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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v MAGICMay 28, 2010Lavoy AllenPaul PierceBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Six Celtics: 96 Q. You guys were obviously up 3-0. Was history of not wanting to be the first team to lose after taking the first three games of the Series, did that help motivate you tonight or did that come into play at all? RAY ALLEN: I definitely, after Game 3 when we won, we lose Game 4, and somebody said that to me in the locker room. The Bruins came up, and I didn't want to start thinking that negative thought. But we had one more win, we had one more game. Today watching film just from one of the previous games, I seen that same stat come up, something came on the bottom of the monitor that said no team in the history of the game has lost after going up 3. So you see when you're going through this process you see so many different things or philosophies and you don't want to buy into them. You have to stay positive. For us as a team, we knew what it was that caused us not to win two games, but we just had to go out on the floor and do it and not worry about the periphery things, all the things that are being talked about. You have to keep yourself away from it, and I thought we did a good job of it coming into this game. PAUL PIERCE: That was a good answer. Q. Did that factor into anything? PAUL PIERCE: Me, personally, I never really think negative about losing or being up 3-0 and something tragic happening. My whole mindset is coming into here we're going to win this game no matter what. This team's going to walk out of this building with a win, that is my whole mindset. As far as what happened with hockey, this is not hockey. It's basketball. Even though one day it's possibly going to happen, I'm pretty sure as long as this game is being played it will happen one day. I'm just glad we were able to prolong it one more year. Q. Can you talk about your performance on the glass tonight? You led the team this Series in rebounding. Was that a point of emphasis for you coming in? PAUL PIERCE: Yeah, Doc and Tibbs, the whole coaching staff, made that a point of emphasis. This is a pretty good rebounding team. The thing was it was going to have to come from our guards. Ray and Rondo really rebounded the ball well this Series. The big guys have so much work with Dwight Howard trying to box him out. It's hard to block him out and to get the rebound. So the key was to keep a body on him, and get the guards in here rebounding. It was an emphasis on that Series. We felt like if we control the glass, we have a great chance at winning. Most times we do if we win on the rebounds. Q. You lost the last two, things seemed to be getting overheated on a lot of different fronts. Can you just talk about keeping your heads together tonight and being kind of business-like out there and running your stuff? RAY ALLEN: To me I thought everything that we went through in Game 5 down in Orlando made us stronger. What Glen went through, what Perk went through, you know, Rasheed going through what he went through with five fouls. He fouled out. He didn't take any fouls home with him. So I think we went through so much yesterday and going into today, everybody had a fresher perspective on what we didn't want to do and what we needed to do to win this game. Q. Can you talk about the contribution from Nate? He really didn't play for the last 20, 30 games of the year. Doc kept saying he'd win a game for us. Stay ready. Just talk about what he did to be in that position? PAUL PIERCE: Obviously, if you watched the game, he was huge. Us, one of the reasons we brought him in if you look at our team over the last couple years, three years, we brought guys in in the middle of the year to help us in these type of situations when we get to the Playoffs. Last year we were injured. The year before it was P.J. Brown who came up big and won a game for us versus Cleveland, and this year it was Nate. Somewhere along the line these guys that are role players that people don't really talk about come along and help us win games. They really get overlooked. Rasheed had his time. Baby had his moments. T.A.'s had his moment and now Nate. I thought it was huge for him. He hasn't played a lot of basketball in the Playoffs. He kind of filled out the rotation. But my hat's off to him because usually young players they kind of mentally fall out of it when they don't play. They just go through the motions and practice. Really not into it because they're worried about their time. That's normal for a young player. But he kept his poise. He came into practice, got his work in, shot the ball, and did whatever he had to do to stay ready. Tonight his number was called, and that just shows his true professionalism being ready when his number was called. The game could have went either way at that point. Because at that point we were only up about 6 or 8, Rondo gets hurt, and he comes in as a huge spark plug and really pushed this game up for us. Q. I'm not sure if you remember, but last year after Game 7 it was you two at the podium after the elimination. Neither one of you were obviously happy. But can you talk about not only beating the defending Eastern Conference champions, but the team that knocked you out last year? RAY ALLEN: I remember it like it was yesterday. I do remember once zero hit the clock, going over to Rashard and telling them congratulations, good luck. Go win the whole thing. Talking to Dwight about it, saying the same thing. So the difference the year makes. We retooled. Everybody is in this predicament where we've done everything we needed to do at this point in the Playoffs to move on to the next round. So the team, the coaching staff has done a great job. Coming into this game tonight everybody was tremendously focused and we didn't want to let this one slip away. So we did everything we could. Again, like Game 4, winning that game I don't think we had the greatest of perspectives. We thought about not going back to Orlando as opposed to just winning that game. Sometimes that can bite you a little bit. For the most part today we came in, and we knew this was do or die for us in the game and we played that way. Q. You guys have had a lot of success this season on the road as opposed to two seasons ago in the postseason. What is it about this team that enables you to have so much success on the road? PAUL PIERCE: The only thing that's tough for me to put my finger on is how we're a better road team than home team. But over the last few years we've been a great road team. Doesn't matter pretty much. We have the focus, we have veterans, and I think when you play on the road that's what you've got to have. Most young teams get intimidated by the road and that's why they can't win. But you have a team that's very confident, very poised and has all the characteristics that you need to win on the road. Got the toughness. That's what you're going to need. This has been the toughest road in the Playoffs that I've ever played in just knowing that I had to go on the road all these Series. Then one more Series on the road. So it really shows a lot about this team. The mental toughness that it's taken to do what we're doing. Q. It seemed last month of the season you guys were choosing rest over wins. Could you see what was happening then and how that's worked up until now? RAY ALLEN: Well, in '08 we talked so much about getting home court advantage. We didn't know exactly how we were going to do in the Playoffs having young players that have not been together too long of a time. So the experience, we didn't know exactly what we were going to be able to put out there in the Playoffs when we hit adversity. So that's all we kept talking about was we want to be at home so we could have that home court advantage. Coming into last year, we started understanding how to win on the road. And this year we were a great road team. So we went through so many different instances. Kevin came into the year where he had surgery during the off-season, so we knew he was going to require more rest. All of us at some point were up-and-down, so we thought about rest more than anything. Like let's get ready for the Playoffs. As much as we wanted to win during the regular season, you could see everybody's focus like taking care of their bodies. Even if we dropped a game, you knew the next day in the practice facility, if you needed treatment, guys were in there getting treatment. If you had to hit the weight room to get your body strong, guys were in there doing that. If we had days off, guys were staying home getting their rest. Everybody did focus, despite what our record was and despite what we were going through, everybody was focused and wanted to be where we are today. And I think we invested in that throughout the course of the season, regardless of our regular season record indicated. PAUL PIERCE: You want me to answer that? That's Ray Allen, he gave you a great answer (smiling). Q. Doc was saying that even through the trials of the regular season, you knew you had something. What did you know you had and what kind of potential does this team have? PAUL PIERCE: Well, we have a team that the core players here have won a championship. So once you get that under your belt, that's experience you can't take away. So regardless of who you bring in here, the number of players that come in from free agency and who we pick up, the one constant that we had was the great leadership on this ballclub and the starting five that's been together for a few years now. So it wasn't about us going out there and trying to win every game at the beginning. It was about get healthy. And the thing that we had more was if you look at the contenders, you look at Orlando, they changed their starting five. You look at Cleveland, they've got a different starting five. But the one constant Boston had as a contender, we have the same starting five that won a championship. So at the end of the day when the Playoffs start, we know we have that kind of experience and know how going into the Playoffs and know how to win games because of the team that's been together over the last few years. RAY ALLEN: I give the coaching staff tremendous credit. The one thing that Doc said all year was I like this team. I like the guys on this team. We can win it with the guys that are on this team. Whether it was offense or whether it was defense, the one thing he always used to say, when things went bad, we lost things, somebody scored on us -- as players we kind of fight a little bit. We need to do this. We need to do that. And Doc would come into the locker room and say, we're not changing anything. What we're going to do is do what we're doing harder. We are not getting ready to change things. We have the same thing that we won a championship with and we've got better players in here now with Rasheed and Marquis. And later on, Nate. He stuck to the script the whole time. He had confidence in us as players. And the game plan, offensively what we were doing, and defensively he kept saying there -- there may be a point where we thought yeah, no, and we were wavering a little bit -- but he kept saying we were the best defensive team in the NBA. And he believed that. He believed in us and started putting it out there. Q. The five days of rest you're about to get, how badly does this team need it? PAUL PIERCE: I know I need it. I've got a couple injuries that I kind of want to cure you up over the last couple of days. Just minor stuff like foot, back, stuff like that. But nothing major for me, you know. Running into Dwight Howard really doesn't help your body none going through a Series like this. When you're constantly going over screens that he's setting, it wears on you. Q. You guys obviously talk a lot about trust and balance, and it's clear you trust each other in terms of the offense. But on some level people have to step up and take control of the offense, and Doc identified you two guys as key match-ups in terms of scoring points. Did you have that mindset coming in tonight and throughout the Series? RAY ALLEN: Well, I think the ball is going to find either Paul or myself if we're playing the right way. Rondo if he starts to break -- the game is so unpredictable, but with the way we play the game, when Rondo starts to break, Paul's on the perimeter. I'm on the perimeter. He has us. We just keep the floor spaced and allow him to attack and penetrate. But most of the plays were run through P. We're going to keep moving and trying to create in his direction. But once Rondo attacks, Paul gets open, and Kevin's in the post, you never really know who is going to get the ball, and that is the beautiful thing about our offense. Because of the unselfishness when we're playing well, throughout the season, we've shown moving the ball from one side to the other beats every defense because we have too many great players in each position from three-point shooters. We've got great post players. We've got great cutters. Guys coming off the bench that are tremendous scorers. So we've got to sometimes do less to do more to help this team score and win, and make the offense look good. And it takes a lot of pressure off our defense. Q. Just want to ask your emotions and your feelings about getting back to the Finals and what this opportunity means for both you guys right now? PAUL PIERCE: Man, it's a great feeling. You never take these moments for granted. This is an opportunity that I have for my second trip to the Finals. Knowing that a lot of guys never made it. So we're real excited about this. Going to soak it all up. Going to enjoy it. There's nothing like it. Being the only team -- one of the last teams standing. All 28 NBA teams got to watch us now. So we never take these moments for granted. Especially at this point in my career where it's winding down. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, to get back here is a great accomplishment, but even greater if we win another one. End of FastScripts |
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