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NBA FINALS: CELTIC v LAKERSJune 4, 2010Paul PierceLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day Q. How do you guys use this loss as a catalyst to inspire you guys to come out far better in Game 2? PAUL PIERCE: We have no choice. You know, we're playing for a championship here. The loss definitely inspires us, but just being in the NBA Finals should inspire us. We don't need anything to inspire us at this point in the season. It's The Finals, and we have a spark to go on and try to win a championship. Obviously the loss is going to add on to it, but the inspiration is already in there. Q. Doc was just talking about how Kevin had such an amazing practice the day before Game 1 that if that could have been the game, it would have been amazing. Did you notice that, too? Was he going nuts in practice the day before? PAUL PIERCE: He had a good run in practice. He was getting into a nice rhythm, offensive flow. You can have good practices and go out there and play bad games. You can have a bad practice and play good games. At the end of the day you still have to put it on the court regardless. Q. What do you think of the fact that he couldn't finish a dunk or a lay-up with no one around him? PAUL PIERCE: It happens. I've done that throughout the course of my 12 years. We all miss lay-ups, we all miss shots, you've just got to keep playing. Q. When you guys play like this, people say you're too old, but does it get under your skin a little bit that maybe instead of too old people are saying that you guys have gone a little soft and passive? PAUL PIERCE: People got their opinions from what they watch. You know, you get good praise when you win, negative praise when you lose. That's just the nature of the business in anything you do. Me, I really don't pay attention to it. I really don't put nothing into that really. We've made it to the final round with this team with the guys we've got, regardless of their age or regardless of their experience or this or that. But I don't buy into the fact of being too old or whatever, what you guys are talking about. Q. Or maybe being a little passive last night? PAUL PIERCE: We just weren't aggressive, and if you want to use the word "passive," I guess. We weren't aggressive, we were on our heels. So I guess if we were being passive, that's one way to put it. Q. Tell me something about your days at Inglewood High School, your former high school coach, your pickup games at Rogers Park. PAUL PIERCE: I'm not going to get into that stuff right now. We can talk about the game and this stuff, but that's for a later date. Q. Pau Gasol's game seems to have improved a lot since 2008. Can you talk about if there's any differences you're seeing in KG's game since 2008? PAUL PIERCE: Well, obviously he's had to battle with adjustment with an injury, certain things that he's done before he's probably not doing now or he's getting back to doing those things. But of course Pau is a better player. He's got more experience under the Laker system. He has more confidence, he has a championship under his belt. I would expect him to be better. Q. Talking to Kendrick Perkins he said it might be a good idea to get KG more involved in the offense. Do you think that's important for him in the series? PAUL PIERCE: Whatever the offensive game plan is, the coach will advise. Players are going to make their own differing opinions of what they think should happen after a loss. It happens all the time. One player is going to think this and one will think that. I'm sure the coaches will find a good job of getting KG opportunities. We're an equal opportunity team. We don't have one person to help carry us. It's definitely important to get Kevin into a flow, and I'm going to do a better job of that next game. Q. If they decide to try to turn it into a half-court game, do you have to be even more assertive offensively? PAUL PIERCE: If the Lakers -- um, I mean, we can play both. We can run, we can play half-court. I'm going to play the way that I'm going to play that's going to help my team win. If that's me being more aggressive offensively, defensively, I can't really tell you the outcome of what I'm going to do as far as offensively because it changes night in and night out because of the weapons that we have. But I'm going to continue to go out there and guard the guys that I have to guard. Offensively when I'm getting involved in the offense, I'm going to be aggressive and just do what needs to be done on both ends to help us win. That's it. Q. Was it hard to get into any kind of a flow? Stop and go, not just with the whistles but with the made baskets they were making, but it seems like the flow of the game and the made baskets and the whistles all made for a difficult kind of night. PAUL PIERCE: Well, it was difficult for us obviously because of the loss, but we didn't get stops. We fouled, so it was hard for us to really get into a rhythm game and get Rondo out on transition to really exploit that, things that we've done throughout the playoffs. Yeah, it's tough when you don't get stops and you allow offensive rebounds to get a certain flow and play the way we're trying to play out there to get a win. End of FastScripts |
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