lay-up. It was a reverse lay-up, went in, and I guess just turned it the wrong way, just turned it the wrong way. I can't really explain it. I mean, it just happened, and I felt it as soon as I did it.

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