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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAGIC v CAVALIERS

May 26, 2009

Rashard Lewis

ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Game Four

Magic Â– 116
Cavaliers - 114

Q. Coach talked about you were frustrated at the end of overtime obviously. But you kind of demanded the ball in your hands in overtime?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Well, one, I was -- the first time I think I got tired in a while. And I just tried to push myself. He said that I stopped going to the ball on the pick-and-roll, so I just tried to be aggressive toward the end of the game, and it worked.

Q. Rashard, since you have been in the league a while, you guys talked about -- before this post-season started about this opportunity that you don't get every time. Now that you're 3-1, facing a closeout game, Rafer just said a while ago that he can taste it. What's your thought about that?
RASHARD LEWIS: It is a closeout game, but it's going to be probably the toughest game in this series. Like Coach said after the game was over, you would have thought we lost the game because he was telling us we got to get prepared for this next game. We can't be satisfied about winning this game. It is a good win for us. We up 3-1, but you can't relax. Anything can happen. We got to go to Cleveland looking to try to close these guys out.

Q. On the Rashard Lewis 3 that he hit, you seemed to take out two guys. You had Andy and Ben. Was that the plan in terms of getting both guys? Or did you see Ben coming out and just kind of step into him at the end?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I really didn't know who to screen. Usually they switch the four and five pick-and-roll towards the end of the game. And I think Ben had a head start, so I tried to hit him before he got a chance to close out to Rashard. And then Rashard just hit the shot.

Q. A year ago you played in two playoff series. In your first year together, this core returned, now you're in the third series. You have the look to me honestly that your focus is on playing for a title this year. How uniquely different is this year from last?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think as a team we want it more than any other year that I have been here. I have been talking about winning a championship since I have been here. But I think this is the first year that everybody is locked in on our goal.
We just got to keep fighting, you know? We have an excellent opportunity in front of us, but we got to keep fighting. We can never give up, never think it is going to be easy because we got to work for everything that we get. I think as a team, coaching staff, everybody, we believe that every time we step on the floor, we play our brand of basketball, we can win.

Q. You said you were going to buy some duct tape for your mouth. What happened on that play and the fact that you have six techs and one more you are going to miss a game?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Well, first, you know, all I was doing was -- I was playing with emotion. You get in the game and you score a big bucket, you let your emotions take over. I wasn't tonguing Varejao or anything. My thing, it was a tough play. He grabbed me around my neck and made the shot. So hopefully they look at it.
Whatever happens, though, I have full confidence in me and my teammates, and we can get the job done.

Q. (Indiscernible).
DWIGHT HOWARD: I might have to really use some duct tape. (Smiling).

Q. What do you see as your role as one of the guys on this team in clutch situations?
DWIGHT HOWARD: My role?

Q. Yeah.
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think my role is to lead by example. I don't have to get in my teammates' face and yell at them and scream at them. That doesn't work with our team. If they see me out there, you know, fighting for every possession, going hard, then they tend to follow. So my role is to lead by example and the rest of my teammates follow.

Q. How big a part of that is when it is overtime of a game like this you need to put those points in the basket?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Well, like I said, at the end of regulation, our coach, he came to me and he said that I got to come to the ball. And I think earlier in my career, probably early this season, struggling from the free-throw line, I probably would have shied away from touching the ball towards the end of the game. But I just felt that if I stepped up to the free-throw line I can make it. My teammates found me in great positions to score, and I just tried to put the ball in the basket.

Q. Talk about Rafer. He said these guys are daring him to shoot just like Philly did and Boston did. How big is it when he steps up and makes those catch-and-shoot jumpers and he is aggressive like he was at the beginning of each half tonight?
RASHARD LEWIS: He made it a lot easier on a lot of guys tonight because he was making shots. Not only shots but he was hitting a lot of three-pointers for us. Because obviously it seemed like they went small. LeBron was guarding me. They wouldn't leave me on the wing. Even when Varejao was guarding me, every pick-and-roll we ran they guy would stay home on me. So it was hard for me to get a shot off tonight.
But they was leaving him open, especially on the pick-and-rolls, and he was coming up big by knocking down shots, getting in the paint, as well as knocking down three-pointers.

Q. That three-pointer that you hit to go up, I think it was 100-98, is that the biggest shot of your career? Do you feel it was one --
RASHARD LEWIS: I think it was the second biggest shot. I think first one was Game 1 when I hit the 3 to win the game, because obviously -- it was a big shot, though. The play was drawn up perfect. Dwight set a great screen. And I love the turn over my right shoulder to shoot the shot. And that's exactly -- I was on that side, and I was able to turn over my right shoulder and I hit a big shot.

Q. Dwight, how many different people have kind of stepped up for you guys during the playoffs, from Rafer to Pietrus to JJ early in the series? Just seems like different people are stepping up for you guys.
DWIGHT HOWARD: Like I said, I have full confidence in my teammates. Every night somebody has to step up and play a major part for us to win games. It is going to be nice where me and Rashard are not making shots, somebody has to step up.
Rafer stepped up tonight. He wasn't Dwight Howard. He was the playground legend skip-to-my-Lou. He was getting to the basket. He was finishing. He played with a lot of confidence. When plays like the playground legend, then he is tough to guard.

Q. Can you talk about the difference in your approach at the free-throw line, particularly these last two games when you have been able to step up and make them in clutch situations?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think it's all mental. At this point of the season, I got to be able to step up there and make the free throws. And my teammates have confidence in throwing me the ball. And so, you know, since they're having confidence in giving me the ball, I got to do something with it at the free-throw line. And it is just about practice. Every day I try to get a good amount of free throws up, and then before the game.
When I step up there, just got to shoot it just like I have no care in the world. Just go out there and shoot it. When I do that, they go in.

Q. As of last game, Mo Williams had some strong words for Anthony Johnson and then going on to make some guarantees. Did you guys have a little extra for Mo Williams tonight backing up AJ? He was having some fun in the locker room saying "guarantee this."
RASHARD LEWIS: We are not going to get into that. We just basketball players. We come out to compete and win ball games. Our worries speak on the court when we go out there and win ball games. All we can do is go out to Cleveland and play for 48 minutes. At the end of the night, the scoreboard says everything.

Q. You guys closed out the Celtics in Boston in Game 7. What is this trying to close out these guys when really nobody has really done it -- I think maybe Anthony Johnson has been on a team like that. What is that going to be like trying to get that done?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think it will show how mentally tough we are as a team. We've had to overcome so many obstacles this playoffs. It will show a lot.
We really got to be focused going into the next game. Tonight is over with. It is no time to celebrate. We really got to be focused going into Cleveland because it is probably going to be the hardest game of the season, you know, next game. So we really got to be focused.

Q. Much of the season you guys have been overlooked, you in the MVP voting, the team as a legitimate championship threat. You are one game away from the NBA Finals and you finally have everyone's attention. Just talk about the change and the attention and finally getting a little bit of respect you guys have created all year.
DWIGHT HOWARD: I'm happy with our progress. I'm not satisfied. We done a pretty good job this year, but the only way, I have been telling you all year, we get respect is by winning. We haven't won anything yet. We won a couple games, and that's our mind-set. We won a couple games. So what? We want the respect after winning the championship.
That's the only way we are going to get anybody's respect, is by winning. We won a couple games. That's great. It feels good. We're not happy with just winning a couple games in the Eastern Conference Finals. We want to win the whole thing. That's when we will be happy.

Q. You guys have played well on the road this post-season. What has enabled you guys to do so well outside of this gym?
DWIGHT HOWARD: It is just like us against the world. Playing in a dog house like Cleveland, the whole crowd is against you. You want to go in somebody's home court and quiet the crowd. Nothing feels better than defeating a team on their home floor. It is one of the toughest things to do, especially against Cleveland. They have only lost a couple games at home.
It feels good to win on the other team's home court and to do it in a dominate way.

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