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NBA SEASON GAME: HEAT v CELTICSOctober 26, 2010Kevin GarnettPaul PierceBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS HEAT – 80 Q. How are you feeling? And when you first went down on the charge/block did you think (Inaudible)? PAUL PIERCE: A little sore right now. I know when I ran and got up and started walking around on the court, the back started to spasm a little bit. Had the chance to go to the back, took a few Advils and put some heat on it and it loosened up a little bit and it was pretty good for the rest of the game, but it's going to be a little bit sore tonight and tomorrow. Q. Now that it's over, how big was this game? KEVIN GARNETT: I just said to Paul as we were coming in here, I said, are we in The Finals already? You know? But it did have a lot of hype on it. A lot of good personnel on both teams, a lot of outstanding personnel. But to us it's about getting better and defending home court. Tonight was just that. I thought for the most part we executed. You could see that we have a ways to go as far as getting better, but we are a working group, played against a talented Miami group, hats off to them. You could tell both teams were a bit rusty. You could tell there was a lot of hype, a lot of anticipation with this game. Good game, I thought. I thought we played solid in spurts, but for the most part I think we have a lot of room to get better. But overall a win is a win, and we'll take it. Q. KG, talk about your defensive game plan today and how sticking to it pretty much in turn took Miami out of their offensive game plan. They had to take a lot of outside shots and weren't able to get the easy points in the paint. KEVIN GARNETT: Well, I thought we're a defensive team that can score the basketball. Paul has his hands full, I have my hands full, Ray Allen had his hands full. Those three are going to be a force to be reckoned with. With know that. Very talented guys, but it's not one, two, three individuals that make a team. It definitely sets the foundation. But for the most part every time we touch the floor it's about getting better. I thought tonight we did just that. Like I said before, we've got a lot of room to improve, but it's the first night, a lot of expectations on tonight. But for the most part I thought we were solid enough to win, and we want to be better at home. What a way to start the year, with a win at home. Q. Paul, can you take us through the possession with 48 seconds left in the game where you made the pass to Ray for the three-pointer. PAUL PIERCE: I mean, it's just -- we talk about it every day. That's what we work on every day, making that extra pass, not trying to play hero ball. I saw him collapse on me, and you've got one of the greatest shooters in NBA history wide open in the corner, it's a no-brainer. I wanted to get it to him. I have total confidence. That just shows our unselfishness and how we play the game. We make the extra pass. We love playing with each other, and he came up big tonight, and I'm glad he knocked it down. Q. To piggyback on that, can you talk about Ray's knack for hitting those huge shots? PAUL PIERCE: I've been a witness of it the last three years, and he's one of the best players that I've ever played with. It's an honor just to be able to step on the court with him night in and night out. You've got a guy that can take that kind of pressure off you, it's an amazing feeling. I don't know if you guys realize it, but Ray, he's hit so many game winners for us and so many clutch shots for us, we have confidence to get him the ball in these situations. He delivers nine times out of ten. KEVIN GARNETT: And this guy hits big shots himself. PAUL PIERCE: I like watching, too. Q. Kevin, can you sense from playing against these Miami guys that this team is still learning to play together? Does that show on the floor? KEVIN GARNETT: I mean, you guys watched the game. You could see the fact that they haven't necessarily polished or got the whole chemistry thing down, but they will. I know the similarities are there as far as them, and obviously we got together, but scenarios are different. In order for them to get better, they're going to have to continue to go through rough days and dog days, and that's part of it. Lord knows we went through ours, and we learned from it, and I'm pretty sure they'll do the same. Q. Can you just describe what it meant to have Shaq out there with you guys, and can you comment about his debut, what it meant and how he energized this team early on. PAUL PIERCE: He's huge for us. I think the numbers don't really tell you how big he is for us because I remember at one point in the game going to Ray, I think it was the third quarter, we looked up and we were six minutes and in the bonus because Shaq drew about four or five fouls. We're not a team that usually gets in the bonus that early, and that's the presence that he brings. Hopefully it's going to be like that all year long, when you get into a penalty and every foul from then on you go to the free-throw line. Just having him, he's a great finisher. I think him and Kevin, they've been working well and having a lot of dialogue in training camp. I think they've been feeding off each other. I think he opens up Kevin and Kevin opens him up for a lot of one-on-one opportunities. We want to take advantage of that night in and night out. I think that's where our greatest strength is, on the inside, and I'm glad to have him on our team. KEVIN GARNETT: What he said. Q. Is it a concerted effort just to get him going right away? It seemed like Rajon was going to get him going right away. KEVIN GARNETT: Well, he's probably -- I mean, I think Paul will concur with this, but it's a dominant force. You have to pay attention to him when he's on the floor. The things that don't show up on the stats sheet, the motivation on the side, the things he sees, his expertise, his experience, you can't teach that. You can't have someone come in and draw it up on the board and say, hey, this is what you do. It's instilled in him. He opens things up. Him and I, like Paul said, have been having a lot of extended dialogue about the game, and I think the more we play together, the better we'll be. But so far, so good. End of FastScripts |
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