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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAGIC v CAVALIERS

May 22, 2009

Stan Van Gundy

CLEVELAND, OHIO: Game Two

Cavaliers Â– 96
Magic - 95

COACH VAN GUNDY: That one obviously hurts quite a a bit. I don't know what else to tell you. I would like to have that last one back, you know, from a coaching standpoint.
My team did a great job fighting back, and Hedo made a great shot. Hedo played the last defensive possession as well as he could play.
They were looking for the back door lob to LeBron, same play they ran. If you remember that crazy finish with them in Indiana earlier in the year, in the regular season where there were two straight fouls on back-door plays, one on Granger, one on LeBron. If the Cleveland guys are here, they remember that.
You know, that's what they were looking for. Hedo took that away. He popped out and made a great shot. We should have defended it -- I should have defended it differently. And it's crushing enough to lose as a coach, but when you feel like you're the guy who could have made the difference, it hurts a lot more.

Q. Coach, you said you should have defended. How should you have defended that differently?
COACH VAN GUNDY: No, not going to get into it. It may come up again, so we are not getting into that.

Q. After Game 1 you were saying how you definitely weren't looking to split here. You definitely wanted to get both of the games. So although it didn't happen and I know you are not going to take any more victories, the squad did play impressive on several fronts. So what do you take out of a game like this?
COACH VAN GUNDY: Again, you know, I think the only -- the only disappointment I have with our team is that we haven't been ready at the start of the game either night, and I think that makes it very difficult against anybody, but especially a team as good as Cleveland, that we're giving away the first 16, 18 minutes of games. Obviously that's real dangerous.
Other than that, our team has fought hard, been in position to win both games, got the stop the other night and should have gotten the stop tonight if I would have -- if I would have done a better job.
So this one -- this one hurts. I mean, we've had a lot of these daggers. This is the fourth one we've lost at the buzzer in the playoffs. It's tough to be right there all the time and have these games going the other way. And a couple of those I felt like it was me, and I definitely feel that way tonight.

Q. In the time-out with one second left, why did you put Hedo on LeBron rather than Pietrus?
COACH VAN GUNDY: Well, because -- okay. There is a couple of things there. I thought that -- LeBron is a very, very smart guy, and he knows that everybody can get a little overeager there. Okay?
And Hedo is a guy, who has still got size at 6'10" and he has lot last chance of biting on the shot fake with a second to go. I thought he would play the possession solidly and he did. He played it very, very well.
Second-guess or not, the shot we ended up giving him, there is nobody going to get up and, you know -- I mean, you really think another guy would have blocked that? I mean, you know, the shot was going to get off. Again, wasn't a matter of the matchup; it was a matter of the way we defended the play. So Hedo did as good a job as anybody could do on that, and I didn't do as good a job as any coach could do.

Q. Coach through two games, 202 points each, one game each, one three-point shot from each team to -- I mean, can this series get any more exciting? Any more drama as we go through games --
COACH VAN GUNDY: I'm not really into the excitement. That's up to you guys and the fans. I just want to win, and we should have won tonight. I'm not really into the excitement.

Q. The other night you said that it's about making shots and not the stuff that goes on around it. But a game like this, is there any -- going to be any carryover heading into Sunday?
COACH VAN GUNDY: Well, you got to ask all the Orlando media guys. How many times have I been asked that in the post-season so far? Game 1 in Philly we lose at the buzzer. Is there going to be carryover? Okay. Game 3 in Philly, they beat us at the buzzer. Is there going to be carryover? Game 4 against Boston, is there going to be carryover? I mean, you know, I've heard that the entire post-season.
So if we finally come back and don't play well in one of those games, you guys are going to say it was because of tonight. So you guys write whatever story you want. That will have nothing to do with Game 3.

Q. In that fourth quarter until the final shot you seemed to be able to get the ball out of LeBron's hands pretty well and make him give it up. Were you fairly happy with the way you defended him for the most part?
COACH VAN GUNDY: I thought we were better in the fourth quarter than we were the rest of the game. I mean, the guy's got, you know -- he's averaging like 90 a game against us. So am I happy? No, I'm not.
Look, I mean, I'm not unhappy with our players and their effort and everything else. I'm just at a point right now, it's going to be hard for me to see a lot of positive sitting up here.

Q. The ability to come back like you guys have, 16 the other night, 23 tonight, chip away, chip away, get there, what do you attribute that to? What are you saying in coaching and what are they saying to each other?
COACH VAN GUNDY: It has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm saying, that I can assure you.
It has been a pretty resilient team all year. From a tough loss coming back, from times in games, I mean, we've had times where we've -- you know, we've got it handed to us and gotten blown out, but it overall has been an extremely, extremely resilient team and they just keep playing. And all we've been talking about, both coaches and players in the playoffs, not just in this series, is just, you know, trying not to worry about the scoreboard and just play in the next possession in games. And if we play enough good possessions, you know, we'll have a good chance of winning games. And we had a good chance to win tonight and I didn't get it done.

Q. (Indiscernible).
COACH VAN GUNDY: I'm not going to go into what I should have done because situations could come up.
But bottom line is I didn't get it done on the last possession.

Q. (Indiscernible).
COACH VAN GUNDY: Turk did a great job. Turk played the play perfectly. I mean, I've seen that play. I've seen it in one of the craziest games I've ever seen in that game with Indiana, back-to-back fouls on guys going for the lob. You know, I mean, one of the craziest endings of games I've ever seen.
And Turk took the back-cut away. Did he a great job. Took away the first option, took away the option that if he hadn't taken away would have tied the game and led him into the option that won the game. So, you know, that kind of thing -- that kind of thing happens sometimes.
To be quite honest, exactly what happened the other night, you know, our option was to get Rashard on a drive against Varejao. They stopped the drive that would have been a two-pointer to tie. He ended up popping back out, hitting a 3 that ends up winning it. I guess that's sort of poetic justice in some ways.
The only difference is I don't know what Mike could have done on that play the other night, and I know damn well what I could have done on the play tonight. So, you know, it's hard to -- it's hard to take that responsibility and sit up here, but that's a tough one.

Q. (Indiscernible).
COACH VAN GUNDY: Four of them already in the playoffs. We've only lost six games, and four of them have been at the buzzer. So, you know, it's been -- it's been very, very difficult, but you're going to get in tight games in the playoffs. We were in one the other night and pulled it out. We were in one in Philly and Turk hit the shot. We've been there. But we have been in a lot of close games in the playoffs, and two already in this series.
But we had a great opportunity tonight. I didn't get it done, and now we got to go home and try to take care of business.

End of FastScripts

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