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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v SPURS

June 13, 2007

Drew Gooden

CLEVELAND, OHIO: Practice Day

Q. Only one team in the last 11 or 12 years has been swept in the NBA Finals. How much does pride kick in at this point to avoid that distinction?
DREW GOODEN: Pride should have kicked in a long time ago. At this point, talk about your back being against the wall, I think this is the ultimate challenge. People say it's an impossible task, but you have to feel and believe that it can be done. I think we'll have a better mindset if we just win one game and take it from there.

Q. A lot of critics of last night's game called it unwatchable, horrible basketball. Was that fun to play last night? Was that a good basketball game?
DREW GOODEN: It was fun as a competitor competing out there, but at the end of the day it wasn't fun when you lose the game. We left it out there, we did everything we were supposed to do, a couple things didn't go our way, but guys fought. I looked at the game, I looked at the tape, and there's nothing I could take back, especially me as an individual, what I did out there on the court. I mean, we left it on the court.

Q. You're down 0-3. Last night LeBron had a much better game than he had in San Antonio, but at this point is it desperation time to just kind of throw all the chips on the table and make freelance more, throw things out there and try to get a win?
DREW GOODEN: Yeah, we're all in right now. We're playing our last hand right now. Our luck has to change or the season is over. You know, our backs are against the wall. LeBron has done an excellent job of getting us here, carrying the load to get us in this position first of all, so you can't take anything from him. He played a great game last night, I believe. So did the other guys on our team defensively, trying to help stop their big three, and they still got it done. We'll see what happens in Game 4.

Q. You play that Game 4 you played last night, will that get it done in Game 4?
DREW GOODEN: Of course. Like I said, I looked back at the tape, and easily the game could have went our way. It's tough to say, but the amount -- the margin of error that you had with the San Antonio Spurs, you can't even measure it because any little mistake you make out there, they'll capitalize. A play you don't go hard on or a particular possession, they capitalize. They seem like anything that went against us, they capitalized on that, so they're a great team.

Q. What can you guys do to get a more consistent effort from the guys around LeBron where two or three guys are playing well offensively?
DREW GOODEN: You know what, that's been questions brought up the whole thing, questions brought up the whole time I've been here, as a matter of fact, for three years. If you guys don't know by now, any given night offensively guys step up for us. You know LeBron James is going to have his numbers. But at the end of the day so is a different guy that's going to be next in category, scoring, rebounding, what have you. We've been successful doing that the whole year, and that's why we're in The Finals right now, because that's what's been going on. So it's no secret to us. So we can't look at it or complain about it now because we're here because of that reason. Every night could be someone else's night.

Q. But what I'm saying is in these Finals, that doesn't seem to have happened. What needs to happen for that to get back to that?
DREW GOODEN: You know, it's tough to say. We've got to make adjustments and try to restructure what's our second and third option offensively at this point of the season because, I mean, we rely on him to make plays for everybody around him. So it's tough to go in there right now and say, okay, Z, you're the second scoring option; Drew, you're the third scoring option, let's get it done. Because that's not what got us here; I think it's been a team effort around LeBron James and depending on him to get us the ball.

Q. LeBron has talked about wanting to be a leader on this team. What can he do or what does he do aside from just being generally positive and generally, like all you guys are? What do you need to do specifically over the next 24 hours?
DREW GOODEN: He leads by example, more than anything, emotion as far as trying to get us riled up is another thing. But him leading by example -- one example I could use, the Detroit game when we needed to win that big game, he just put the team on his shoulder, I think that's how he leads. That's how he leads us. We have trust and faith in our leader. We know he's going to be serious today. We know he's not going to try to crack no jokes and be a fun-loving guy today because it's time to work and it's about business. He knows what he needs to do, and we know how to follow his lead.

Q. Do you think you could get another 48-point or that kind of game out of him again?
DREW GOODEN: Hopefully, you know what I'm saying? We can't just hold -- it's unfair to hold him to that certain standard of having to do that. But at the end of the day, he's a phenomenal player and he has great talent around him, and we'll see what happens.

Q. What's made the Spurs so good over the years and during this series?
DREW GOODEN: Their system, them being together. I think whenever you play those AAU teams or high school teams where kids have been together for four, five years and they've grown and developed successfully at winning certain things, tournaments or whatever, the Spurs are the team that -- in the NBA that I think kind of symbolizes a team, a core, a rock, because those guys have been playing together for some time and have numerous rings together, and the experience, the chemistry they pick up from one another, you can't really explain what's going on out there. It's like second nature to them out there. They don't have to talk or communicate; everybody is on a string and everybody knows where they need to be and they're comfortable playing with each other. I think that's what makes the San Antonio Spurs such a tough team.

End of FastScripts

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