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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v MAGICMay 22, 2010Kevin GarnettRajon RondoBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Three Boston Celtics 94 Q. Rajon, can you talk about the play you made stealing from Jason Williams. And Kevin what was your reaction to that particular play? RAJON RONDO: I just wanted it. I just wanted to make a play on the ball. I think he had the angle on me and I decided to dive for the ball, and it just so happened I came up with it, and made the play and scored the ball. KEVIN GARNETT: My reaction was just like everybody's else's - pure grit, pure hustle play. I told him after the game when he was in the back, I told him that was probably the play of the playoffs to me. That was just pure hustle. Pure hustle, pure basketball, pure I-want-it-more-than-you type of play. And I thought it was a foul, too. But that's just me. I said this about Shorty, man, he's in a zone. He's just showing the world what he's made of. The future is scary. Q. Can you talk about the defensive rotations and kind of where this team is at defensively and how it's clicking for you guys. KEVIN GARNETT: We had two good days of practice. We worked on a lot of different stuff. A lot of different schemes. I think our two best days since we've been in the playoffs. We worked on a lot of different stuff. And tonight we just applied it. It's that simple. I think everybody was on one string. When the guy was supposed to be there, he was there. There wasn't a lot of talking. There was a lot of reacting. Guys were constantly communicating to each other. And it showed. RAJON RONDO: He said everything. Q. You made so many great athletic plays, artistic plays. The steal going after that loose ball was as much about getting dirty and throwing yourself on the floor. Are you as proud of that as any of those highlight plays you made? RAJON RONDO: Definitely. Like Kevin said, I just wanted it. I definitely want to win. We're not settling. We came here 2-0, but we know we have to take one game at a time. I just tried to do the little things on the court, the intangibles and came up with the play. Q. For both of you guys: The first two games I think the total was seven points difference between both the teams. What caused such a gap tonight between both teams do you think? RAJON RONDO: Defensively our defense was huge tonight. The bottom line, we played hard. We played very hard tonight. Simple as that. I think we won the 50-50 games tonight. All the loose balls. Guys were rotating well, especially on Dwight. We had a couple of lob plays. I don't think we had any deflections on his lob plays. That was big. Ray and Paul, it wasn't any of "my faults" tonight. Everybody was there helping each other off the floor, helping each other in rotations. It was one of our best defensive performances of the year, probably. Q. Where would you say the effort ranks when you come into a playoff game like this? Where does it rank in terms of other things? RAJON RONDO: Right now, all I think about is now. That's probably number one for us. We just played extremely hard tonight. We dove for the loose balls. We took charges. We helped each other when another man got beat. It was fun to be out there and a part of it. Q. What are you guys doing to them at the three-point line? It's like you're taking away their special power, almost. KEVIN GARNETT: We know this team is going to put up a lot of threes. One thing we want to do is try to take the three away from them. They're not a good three-point shooting team; they're a great three-point shooting team, and we know that. We know that a lot of teams usually double Dwight or he's the primary focus. Our mentality is we try to go straight up one-on-one. Everybody got to sort of in some ways grit down and guard their own. When it comes to collapsing and -- he does get free, we all are having to adjust and rotate and help the next man, piggyback. What Rondo said earlier, it wasn't a lot of "my faults" tonight. It was responsible and everybody was doing what they were supposed to do. Q. How much of what happened tonight was things going right because you made them happen, and how much was just the Magic having an off-day? Looks like a lot of missed shots early in the game, they did a lot of things right and then missed fairly easy shots. How much can you take credit for tonight and how much was just an off-night for them? RAJON RONDO: They just missed shots. Q. You guys have been getting really big minutes from Big Baby and Rasheed Wallace off the bench. Can you talk about that a bit. RAJON RONDO: They have been playing great. Especially for me. Baby is popping, he's rolling, he's making his shots, he's making the next pass. Rasheed, and they are doing the defense things. You can't figure out guys like Tony Allen coming out, giving us energy on the defensive end. Our bench is playing very well. Probably the best they played all season. Just like the starting five is. Q. How mentally tough is Rondo? And do you see similarities in your intensity and his intensity? KEVIN GARNETT: He's very mentally tough. Just when you think he can't handle certain things, I think he challenges himself in what you ask. Doc. He's one of the most up-front, in-your-face kind of coaches. And to be a point guard for his team and nonetheless be able to run the offense the way he wants to, says a lot for who you are in running the team. I don't think you get the kind of respect on this team just being the average person that comes in and don't really put a lot of work in. You don't even really get the attention nor do you get the respect from the guys that's on this team if you're not of this caliber with the work ethic and the days where -- you don't want -- when asked to come in here, he grits down, he comes in, he works extremely hard he's earned the respect of every guy on this team. Enough said. RAJON RONDO: Appreciate it. End of FastScripts |
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