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NBA FINALS: MAGIC v LAKERSJune 10, 2009Rafer AlstonORLANDO, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q. You guys are well known for bouncing back from a very tough loss. Are you just as effective at not getting too happy from a big victory? RAFER ALSTON: We've shown both. We've shown we can bounce back. We've shown that we don't get too up, we don't get too down about the basketball games, win, lose or draw. But it's going to be crucial that we put yesterday behind us and then prepare for what's to come, Game 4. It's going to be tougher for us. We assume how they want to extend their series to 3-1. We want to catch back up 2-2, and it's going to be -- as much as physical, it's going to be a mental challenge out there tomorrow. Q. You were with Stan his first year as a coach in Miami. Can you talk about what he was like then and if he's in the different now that you're with him the second time around? RAFER ALSTON: Well, then it was his first time as a head coach, and it happened rather quickly for him. Pat stepped down right before the first game, and he was thrust into the position. I think now he has a clearer understanding of the different personalities as a head coach as opposed to being an assistant, and I think he's adjusted to that. I think down in Miami he had us all as the same person and he came to find out that Dwyane Wade was totally different from Rafer Alston and Rafer Alston is totally different from Lamar Odom and so on. That's one way I see his adjustment from then until now. Now he's more into being a little more uplifting as opposed to so negative as he was in Miami. You see him ranting and raving down the sideline, but I can tell you the next day in practice and film session and things like that, he's more inspiring than what you see on the game floor. Q. How much of a role does he play in you guys' ability to bounce back? What does he say to you guys after those tough losses? RAFER ALSTON: He's instrumental in a few ways; one, he tells us to keep believing, to understand that we're a good team. That's the reason we've gotten this far; and two, he's really big on taking the blame. You don't see that from a lot of coaches. If he makes a mistake, as you mentioned, the LeBron shot, the Glen Davis shot, he quickly takes the blame and tells us he's failed us. We quickly turn around and tell him we're the guys on the floor, we should have made the adjustment out there. But that's the beauty of Coach. He'll take the blame and he'll come in and give us a better game plan. Q. You've spoken over the years about being able to come back from a shooting slump for a few games or not letting teams leaving you open affect your thinking. Is that a very difficult thing to do and did you develop that at some point in your career? And how did you develop that? RAFER ALSTON: It's almost embarrassing. I think that's the way I've taken it over the years. It's somewhat embarrassing that they're just going to keep leaving you open, basically a signal that, hey, that guy can't play, can't shoot. It happened early in my career, the middle of my career in the Miami-Toronto days, teams really guarded me on the perimeter. I think Houston when I really reverted back to poor shooting, that's when they started again to leave me open constantly. It just forced me to stay in the gym I think in the summer longer and continue to work on it and just have the confidence and belief that the next one is going in. Q. How far would you go then in saying these last four years playing with Yao and now Dwight, that as you shoot that's how your team's offense will go? RAFER ALSTON: It was big. I think once I got traded to Houston, I figured that out rather quickly, that we have guys on the floor -- we've got some shooters alongside me, then you have Tracy, and I knew offhand if there's one guy they're going to double off and leave off, it would be me, and I have to complement those guys. I may not shoot at a 55, 50-some percent clip, but if I can shoot in the 45, 46 percent area and be able to make the wide-open shots, it'll help out, help the team out a great deal. Q. You mentioned this last night, you said, "We shot 62 and a half percent and it was close at the end of the game." How much of that is present in you guys' mind? RAFER ALSTON: It's present on our mind. We talked about it at film session. But it's unbelievable, because they shot above 50 percent. Both teams were really hitting. Kobe had it going early. He tailed off a bit, but then Lamar picked it up, Gasol was on fire all night, Ariza was able to stick some threes, Farmar came in and made some big shots. I think both teams are trying to get back to having more of a defensive presence in the game as opposed to thinking offense first, then defense. But it's hard sometimes, especially if you're making shot after shot after shot. The offenses feel so great that your mind drifts a little bit defensively and you miss a help assignment, you make a defensive mistake. Things like that happen. Q. You know Kobe pretty well and he expressed a lot of frustration at the end of the game that he didn't close the way he usually does and that he missed some key free throws and some key shots at the end of the game. What do you know about him after he has a performance he doesn't like, about what he comes back like in the next game? RAFER ALSTON: Kobe is going to come out in more of an attack mode again, as he did in yesterday's game. He loves the challenge of bouncing back and he doesn't like the feeling of disappointment setting in and staying in his mind. We have to be mindful of that, that he's going to come out and he's going to look to impose his will on the game from start to finish, and if he has that opportunity again, we have to understand he's not one to let it happen on back-to-back occasions. Q. Dwight used the word "silly" last night to describe how unpredictable you guys are. He said this is a silly team. What do you think that is you guys can be, you shot 65 percent last night, Game 1 you shot 29 percent, people were ready to bury you after Game 2. What's the quality of this team that allows you to be so unpredictable at times? RAFER ALSTON: I think, one, our personality. We're very upbeat. We love to put a smile on each other's face even before games. If you come in our locker room, you're going to see guys happy. That's how we keep each other from being so tense going into the game. The good thing is we believe in not only ourselves but in one another, and we encourage each other not only by words, and Dwight is big on sending inspirational text messages. But during a game if a guy is shooting bad, we're going to continue to give him the ball to get him going. We do it for a number of us, we do it for Dwight, myself, Rashard, Turkoglu, Pietrus, Courtney Lee. We know a guy like myself, I was probably shooting 17 percent coming into Game 3. These guys kept firing me the ball, they kept texting me telling me to play my game, do the things I'm accustomed to doing. We have plenty of ways to encourage and inspire each other, and that's just the makeup of our personalities in that locker room. Q. You guys in Game 2 at one point didn't play any point guards. They were all sitting on the bench. Last night you came up big. Is it settled down? Do you guys feel it's settled down? How does it affect you? Or do you think that Stan is just going to adjust during the game? RAFER ALSTON: Well, Stan has done a big job adjusting. I think also Jameer and I haven't really been consistent hitting the shot, and I think that game in Game 2, he was searching for guys that can possibly stick the shot, especially when they double- and triple-team Dwight like they have been. It's nothing against Jameer and I, just a matter of, hey, you guys weren't actually sticking the shots, and Coach being the coach, he's searching for answers. That's how we take it, we didn't take it personal. So Game 3 I was making shots, making things happen, giving us a good tempo, a good pace, a good flow, and he came back to me earlier than I thought in the fourth quarter. Q. Isn't that kind of a little extra pressure? There's enough pressure as there is in The Finals, that you're out there, and if you're open like sometimes you are, you've got to stick shots or you're back on the pine? RAFER ALSTON: You don't think like that as a player. You don't think if I miss this shot I'm coming out. You just play the game and allow him to coach the game and allow us to play the game, and that's the way it's been since I've arrived here. I don't think Coach bases so much of what he's doing on the fact that guys are making or missing. It just so happened that in that Game 2 the game was so close together, it was so close, that it could have come down to a situation where they double-teamed Dwight and he'd have to kick it out and rotate the ball around the perimeter and maybe I'm stuck with it, maybe Jameer is stuck with it, maybe Courtney, Mickael, somebody that hasn't really been consistent with the ball. Coach didn't want to live and die with that one. End of FastScripts |
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