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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v MAGIC

May 28, 2010

Stan Van Gundy

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Six

Celtics: 96
Magic: 84

Q. We talked about the starts before the game, and they just came out, looks like they came out hard and you guys never recovered?
COACH VAN GUNDY: You know what, they might have come a little harder. But I think also, look, here's what I think happened and it happened to us a couple time in the Series. I think if you really go back and watch the first three or four minutes, okay, I thought early in the game we got outstanding shots.
Then they didn't go down, and then we went through a long stretch there where guys took on the offensive end, where two things happened -- and it's happened a couple time in this Series, and it's disappointing -- then we started forcing our offense instead of continuing to play and trying to get the same shots we got early and we had defensive break downs at the other end. They weren't getting back. They had 16 fast breakpoints in the first half. That's inexcusable in a game like this. You're not going to be able to overcome that unless you make a lot of shots and obviously we didn't.
So I didn't think the start was -- I mean, I thought early on we were okay, and we just didn't make shots, and then we let it get to us, and we did, we broke down.
Then I thought two things happened also. Nate Robinson was huge in the first half. I mean, that was a huge, huge lift for them to have 12 points in the first half. Then I also thought the other real key part of the game -- and it doesn't seem like it because you're down 13 at the half also -- but when Ray hit the two threes bang, bang to start the second half, you know, you come out of the locker room.
We had played well at the end of the first half. I know we were way down still, but we had come from 20-plus down, back to 13, you know. We came out of the locker room I think ready to go after it. Then he knocks down two huge threes and it goes to 19 and gives them a big cushion to work for.
So I thought those were really the keys to the game. Obviously, Paul was great again. But I thought Nate Robinson and his two threes were really huge, and us not getting back on defense in the first half, to me, was from our standpoint the biggest disappointment and one I don't understand.

Q. How critical in your mind was Jameer's early two fouls and then his third mid-way through the second quarter?
COACH VAN GUNDY: You know, I don't know about that. Look, Jameer didn't have a real good night tonight. And I'm not saying that critical of him, because obviously he carried us for a big part of this Series and was fabulous, and tonight he just didn't have a very good game. He had more turnovers. He just, he struggled tonight. The foul trouble was only part of it. He just had a real tough night at an inopportune time.
But like I said, he's a guy with a lot of heart who has been great in the Playoffs this year, and really was our main, if not at times, he and Dwight at times were our only answer, so I'm certainly not sitting up here blaming him.

Q. You got back in the Series by playing harder than them. They got a lot of offense early on, the fast breakpoints. Did it shift a little?
COACH VAN GUNDY: Well, a little bit. I thought their energy was good, but also, you know, our offense hurt us. It was, you know, we didn't move the ball well. When we did get open shots we didn't make any. In the second half in particular trying to come back, we had a lot of open looks and didn't make anything.
So I thought their energy was better than ours in the first half. I was unhappy. 16 fast breakpoints minus five on the glass coming off a game where we limited them in transition, and outrebounded them by 17. Those are obviously huge, okay.
But I think we didn't do those things well, but I think it's also a little too simplistic to leave that game. It was a little bit unlike Game 3. To leave that game, just they played harder. They also shot the crap out of the ball. That doesn't have anything to do with effort. That was they made a ton of shots.
Look, I'm not -- I'm not trying to say anything negative about their energy and how hard they played. It was great. But also you've got to make shots in this league. You've got to make shots. We made a lot of shots in Game 5. That had a lot to do with it. They made a lot of shots tonight that had a lot to do with it. A lot of times it comes down to making and missing.

Q. Now that it's over, how much better are they now than at any time in this second half we talked about they were 27-27, blah, blah, but what's it all add up to? How much better are they now than you saw in the second half of the year?
COACH VAN GUNDY: I think if you come off the two Series they just had, I mean, they beat two very good teams, and made us both look like we weren't very good teams, okay. So Cleveland's upset with the way they played.
We're certainly upset with the way we played. But when you go through two Series like that, I think you have to be fair and say a lot of it has to do with them and their playing very, very well right now.
I think that you've got to admire them as a team. Number one, they're willing to get down and dirty and defend. Number two, it's a very unselfish offensive team. They don't care where it comes from.
So in the last Series, I thought in the Cleveland Series they really rode Kevin Garnett in the post. I thought we sort of took a lot of his post-up game away, so they went other places. Nobody seems the least bit bothered by that. You've got to give them a lot of credit. You've got to give Doc and his coaching staff a lot of credit. I think that they did a great job at both ends of the floor against us.

Q. You talked earlier in the Series about mentally how tough it is in an elimination game when you get behind to kind of fight through that. Did any of that set in in the third quarter?
COACH VAN GUNDY: I think after Ray's two threes, yeah, I do think -- I don't think we quit at all. I think what happens is your confidence and what really happens more than that -- and I thought it happened to us tonight -- is you don't sustain your game. You start doing things. Trying to get it back in a hurry. Going for a steal, running by somebody, leaving somebody open, forcing plays at the offensive end instead of sticking with your game and going possession by possession.
I think if you watch the second half -- now first half you can fault us not getting back, not rebounding, things like that. I think if you really sit down and watch the second half. As bad as it got, I think you'd have a hard time in the second half faulting our energy and effort. I don't think we quit on that game at all, okay. But I do think we got away from our game when we got behind, okay.
Unfortunately, it happens to every team. I think if you go back Game 5, the Celtics got away from their game. But it's something that you've got to do a better job of, and I didn't think even in the first half, like I said, when we missed some shots early, we didn't stick with our game. Same thing happened in the second half.

Q. You talked about Nate a little bit earlier. But the Celtics team is very different with Rondo off the floor and he's not in there. He takes that big fall, and kind of talk about that a -- you talked about it before, but certainly how this Celtics team responded with him off the floor?
COACH VAN GUNDY: Well, it was Nate Robinson. They played great. They actually made their big run with Rondo sitting on the bench. That's not a knock on Rajon Rondo. I'm not sitting up here saying they're a better team without Rajon Rondo, but tonight they were in the first half. Nate Robinson was great.
He's a real talented guy. This is a guy who scored a lot of points in New York. I think what he did tonight was probably what they had in mind when they made the deal. I guess for whatever reason he hadn't played much for them, but in an absolutely huge game, he stepped up and played great tonight.

Q. Looking back over the Series, was it the first two games, the first one in particular at home that kind of set the tone that you guys were able to?
COACH VAN GUNDY: I think, look, I'm not, as I said today and I certainly haven't had time since the end of the game, to sit back and analyze the whole Series and the whole thing. But I think our players -- you can go back to what they said after the games, and I think to have two games in a six-game Series where it's not me, it's even the players, questioning their own effort. That's too much.
It's not like every game you come and play real hard you're going to win at this level, so you can't have two where your effort is subpar. I mean, that's just not acceptable. I think as our guys look back on the Series, that's probably the number one thing that they will fault themselves for.
Then Game 2 I thought we made a good effort. We had the lead with a couple minutes to go, and I've got to take some of the responsibility there. We didn't get great shots going down the stretch. Two straight possessions. We were up 91-90, then we were down 92-91, and we didn't come away with great shots. For me, that's my biggest disappointment coaching-wise in the Series.
But, again, we'll have more time to analyze it. Right now it's just a huge disappointment.

Q. Dwight got an awful lot of abuse from the fans tonight. Did that get to him at all?
COACH VAN GUNDY: Did it look like it got to him?

Q. I'm asking you?
COACH VAN GUNDY: My job's not to analyze the game. I thought he had a hell of a game. I don't know. Did it look like it got to him? You guys watched the game. I don't know. It limited him to 20-some points and 11 or 12 rebounds. Yeah, I think he struggled with it.

Q. There's been one goal all season is to get back and try to win a championship. The abruptness, how much does it sting?
COACH VAN GUNDY: It's as disappointing as it gets. I've never won a championship. The only guy in our locker room that has is Jason Williams. And so if you haven't won a championship, every season ends in disappointment but I think -- I've been through it three times now where I've had teams that I thought were, you know, good enough to have a chance. So when it ends, it's even a bigger disappointment than in the other years.
Yeah, it's tough to take. I just -- I liked our talent. I liked our guys' commitment throughout the year. When you have that as a coach, you feel like you should be able to get them over the top. You really do. You feel like you should be able to get them over the top. So it's disappointing for me that we didn't play better in this Series and get the job done.

Q. Tonight before the game you were insisting that first quarter, the teams that won the first quarter were winning the games. Did that ever echo back on you tonight?
COACH VAN GUNDY: I think it was key the whole Series. Again, I sort of said it laughingly, but there is this thing that people try to perpetuate that the NBA's a fourth quarter league. You don't even need to watch the first three quarters. Turn on the fourth quarter. That's from people who don't study at all and don't follow NBA basketball.
Go back through the year. I haven't done this year's yet, but you're usually at two thirds to three-quarters of the games are won by the team who wins the first quarter. I mean, it's a first-quarter league.
You've got to be ready at the start. It's not like you can't come back. Certainly if it's 25-24, but comebacks happen, but you're up double figures at the end of the first quarter, and that one I don't have an answer to. I'll find out. The odds are astronomical. They really are. It's a first-quarter league. We got off to a bad start. And this Series was certainly a first-quarter Series.

End of FastScripts

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