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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAGIC v CAVALIERS

May 30, 2009

Rashard Lewis

ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Game Six

Magic - 103
Cavaliers - 90

Q. (Question regarding going to the Finals.)
RASHARD LEWIS: It is an unbelievable feeling. We put a lot of hard work in since September. A lot of guys came in early before training camp, worked our butts off, and we had a great season. To get to the Finals is most definitely deserving for this team. But we feel like we still have work to go out there and do and try to go out there and win it all.
Getting to the finals is not enough for us.

Q. Can you talk about how loose this team is? Even in these tough situations, Game 6 in Philly, Game 7 now, a pressure game, how loose your bunch is?
RASHARD LEWIS: Well, we know we bounce back pretty good from adversity and from losses. And losing that game to Cleveland in Cleveland was a tough blow for us because we really wanted to end the series to try to get some rest before the Finals.
Didn't happen that way. We know Cleveland is a good team and they are capable of doing anything. We came in tonight focused on the defensive end and didn't want to give them a chance to build a big lead like they did in Cleveland. So I thought Dwight was dominant tonight. He made the right passes out of the double team. He rebounded the ball. He scored when he had to and he pretty much carried us on his back tonight.

Q. You hit. Pretty early you hit the 3. Obviously it was a nice night for you. Is it one of those things that you are not getting a start early but getting energized along the way?
RASHARD LEWIS: You have to wait your turn. We have a lot of great scorers on this time. Hedo as well as Dwight played great for us tonight. You got to pick and choose when you got to open it up. Time-scoring momentum is the biggest part of the game. I felt like when it was my time to step up, it was my time to step up.
Coach told me before the game get aggressive, get to the basket. Their bigs can't guard you. It not scoring, your own shots create shots for the other guys. That's what I did early in the game.

Q. They have a great player in LeBron, but does this show that sometimes a team is better?
RASHARD LEWIS: Most definitely. You need a total team effort to win. LeBron is a great player. They have a good team. They were the best team in the entire NBA. But at the same time you need just more than one or two guys. You need more than five guys. You need the guys to come off the bench to help you. You need a good coach. It is a combination of a little bit of everything, and I felt like we got that here in Orlando.

Q. You know Dwight pretty well. Did you see anything in him before the game tonight to indicate that he was going to have this kind of game?
RASHARD LEWIS: Honestly, I knew he would play great after last night. He sent everybody out a text message to the whole team talking about we have to be dominant for 48 minutes. We got to want it. It is right here in front of our face. We got to go out there and take it. It is not going to be given to us because Cleveland is a great team. The text message was mostly about domination, go out there and be dominant.
I knew he would do it. He was focussed in shoot-around this morning. You could tell he had the energy early, and he came out and he was dominant.

Q. I know it is hard to look forward when you just got this in your rear view. As you look forward to L.A., what do you see?
RASHARD LEWIS: A tough team. Another good team. Kobe Bryant, just like we faced LeBron James, now we got to face Kobe Bryant. He has got a good supporting cast around him, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom. They are a great defensive team. They move the ball around on offense. We got our work cut out for us. Nothing is going to be easy. We got to go out there and defend. I think defense will help us win ball games.
Just like we faced LeBron, now we got to go face Kobe Bryant.

Q. Do teams first time in the Finals you go in and say we're not just happy to be there and they get through it and there is seems to be an element of, hey, we're happy to be there. How do you make sure that doesn't happen to you guys?
RASHARD LEWIS: You can look at everybody in the locker room eyes as well as coach and tell that we are happy about getting to the Finals, but we are not tremendously happy enough yet. We want to go out there, we like winning that silver basketball, but I think the gold basketball will be a little bit better than that silver one.
Having a coach like Stan Van Gundy, he is not going to let us relax. He told us to enjoy tonight. But he'll be back cussing us out, yelling at us tomorrow. He is the type of guy that will keep us hungry and keep the energy in us.

Q. Talk about when did you realize that you guys were going to win? I you were talking to Nick Anderson about what the Finals experience is going to be like?
RASHARD LEWIS: Five minutes left to go in the game, because 20-point lead, 15-point lead is nothing in the playoffs. You seen us come back from being down 22, 21. You seen us give up a 17-, 18-point lead and then get beat.
So, you know, coach is screaming and yelling the game wasn't over. I think it was 1:40 yet that he screamed it is not over yet, continue to play. He was right. We kept playing and at the end of the day we got the win.

End of FastScripts

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