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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v MAGIC

May 22, 2010

Stan Van Gundy

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Three

Boston Celtics 94
Orlando Magic 71

Q. Stan, what was the most disappointing part? Was it the defense that crumbled early?
STAN VAN GUNDY: The most disappointing to me, was that I didn't have our team better ready to play. That was what was disappointing to me, was my job. That was the most disappointing. I mean, yeah -- it starts with me. It's my job. I'm the coach of this team. It starts with me. I'm not happy with where I had our team tonight, anything about what I did, my plan, any adjustments, anything.

Q. Stan, a lot has been made of their defense, but your inability to get stops, how frustrating is that?
STAN VAN GUNDY: I thought in the first half everything being in the paint I thought our rotations, we were a step late on everything. I thought they did a good job in exploiting what we were trying to do defensively. That combined with the fact that we were a step late in everything, they just riddled us. And again, I'll take the blame on that too.

Q. The one play where Rondo chased down the loose ball with Jason, just talk about the hustle both ways and what that did for both sides. It seems like a play you can't --
STAN VAN GUNDY: I thought there were several in the first half hustle plays like that that all went their way. They were a step ahead of us on every play. I thought they worked harder than we did. I thought they outcompeted us. And I think that play was just -- one of the plays you could point to was indicative of what was going on.

Q. I guess what conversations did you have with your players about that hustle and effort and things like that? And do you have any sense of --
STAN VAN GUNDY: I don't know about conversations. I mean, it was just something that, you know, we got hit early in the game. You know, we were a step late. They got off to the early lead. I just didn't think that we stayed with the fight very well at all.
I think if I could have maybe, from my standpoint, had us ready, had us with a better plan at either end to get off to a better start, it could have changed things. But then I thought we just sort of went sideways mentally and our effort dropped and everything else.

Q. Everybody says the same thing because they have no one player to focus on, they're more difficult to game-plan for. Just talk about, you are disappointed in the adjustments and things like that. What kind of problems did they present if you have to adjust in a game --
STAN VAN GUNDY: They played very well. I don't mean to take anything away from them. I thought they played extremely well. Their ball movement in this series has been outstanding. The unselfishness they have and the number of weapons they have certainly has made them very difficult to guard. It's an outstanding team playing very, very well. But we need to compete harder than we did tonight. And I need to give our guys a better plan than what we had going in.

Q. Stan, given this game was so big, how did you pick yourself up and get ready for Monday?
STAN VAN GUNDY: That's a great question. I think that what I said to them after the game was there's a lot of guys in that room who have worked long and hard to bring this franchise up a long way. Bob and Otis happened to be in the room at that time. Dwight, Jameer, J.J. were all here when they were sub-.500 team. And then the other guys, you know, have been with us a little while. And have -- Rashard three years and Marcin three years and so on, a couple of guys for more than a year, and have worked very hard to take this franchise up to where it's a contender. And where it has gained respect and everything else.
That game out there tonight, not just the score, but just the way it went, is disappointing because that's not who we are and that's not who we - when I say "we," those guys - have worked so hard to become. So how do we pick it up? I mean, I think between right now and Monday night, you know, there's going to have to be a lot of soul searching and a lot of pulling together. The easiest thing to do for anybody when things go badly is to escape. That's what we all want to do. All of you. When things are bad, you want to escape from it. That's going to be everybody's natural reaction, escape and try to escape blame as much as you can. So it gets placed somewhere else. That's everybody's -- I'm not saying our guys will do that, I'm saying that's everybody's natural inclination. And it takes very mature, very mentally tough people to stand up and say no, I'm part of this and we're going to pull together. We're going to bounce back and come out and show who we are and get out here and win on Monday night.
That's not an easy thing to do. It goes against everybody's human nature right now, but if we don't have that kind of toughness, then we shouldn't be here anyway.

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