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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v HEATMay 29, 2012Paul PierceMIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day PAUL PIERCE: Fast breaks, just dribbling down the lane. No resistance, no hard fouls. That's something you can't do in the Eastern Conference Finals with so much at stake. We have to make it a lot harder on them. Our defense is much better than it showed last night. Q. One of the things you guys did a good job throughout the playoffs is get to the free‑throw line. Talk about not being able to do that. Is it just a matter of being more aggressive going forward? PAUL PIERCE: Well, yeah. You know, just got to pick my spots, try to get it in transition a little bit more, continue to drive the basketball. I was able to drive. I didn't finish lay‑ups that I usually finish. So I have to do a better job of that. Just continue to play my game. I think I did a good job mixing between shooting my outside shot and driving the ball. So I'm just going to continue to stay aggressive as much as possible. Q. You played a lot of games with Ray. You've seen him go through stretches where he struggled. You've seen him take over games. Right now how tough as a teammate is it to see him kind of struggle with his shot. And knowing it's not just a stretch; it's physical as well. PAUL PIERCE: Yeah, I think it's‑‑ he's really being a soldier just being out there playing. A lot of players wouldn't get out there with what he's going through. So just to have his presence out there, when you see Ray miss open threes or free‑throws, you know he's not himself. But he's dealing with a tough injury that he wants to be out there playing, but we respect him coming out there and helping us. Even though his shot is not falling, he's still a presence out there. You have to pay attention. And then any given moment we feel like he can really (Indiscernible) scoring for us. Q. How important is it for you guys to actually steal one here in Miami? PAUL PIERCE: We want to try to get one. Try to take the home‑court advantage away, put the pressure back on them. We understand it's Game 1. We didn't play particularly well in the second half. So now we are just trying to get games. There's no need to panic right now. Make our adjustments, and hopefully we can tie this thing up. Q. Is part of taking away (Indiscernible) scoring, getting more physical? PAUL PIERCE: Oh, yeah, definitely. They really don't have a big man, a dominant big man where they drop it down in the post. They post‑up their guards most of the time. So we have to do a better job collapsing on them, taking away their lay‑ups and also getting out to their shooters, which is not an easy task. We know that it's not easy winning either. Those are the things we have to do. Q. Battier, you've seen a lot of his success came with just effort. Can you scheme against that, or does it come down to just matching that energy they have? PAUL PIERCE: Effort is one thing that you can just try to match. (Indiscernible) players just bring it every night. Then you have skilled players who missed shots, who have bad nights offensively. But effort is something I think we can bring each and every night. We have to be able to match that and go beyond. Because we are on the road. They have the home crowd behind them, which gives them an extra adrenaline push. But like I said, our motivation is to try to win a trophy. And we have to be able to match that in order to take it and (Indiscernible) like it's our last. Q. Paul, to what degree do you expect this series to get more and more physical, more and more ornery? PAUL PIERCE: It's got to get more physical from our part. We have to show better resistance. We thought it was way too easy for them in Game 1. They were very comfortable. Hopefully Game 2 we can make it a little more uncomfortable for them. We're a team that really thrives on our physicality, our defense, our half‑court, grind‑it‑out style. You have to show that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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