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NBA FINALS: LAKERS v CELTICSJune 15, 2008Paul PierceLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Five Q. Congratulations on a big-time performance. How much of this in this game did you leave out on the court, and how much do you have in the tank to close it out when you go home? PAUL PIERCE: I always leave it on the court. You know, that's just something I owe to my ballclub, franchise every time I step on the court. And I have plenty in the tank. It's not over. I've got to suck it up for two more games, if that. It'll all be worth it in the end. Tough loss tonight, tough one to swallow, but hey, we'll try to get the next one in Boston. Q. 33 points after the first quarter for you. Why were you able to just do what you wanted in the final three? PAUL PIERCE: I don't know, I just wanted to be aggressive and attack. I notice when I'm aggressive, everybody else is aggressive, so I just wanted to make plays, feel like I have an advantage night in and night out. That's all I do, try to get to the rim and take advantage of my opportunities. Q. After Kobe's big first quarter, you guys held him to 3 for 16 and 6 turnovers. How did you do that? PAUL PIERCE: Well, he's the whole focus for us. He's a guy who can beat you all by himself, so the whole game plan is surrounding on stopping him and making other guys beat us. It's just unfortunate that we let the other guys beat us today. Q. You had Kobe beat on that play when he stole the ball. Can you just talk about what you were going to do and what happened on that play? PAUL PIERCE: Well, we were trying to run a screen roll which we've been running all fourth quarter with Kevin and set the high pick, and I thought I cleared the screen. He made a great defensive play. He reached around and tapped the ball from behind, and it was just a great defensive play. That was pretty much all he could do that Kevin set the pick, so he was struggling. Kobe is a great player. He made two big steals on myself there in the fourth quarter that I shouldn't have allowed. It definitely hurts, tough one to swallow, and we'll just try to get the next one at home. Q. Was there any contact on that play? PAUL PIERCE: I don't think so. I thought it was great defense. That's all it was, it was good defense. I wouldn't ask the refs for a call down the stretch. You let the players decide the game, and I thought that's what happened. Q. Doc went with some different lineups, Rajon only played 14 minutes, Leon Powe only five minutes. Are you surprised at some of the lineups he went with, and how difficult is it for you guys to play with those type of line-ups? PAUL PIERCE: We're used to playing with numerous guys on the court. We do it all the time in practice with our line-ups, so I don't think that's something that's surprising to me, but at the same time, we have Kendrick Perkins hurt, so that kind of changes things on the rotation side. We have to start Leon and P.J. Brown is getting a lot of minutes, a number of guys. Rajon is suffering from a sprained ankle, so Doc is doing the best he can with the ailments we have on this team. Q. Despite the loss, do you still have the feeling that you are the better team in this series, that you are playing just better basketball than the Lakers? PAUL PIERCE: We feel that way. We've just got to get off to better starts. The Lakers dominated us in the first quarter the last couple of games. It's tough when you're always fighting back from big leads of 16, 17 points. We don't thrive on that, letting a team get ahead and expecting to get back in the game. That's not something we practice. But definitely, hey, we're up one game with two games to go at home, so it still feels like we have the advantage in the series, and I do feel like we're the better team. Q. How critical tonight was the early and often foul trouble for Kevin Garnett as being a factor in the outcome of this game? PAUL PIERCE: That's huge. I told Kevin in the back, hey, regardless of how he plays, we need his presence on the court. Just defensively and offensively he draws so much attention out there, and we suffer a bit when he's out of the game, especially as early as he went out. You know, he's got to stay out of foul trouble, obviously, but I believe he will and he'll bounce back in Game 6. Q. Doc spoke about the extended minutes when Kevin went out with his foul trouble, for you and Ray and how difficult that is to just sustain throughout the entire game. PAUL PIERCE: Well, I felt great today actually. I felt great in warm-up, about as good as I've felt all season, the knee was pretty loose, I didn't have any problems with it. Hey, if that's what it takes, that's what it's going to take. At this point in the season I'll do whatever I've got to do for my ballclub to win. Q. Seemed like for the first time all series the Lakers were the more physical team. Would you agree with that, and how much did the loss of Perkins contribute to that? PAUL PIERCE: Well, it hurt not having Perkins out there and with Kevin suffering from foul trouble, so we have to go deep into our rotation. Definitely they took advantage of that with Pau and Lamar, so definitely they were aggressive tonight. They out-rebounded us, I believe. The front line played well tonight, so that does show that we weren't the physical team tonight. But I know we'll bounce back. Hopefully we can get Perkins back. If we can keep Kevin out of foul trouble, I think we'll be fine. Q. You were getting to the basket more and more easily as the game went on. What were you learning and picking up about their defense that you were able to exploit? PAUL PIERCE: We run a screen high with Kevin, and with the line-ups that we have on the court it's sort to hard to help off the number of shooters we put out there. So I figured, hey, once I come off the screen and roll and I be aggressive and drive the basket they can't help the guys because they have Kevin and Ray and E. House and knock down the shooters, so I just want to be as aggressive as I can. Q. Doc was talking about the trip from west to east and the turnaround is so bad. What do you do to make up for that for Tuesday? PAUL PIERCE: I really don't think about it. We'll get a nice flight home tomorrow, finally get in in the evening and just try to stay on my schedule, try to eat when we get in and go to bed at a good time and just try to stay on schedule. That's all you can do. End of FastScripts |
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