	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAGIC v CAVALIERS

May 24, 2009

Dwight Howard

ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Game Three

Magic Â– 99
Cavaliers - 89

Q. Dwight, even though you fouled out at the line you were 14-19. What did you have going tonight and how physical did it get?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Well, I just tried to stay aggressive. I know I didn't play a lot of minutes, especially in the first half. And I just kept telling myself, stay in the game and get ready for the second half and come out and try to dominate.

Q. (Question about free throws.)
DWIGHT HOWARD: Free throws? I didn't think about it. I just went up there and tried to shoot, and it was working. It was actually -- I was actually singing a song tonight in my head, and it was working. So I ought to stick with it.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
DWIGHT HOWARD: It was a song I heard at halftime. It was one of the dance songs. I kept thinking about dancing the whole time and free throws was going in, so I might need to keep up that routine.

Q. Tell me a little bit about you catching the ball down low. And you seem to be using the face-up game a little bit more?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Is that God? Say it again.

Q. Tell me about you catching the ball down low and using your face-up game a little more. Was that something that you came into this series thinking it is something you can utilize?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Yes, I just really tried to be aggressive on the offensive end and make Big Z and the other bigs move their feet and try to get them in foul trouble.

Q. Mo Williams said he is giving you guys too much respect despite the fact you guys have come back from two major leads and played a pretty rough, close series. How do you feel about that?
DWIGHT HOWARD: We can't get into it. We just got to go out there and play. When we play our basketball, we can beat anybody on the floor. That's our mentality. We have to play Magic basketball. When we do that, we can't worry about what other people are saying about us. We just go out there and win.

Q. They sent you to the foul line a lot tonight. Were you thinking that was going to be one of the strategies to kind of get you out of the game?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think so. I think so. Before the game, when I came out to warm up, I shot all free throws. Pat said, Are you going to work on your jump hook? I said I will work on my free throws tonight. I felt like I was going to go to the line a lot.
I know I missed a couple early. But I tried to keep most of the same shot, and they was falling towards the end of the game.

Q. I know you can do it for us. Sing, give us a few notes. What were you doing?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Oh, no, I can't gave you no notes. I was singing in My Dougie song that I heard. It was a dance song. I just felt good out there shooting it. I can't gave you no lines right now. I lost my voice screaming. I'm avoiding it.

Q. Can you give us just a little hum, then?
DWIGHT HOWARD: No, not tonight.

Q. I'm sure you're aware of the infamous incident with Joey Crawford and Tim Duncan. Is there something personal brewing there?
DWIGHT HOWARD: No, I'm not going to get into it with any of the refs. My team and the city needs me, so -- I'm going to do a good job of keeping my head composed and trying not to allow things to happen on the floor to get me away from what our goal is, which is to win a championship. I can't allow anything to, you know, stop me mentally from achieving our goal.

Q. How aware are you that you are at five, getting closer to seven?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Pat tells me every day. My teammates tell me. I just got to try to stay focused, like I said. All it takes is one little incident, but I'm going to do my best to stay away from it.

Q. As well as your team has played, how critical, then, does this next game become? Because if they do win, they got the home-court advantage again and things are even.
DWIGHT HOWARD: All we got to do is come out and play Magic basketball. We run, move the ball, and defend. Like I have been telling you guys, we can beat anybody. And those are going to be the three things, run, move the ball, and play defense.

Q. The foul you fouled out on, a couple other fouls on LeBron, are those really fouls?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I'm not going to get into it. My job is to go out there and play hard, no matter if I foul out or not. If I give -- if I go out there and play 48 minutes hard and get six fouls and we get the win, that's all that matters.
So I can't really concern myself with getting in foul trouble. Just got to go out there and play.

Q. You guys are one shot away from being up 3-0. You had success against them in the regular season. How confident are you that you're the better team in this series?
DWIGHT HOWARD: In order for us to be the better team, like I have been telling you guys, we have to run. We have to defend and rebound. I think they beat us on the boards tonight. But as a team, we got to do a good job of rebounding and not letting them get more than one shot and try to contain LeBron.
It is a tough thing to do, but when we run, nobody can beat us.

Q. You guys are obviously very confident against the Cavaliers. Are you guys at all offended by the Kobe-LeBron commercials and what seems to be like they're setting it up for Laker-Cavaliers in the finals?
DWIGHT HOWARD: We have a chance to win, you know? And if we go out there and play, we shouldn't worry about what we see on T.V., the commercials, the write-ups, whatever.
Do we find it disrespectful that they're counting us out? Yeah. But there is nothing we can control.
What we can control is how hard we play on the court, and that's when we get the job done.

Q. Why do you think you've had so much success? Does it just boil down to matchups with these guys?
DWIGHT HOWARD: It is about effort. The team that wants it the most is going to get the win. We want it. We feel like we have a great chance of winning the championship. We believe. And all we got to do is go out there and play hard for 48 minutes. We know what it takes to win. We just have to be able to go out there and do it.

Q. Dwight, how tough was that first half on you after watching Game 2? Then you come here and don't play in the first half all that much. How much was that all bubbling inside of you?
DWIGHT HOWARD: It wasn't tough. I know my teammates have played without me, played with me having foul trouble. So I trust my teammates, and everything is going to work out for us if we just go out there and play.
We can't worry so much and I can't worry about getting fouls or sitting on the bench. Just got to play through all that stuff. When you play through it and you fight and at the end of the day, you know, you should come out with a good result.

Q. Rafer said that you guys had gotten over LeBron's shot by the time you landed back in Orlando. Was this one any tougher than the other games you had gone through?
DWIGHT HOWARD: The shot that he made?

Q. Yeah, the shot that he made.
DWIGHT HOWARD: Was it tough? Yeah, you know. Hedo went down to hit the shot, and we thought Hedo shot it with no time where they didn't have a chance of getting a shot off. We celebrating. Then LeBron come down and hit, seemed like a movie 3. Yeah, you know, it was kind of hurting for us.
But there was nothing you can do about it. He hit a tough shot. We had to move on. It was tough on the plane, riding back and just seeing that shot over and over in your head. But we knew we had to come out tonight and give 100 percent.

Q. Mo Williams just said that Mickael Pietrus is the wild card. What has Pietrus been doing to take his game?
DWIGHT HOWARD: He has been playing hard. He works hard every day in practice and he gets into LeBron to try to force him to take tough shots.
In the offensive end, he shoots the ball with confidence, and he is just having fun. With a guy like Mike, you just want to give him the green light sometimes and just let him go to work. He makes big shots sometimes.

Q. Did you get the T for yelling at the refs or at the Cavs' bench?
DWIGHT HOWARD: You saw it. I'm not going to yell at the refs. I was talking to the bench. Instead of talking to the bench, I should have just walked to the sideline.

Q. Was there something going on with the bench?
DWIGHT HOWARD: No. I just should have kept my head and walked to the bench.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297