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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v MAGIC

May 22, 2010

Dwight Howard

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Three

Boston Celtics 94
Orlando Magic 71

Q. Dwight, the first couple of games were a couple of possessions each basically, seven points, I think, total. What do you think caused such a big gap in this game here tonight?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Just effort. They played a lot harder than us tonight. They went after all the loose balls. They did it from the tip-off till the end of the game. That's why they won.

Q. Dwight, how shocked are you with this? You know how resilient a team you've been all year long. You bounced back. Are you kind of surprised by this?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I'm not surprised. I just think that right now we got to find ourselves. Last three games we haven't played like Orlando Magic. Seemed like tonight our bodies was here, but our minds wasn't. Our hearts weren't -- seemed like it wasn't into it.
I don't know what happened. I just think we just got to come out and keep fighting, stay aggressive and, you know, not give up. I won't give up. I want to stay on my teammates and not let them give up either.

Q. Dwight, Matt Barnes said after the game he has not seen the Magic yet in this series. Who are the Magic that we can expect to see in Game 4?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Well, all season long I don't think there's been a game where the other team outplayed us, outhustled us, and just worked harder than us. They did that for the last three games. And that's why they're ahead.
You can't make any excuses about it. We can't point the fingers and say what everybody else needs to do. We just got to come out, you know, as individuals and play harder. The coach has done everything he could. It's not on the coach. It's on the players.

Q. Dwight, what were the Celtics doing offensively, especially early, to click as much as --
DWIGHT HOWARD: They just moved the ball. There was a lot of possessions where they made six or more passes to get shots. And then on the other end we would come down, make one or two passes and shoot the ball. They're doing all the simple things to win the game. Nobody is out there trying to go one-on-one. They're doing it all together. That's why they're up in this series.
We just got to find a way to play basketball and be free. That's it.

Q. Are you facing a different Celtic team than the one you had success with during the regular season? If so, how are they different?
DWIGHT HOWARD: They're just playing the same basketball. I don't think they changed who they've been over the years. They're tough, they play hard, and they've been playing together. Every team goes through stretches where they don't play as well. But those guys, they're veterans, they got a lot of guys who know how to play basketball. They got some good leaders on their team. And you watch them this season, they just went up and down and then they just picked it up at the right moment.
So they've been playing great basketball. We have to find a way to stick together and not hang our heads.

Q. Is this kind of a point of soul-searching now where you have to try to put it together and win one game before you can think about trying to get back in the series?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think we all know what we have to do. We can't just continue to talk about soul-searching and what we need to do. We got to do it. All of us talk about this every day, every practice, whatever we have to do, we just got to put it in the game. And like I said, we can't hold our heads. This is a very tough situation, but if we already think about being defeated, then we shouldn't even come for Game 4. So we got to just keep fighting and stay together.

Q. I'm wondering if you can tell us, is there anything you have to do differently strategically? Will you change your game plan for Game 4 or is it a matter of each man bring more to the game?
DWIGHT HOWARD: We have got to bring more to the game. I think when you try to change up schemes and everything because of who you are playing, sometimes it doesn't work. I think you should just go with what's been working all year. So the one thing for us that has been working was our effort. We haven't brought that these last three games. I think the second game we came out with a better effort. But you can't teach that. You can't make strategies for effort. It comes from within.
Everybody got to go home tonight, tomorrow just think about what every person has to do individually to get a win on Monday.

Q. You talked earlier in the day, you were pretty confident you guys would come out with a lot more energy and a lot more effort. Can you reconcile just kind of what happened from the get-go with you guys?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Well, I think we came out the game tonight, everybody was ready to go. We missed a couple of shots and they started making a couple of shots. We came out with a lot of energy, moved the ball, or whatever. After we started missing a couple of shots and they kept making shots, everybody wanted to do it on their own. It wasn't team basketball. From then on, they just kept pounding it in on us.
Give the Celtics a lot of credit, man. They've been playing hard, they've been playing together. They're playing like a team that wants the win the championship.

Q. Dwight, does it offend you when the fans in Boston are chanting "Beat L.A." and Boston is still playing Orlando?
DWIGHT HOWARD: A lot of things offend us on the court. We have to keep playing. We can't allow that to, like, mess with our heads. Like I said, we know we're in a tough situation, but we just got to keep fighting. Like I said, I won't give up. You know, my team, we're going to come out with a better effort and just try to make it a series.

End of FastScripts

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