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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAGIC v CAVALIERS

May 20, 2009

Stan Van Gundy

CLEVELAND, OHIO: Game One

Magic Â– 107
Cavaliers - 106

COACH VAN GUNDY: Yeah, a little bit. You know, I just thought in the first half everything we did at both ends of the court they just took us apart, capped off by Mo Williams' 75-footer, and this was a real good night from here. But somebody asked me something before, and I said before the game the one thing about our team that's been pretty consistent all year, and doesn't mean we don't get our butts kicked some nights and everything else, this is a resilient basketball team. We'll keep playing now.
But Boston blew us out. And we are like anybody in the league, it can happen. For the most part our team is pretty resilient and will keep fighting. And I love the way even in the second quarter when we couldn't make any head way, we got it back to 8 and go up 12, we would go back to 10 and start to fight a little bit. And in the second half we continued to fight. LeBron just made it so difficult.
The one thing I don't leave this game with is any idea whatsoever what to do with him. As a coach, you are supposed to have some idea. I don't have a clue. Okay? I don't.
When we double team him, he made the right team every play and made the shots, including the shots that put him back in the lead. He made every jumpshot when we didn't double team him and he gets the ball to the basket and draws fouls. We would like to come out of Game 1 and say at least we found a game plan we think will work. I can't say I have done that. He's unbelievable.
We really fought hard, and that's what we are going to have to continue to do, and I don't think there is any answers with the Cavaliers. They are a great team. They are an extremely well-coached team. There are just not any easy answers, so we will just have to keep fighting.

Q. You are down 2 with 25 seconds left. Do you take the time-out -- you take the time-out. Dwight fouls out. Take us through the huddle there. What was discussed? It was designed with the 3 or take what they give you?
COACH VAN GUNDY: No. As you saw, Rashard got the ball, went on an isolation, got down to the baseline. They came to help. Made the pass and got it back, and then jab-step and jumpshot. Draw up plays. It is the same thing with Mike. They are really good when you have really good players. So Rashard made that play look very, very good, just like LeBron makes Mike's plays look really, really good.
There was no big genius thing there. Rashard just made a hell of a shot and we came up with a stop on the last possession. To be honest, I am not the most optimistic guy in the world. When Mo Williams got it off one foot, I was sure it was going on.

Q. Stan, things were going against you pretty bad early on. Were you having to implore them to stay in the game?
COACH VAN GUNDY: That's all it was. If you could listen to the mike TNT head, that's all I was talking about, is just get our heads right, gather ourselves, and just stay in the game and do it possession by possession. The tendency tends to be to start rushing and forcing and thinking you are going to get it all back.
And I said, look, we are not going to go from 16. We are not going to get this back in six minutes. Let's get it to 10, then let's get it to 6. Then let's get it down to 2 and put some pressure on them, and then we got the lead.
You know, it was just to get them to stay in the game. Our guys did a very, very good job of that, of keeping their heads and staying in the game.

Q. Stan, obviously their resiliency was a big factor. What was it in the third quarter basketball-wise that they did so much better?
COACH VAN GUNDY: You know, I don't know. I thought even in the second quarter, Rachel, we started -- from an offensive standpoint, I thought in the second quarter we started to play better. You know, first quarter we were not good. But the second quarter I thought we started to get some ball movement. We started to get some good looks at the basket.
But our defense just never got any better in the second quarter. And so, you know, we weren't able to cut into the lead at all. And then I thought our offense continued to be pretty good in the third quarter. Our defense got a little bit better.
And then from there, I don't know, it was just a great basketball game down the stretch, two very, very good teams.

Q. Dwight said afterward, he said, wow, this is my first Conference Finals. What do you think of his performance in the first Conference Finals?
COACH VAN GUNDY: He was great. He was tremendous tonight. He did a great job offensively. I thought he was very, very efficient.
In retrospect, even though we weren't setting it up for the 3, I'm really glad that Rashard hit the 3 and we didn't have to go into overtime and play the five minutes without him. So I thought that was key, because it would have been tough.
But, yeah, I thought he played extremely well, a great start for him in the series. But we know, we talked about it, we got Game 1 in Boston, and then we were not very good in Game 2.
We're eventually down 3-2 in the series. It is just going to get harder. It is not going to get easier. That's a great basketball team with a great, great, great player.

Q. In games -- -- in Games 4 and 5 of the Boston series you guys had games down the stretch that fell apart and you lost late. Did you figure something out in those that helped you win this game tonight?
COACH VAN GUNDY: You know, I do think you learn from those games. But, you know, as much as people want to make it out to be other things, one of the things -- now, first of all, a little history. Game 4, we were the team that came back. We were behind the whole way. They came back from a 1-point deficit with 11 seconds to go. Okay?
We came back. We didn't falter down the stretch in Game 4. I know the way it was made out, it was like we didn't finish any game in that series well. But we were the team in Game 3 and in Game 4 that came back. So just a little history there.
And then in Game 5, we did not play well. I do think we learned something from that, but I'll tell you the other thing you learn, you got to put the ball in the basket. We want to make it all these other things, who wants it more, all the psychological stuff, my coaching, everything else. Yeah, my coaching, Rashard put the ball in the basket, now I'm really good.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about your bench play. I think in four of your five losses in the playoffs you have been outscored by the opposing bench. Tonight 25-5 you outscored them. It seemed Pietrus gave you a huge lift.
COACH VAN GUNDY: Pietrus is playing well in the playoffs.
I think that him on LeBron James helps us a little bit because then we don't have -- I think it is a better matchup anyway and we don't have Turkoglu in foul trouble and the whole thing.
But he has played very, very well in the playoffs. Tonight was no exception.

Q. You had said you didn't have a clue for LeBron. Obviously he shot 20-30. But the rest of the team shot 23-57. Is the formula maybe let him do his thing and shut everyone else down?
COACH VAN GUNDY: You know what? I'm being very honest with you. If that were my formula and it still got them 107 points, you know, and great shooting, I mean, my defensive game plan was not very helpful tonight. So I'm being honest with you when I tell you that it's back to the drawing board. And we just did not have a good answer for him and their offense tonight, but we fought through and got a win.
We'll go back and try to be better on Friday night.

End of FastScripts

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