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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v MAGIC

May 26, 2010

Stan Van Gundy

ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Game Five

Orlando Magic: 113
Boston Celtics: 92

Q. Some early turnovers, you've been trying to get your offense on track.
COACH VAN GUNDY: Yeah, I thought we turned it over early, and I think our first three possessions, you know, and we had some times where we still didn't take care of the ball real well, but we cut down the turnovers a little bit.
I thought our pace was good. Thought we let down the pace a little bit early in their third quarter, but I thought for the most part our pace was good, and I thought our ball movement was good.
So it was our best offensive night of the series. Obviously, Game 6, we'll need to be even better at both ends. Huge, huge challenge in front of us, but it's a challenge we've worked hard to get to, so...

Q. Jameer and Dwight's will, it seemed like they weren't going to let you lose or they weren't going to let you quit?
COACH VAN GUNDY: I thought there were two or three plays in the first quarter and maybe more where Dwight's effort was incredible. There was one he went the length of the floor to block the shot. I just thought his effort was incredible.
And, I think, again, you know, people talk all the time about leadership and guys talking in the locker room and all of that. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but what leads your teammates is playing that hard and people follow along. That's leadership, and I think both of those guys as our captains came with great energy and great, great toughness. And that is the leadership you need.
It's okay if you want to say something, too. But a lot of people talk. It's about playing that hard and that well.

Q. Your team's three-point shooting has ramped up since the second half of the previous game. Are you doing something with your scheme. Is it Jameer's penetration or is it just a matter of hitting open shots?
COACH VAN GUNDY: It's a little bit of everything. I think our pace and our energy and our ball movement was better. And when we did get the shots, we made them. So it's a little bit of everything. They shot the ball very, very well from three tonight also.
I'll tell you what, Rasheed Wallace, I mean, I want to say this in the right way -- I hate the guy. I mean, he never, ever -- same thing when I was in Miami -- it's like the guy never, ever, ever has a bad game against the team I coach, you know. So incredible. He's playing extremely well.

Q. Can you talk about the play of J.J. Redick, and the bench overall? But Redick had a stretch of minutes where I think he was the best guy on the floor for a few minutes?
COACH VAN GUNDY: You can decide who the best player on the floor was. But I thought he played really well, particularly from that first stint he had. Late first quarter to the mid-way point or so of the second quarter. I thought he gave us a huge lift offensively.
I said it after last game, J.J.'s just a guy that I have great trust in because I know how hard he's going to go at it. I know how hard he's worked and I know he's never going to be afraid of anything.
So he played very, very well again. I thought Jason Williams had his best game of the series. I thought he did a real good job of pushing the ball up-and-down the floor.
We've got to work with our fours. I think they struggled with some defensive situations Brandon and Marcin both. And Pietrus hit some huge shots.
I thought the three in front of our corner on the bench in the first half was huge. We were sitting a lot of guys on the bench to try to keep them from getting fouls, and we didn't have a lot of offense on the floor. We were a little stagnant. He hit that big three in front of our bench.
I thought you can look at the final score and a lot of things happened. I thought that was one of the better shots particularly of the first half. So I thought he gave us very good minutes.

Q. Doc said he didn't think Kendrick Perkins deserved either of those technicals. What were your thoughts on that?
COACH VAN GUNDY: I don't call technical fouls, so I don't have any -- I don't have any thoughts. They look a lot I didn't think Dwight deserved the flagrant foul from the last game. I didn't think Matt Barnes deserved the flagrant foul they gave to him against Kevin Garnett. So we all have things we don't like.

Q. If you look at the team's performance from games 1, 2, and 3, and games 4 and 5, it's like night and day. What would you say is the biggest difference between the teams playing in games 4 and 5 as opposed to 1 through 3?
COACH VAN GUNDY: I think we've played at a much, much higher energy level. And I think that clearly we've had a lot more guys play well. Jameer and Dwight have both played very, very well. But I would say if I had to point out one thing, it's our energy level.
Tonight the biggest thing in the game for us, bigger than anything else, is we have fought all along. I said to you guys rebounding would be huge in this series. We have not done a real good job on the boards throughout the series. Tonight we were great on the boards. And I think that probably everybody will look at the three-point shooting and all of that. But probably the biggest thing tonight is that we dominated the glass.

Q. Lot of wild ebbs and flows in this series, but do you feel like you have momentum? I know you're still down in the series?
COACH VAN GUNDY: I don't know if you can say you have momentum when you're down 3-2, going into their place. It's hard to say you have momentum. I still look at it like we're climbing a huge mountain right here. But we are playing better.
But we'll have to go up there and play even harder and even better in Game 6. So I think momentum from game to game is sort of an overrated thing to begin with.

Q. What about the confidence level?
COACH VAN GUNDY: Well, I'm going to be honest, I don't think that -- maybe a little bit, and some individuals were struggling a little bit. I don't think confidence has ever been a huge problem with our team. I don't think it's that.
I don't think we've ever thought like this is a team we can't play with or anything else. So clearly when you've won a couple games, you feel better about yourselves and your confidence level goes up. But I don't think that means the other team's confidence level goes down at all.
We're going to have to play a great, great game on Friday night.

End of FastScripts

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