|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v MAGICMay 24, 2010Dwight HowardJameer NelsonBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Four Orlando Magic 96 Q. Jameer, explain how you were a lot more effective coming off the high screen-and-roll tonight as opposed to the previous three games. JAMEER NELSON: I was more aggressive and not worried about mistakes. I think the first three games I was worried about swinging the ball and getting everybody involved. But my thing is if I get in the paint and be aggressive, that's how I get everybody involved instead of me maintaining and coming off the screen and just taking one dribble, trying to put the pressure on those guys. Q. This question is for Dwight about Jameer: A lot of the talk in the series has been about Rajon Rondo and how well he's played and how he's affected the series. You think a lot of people forgot that the guy next to you is a pretty good young point guard as well? DWIGHT HOWARD: I don't think they forgot. I just think the first three games he wasn't as aggressive as he needed to be. And tonight he was aggressive. He was attacking the basket. That's what he did in the first two series. We need him to just continue to do that. He was effective tonight attacking and making good passes to whoever was open. So hopefully he can continue that. Q. Jameer, I wanted to ask you, what was going through your head at the end of regulation when the Celtics rebounded and didn't call time-out and went for the win without stopping the clock? JAMEER NELSON: Just get a stop. At that point you can't play tentative. You have to go and try to get a stop. We did that. Guys who were out there on the perimeter guarding the ball pretty well, they did a great job of guarding the ball. I think they ran a 2-3 pick-and-roll. I just saw a loose ball and I tried to dive on it. I knew time was going to run out. I tried to dive on it and hold it. Q. Jameer, Dwight, I talked to you guys this morning about being captains and talking to your teammates about not letting them quit. Did you kind of show that with your play tonight that you weren't going to let the team quit? JAMEER NELSON: Yeah, of course. We've been here longer than anybody. We look at it as our team. A lot of things fall on us. We take pride in what we do in the course of a season. We just wanted to come out tonight and prove to ourself that it wasn't going to be any letdowns and come out fighting and not coming out to fight to lose. Just come out fighting. Q. Dwight, Coach mentioned that before the game you came up to him and said you might need a blow early because you're going to go hard. Can you talk about your mindset going in and what your thoughts were before the game. DWIGHT HOWARD: I just told Coach that I was going to give everything I had. And if I got tired, just give me a sub. I just have to trust the next guy to come in and do the same thing. That's what I told the rest of the guys who were tired. Just trust our teammates. At this point we got to continue to trust each other. And we did that tonight. Q. This is for either or both of you: It looked right out of the gate like you guys controlled the game in the way you haven't in the prior three. Sort of the game we felt we would see early on. Can you comment on that, right or wrong? DWIGHT HOWARD: Yeah, I think that's the one thing we talked about the last couple of days. They've won almost every first quarter. By doing that, they ended up getting the lead and they never looked back. Tonight we were very aggressive from the start. I think that's what we have to do. We have to run this team, try to move the ball and not let them get their defense set. Because they're pretty good in the half court. Once we run the ball, then we're tough. So Jameer did a good job of pushing. Everybody did a good job of running with him. And then on the other end, we tried to get stops. Q. Dwight, how would you describe the fight in this team? DWIGHT HOWARD: Well, you know, we know that we were down 3-0. We didn't want to go home. It starts with me and Jameer. I think tonight me and Jameer showed our leadership by just playing hard. We never stopped losing faith in each other. I just kept telling Jameer, "You have to believe it. You have to believe the next shot is going in." We did that. It starts with him. We have to be the leaders for this team. It's not about points or anything like that. Just showing everybody that hey, follow us. We'll lead the way. Q. Jameer, did you call the bank shot? And what was going on with that play? Vince said he was getting ready to rebound the ball. JAMEER NELSON: I didn't call the bank shot, but it went in. And, you know, like I said, I kind of misjudged where I was at. I was kind of for the first time wide open, and it kind of shocked me. I kind of rushed my shot, but it went in and I'm happy it did. It was a big shot at a crucial point of the game. Q. Can both of you guys briefly address what it means to be going home with a chance to maybe put a little more pressure on those guys. JAMEER NELSON: It feels great. We have a long battle in front of us. But like I said before, I mean, it can be done just one game at a time. Just cut down some of the mistakes we're making on the court in the course of the game. Some of those loose balls that we got tonight, get more of them. Like I said, just take it one game at a time. Q. Dwight, what was the biggest motivating factor that you took from your Game 3 loss? DWIGHT HOWARD: That it wasn't over. Even though we knew we were down 0-3, you have to win four games to win a series. I just kept -- after we lost the game, I was like man, I feel so bad. And I just kept telling myself don't stop. Don't give up. Just keep fighting. I talked to a couple of people, one of those people was Hakeem Olajuwon. Me and him had a great talk. He just inspired me to keep playing. So I didn't want to give up, because I just felt like there was a lot of people pulling for us to keep going. That was it. Q. Dwight, can you just talk about the two big threes Jameer hit in the overtime and how that turned the tide of the game. DWIGHT HOWARD: I thought his play throughout the game was the reason we got a chance to win. And from then on, it was all about confidence and we trust him. And he has to have confidence in himself. He did tonight. I don't know too many people who hit bank shot threes in overtime. He's one guy that if he believes he can do it, he will. He did a great job tonight. Q. Did you guys pick up anything in this game tonight or was it just effort and execution? Did you pick up some things that you can use for the next games? DWIGHT HOWARD: It's all effort. You have to win the effort game. And also, we have to do a better job of not turning the ball over. Those lead to easy shots for them or foul trouble for us. So we have to really do a good job of not turning the ball over. The one thing that has been big in this series is just effort. We got to continue to do a better job on that end. Q. Dwight, can you describe what happened with you and Garnett in the third quarter. That little dustup you guys had. DWIGHT HOWARD: I don't remember what happened. It was in the heat of the moment. It's over with now. I don't even remember. Q. Dwight, Coach said that you can't win a game like this, a closeout game, unless there's a belief you can still win the series as whole. DWIGHT HOWARD: Say that again? Q. Stan said you can't win a closeout game like this unless there's a belief you can win the series. It has to be more than just one game. Is that belief still strong you can win the series? DWIGHT HOWARD: Yeah. We didn't win this game just to win a game to say we were in this series. You know, we want to make this a series and win this series. We all have to believe that. I told the guys before the game put out all disbelief, anxiety and fear. We just got to keep playing. We can't think about losing or think about being swept. We have to think about winning and staying together. We did that. We got to go home, we have to come out with the same effort that we had tonight. And try not to get as many turnovers. If we do that, we should win the game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everybody. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|