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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PISTONS v CELTICSMay 28, 2008Ray AllenKendrick PerkinsBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Five Q. Ray, Doc talked a little bit about how even when you were having some offensive struggles in the series, you tried to make up with the defensive ball movement, but it really went hand in hand. How did you try to orchestrate those two over the last few games in terms of being physical with Rip Hamilton and moving the ball? And did that translate to your offense tonight? RAY ALLEN: Well, clearly throughout the season, the one thing that I learned about me on this team is that I don't need to score. Scoring is going to help the team, but we have so many options on this team that making the team better in small little ways, where I had to learn -- become more efficient with my scoring. Over my career I've taken a lot of shots, and I think coming into this playoff series, my shots have been very limited, you know, you're talking six to ten shots a game, and not worried about affecting the offense or being a great part of the offense. I knew being on the floor I had to have an impact, make my teammates better in whatever small ways possible. If I wasn't shooting the ball tonight, I didn't want to be sitting on the defensive end. I wanted to make sure that I made defensive plays and trying to make these guys better. Q. Ray, even when you're not playing well, do you find your routine and the way you work every day, is there some kind of comfort or kind of order that you feel like kind of brings you back to your game by doing the same thing every day, whether you're playing well or not playing well? RAY ALLEN: Most definitely, that's what levels me. When I can go into my own world and shoot the shots that I know, when I'm in the gym by myself and somebody is rebounding for me, there's no defender on me, I can work on the things that I need to work on and I can get my mind right towards the things that I need to do offensively and just get a good workout in and get a great rhythm. For me every game is a new journey, it's a new adventure for me. At any point, at any previous game going to the next game, going on the floor before my game and get my shots up, every day I'm working on trying to think about where I had the last shot I missed and getting my legs right and being explosive and just thinking about it and having an opportunity to get better. So those are my moments, and those are the moments that I enjoy. Q. Kendrick, it was important for the Celtics to come out strong tonight, and you did. You had that look in your eye. You even dribbled the ball down the court once. Can you just talk about what your mindset was going into the game? KENDRICK PERKINS: Well, I was just coming in and thought I was going to provide energy for the team. I said I was going to be aggressive offensively. I just said I was going to play with a lot of energy. I knew our Big Three veteran guys, I know this opportunity don't come much, and I knew if I was up in age, up in my 30s, and a young fellow was right there I'd want him to go all out for me, too. My thing is I'm going to leave it out there on the court, for myself, for my teammates and for everybody. Q. Ray, you've contributed to so many of these games with your defense. What does it feel like to contribute tonight with the shot making and the things that you were able to do, especially down the stretch making those key free throws and just making those shots? RAY ALLEN: If I can go back a couple games, I think it was Atlanta when I had two free throws in the fourth quarter, and I hadn't really shot the ball. I was sitting on the bench going into the fourth quarter, and just being in that situation where you know everybody is looking at you, and they're like, well, he's statistically one of the best free throw shooters on the team, he's got to make these free throws. In this situation as a team, we're pretty fairly new. Detroit has been doing this a couple, four, five, six times, I don't know how many, being in the Conference Finals. So we're learning a lot about each other and we're learning the most important thing to do is win games, and that's taking care of and closing out quarters. My feeling now is no different from if I had scored ten points and we still won the game. It's a great feeling because the joy on everybody's face, we know how hard we worked every day, the day before, and then the mornings of the game and then coming to the game, the film session, there's so much that goes into it. I always say people don't realize -- when people see the game come on TV, they think that's it. But this is a day and a half process going into the game before this. So just winning gives me the greatest joy regardless of what I've done because that ultimately was good enough for me, whatever I did tonight, for this team to win. Q. I just want to repeat what KG said about conversations he had with you the last couple days, couple weeks. He said he doesn't have a clean version. He said it's hey, beep, beep, shoot the beep, beep, when he talks to you. What does he do to try to get you psyched up or ready to play? RAY ALLEN: Well, you all know he's so intense. He's going to bring the intensity. He's going to make sure that he lights a fire under everybody's butt when they're out there on the floor. You take a shot, and you feel like I shot the shot I wanted to shoot, he's going to come over and say, "shoot the ball." You always know he's got your back, regardless of what's going on out there. You can sense at times when guys are down, and he's been one of the guys that's always encouraging to everybody on the team, regardless of what's happened, because I think we have grown to the point now where we're more than just a team, we've become brothers. And the things, the small little things don't affect us anymore. I think we learned early in the season where you've got to learn everybody's personality. So now you're at the point where you understand each individual, you know where they're coming from, you know how they talk, what they eat, the things they do, the nuances, everything. Now I think that we've grown to love each other as men. Q. Flip said coming into this game, Ray Allen the shooter was a little tentative, and he said, tonight there really weren't open looks, you were looking. Was that the case? And did you feel, as Doc said, it wasn't one, he said, I need two out of him and then he's got it? Can you talk about that. RAY ALLEN: Yeah, there's a flow that's created out there during the game, and it really depends on all of us, where we move the ball and everybody gets easy looks. I told Rondo a couple of minutes ago that my first two threes in the first half came because we got the rebound and pushed it up ahead, and I was able to get two threes off. And I said, when we run, the more we run as a team, the more I score. Defense is out of place, and we shoot over the top, the bigs run, we get easy lay-ups. So it does make it easier for me when we run and we move the ball. I get easier looks, but at the same time, I've been trying to drive the ball more over the past couple of games. Q. After you established the third quarter, a nice lead, how did you survive the fourth? And what happened, and ultimately how did you survive to get the win? KENDRICK PERKINS: Well, Doc has been showing us the fights, the Ali fights. He always says, it's not how many times you get hit, it's if you keep moving forward. Going into this game knowing we wanted to blow Detroit out. That's what it is. They've been here numerous times, so we just kept fighting. We were taking hits and we kept fighting through and we kept moving forward. We got a good lead. They fought back but we didn't give up on each other, and we played through everything. Q. The last shot you made from the field, obviously things were getting fairly tense at that point. Did you think you were behind the line? And could you just go through the process that led up to that shot. RAY ALLEN: Well, the play actually was for me to run off, run to the corner where Pose was taking the ball out, and then KG was going to come back down and set a screen on me. And I was popping back and then Kevin was going to dive into the basket. It was up to Pose to throw whichever way he thought one of us was open. When I came off the first one and I felt Rip on the screen, and Kevin must have got a good piece of him. But when I got to that spot he threw it to me, so I assumed he threw it because I was open. I didn't think about getting behind the three. I knew I was right there and I wasn't going to worry about the three-point line, but just go for the shot and not worry about it. That was just one of those basketball reads. Posey made a play, and it was time for me to put the shot up. End of FastScripts |
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