Written by TheMicrowave
on Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Coach Doc Rivers answers questions on Practice Day, Sunday May 25 2008, after the Boston Celtics’ win against the Detroit Pistons in Game 3 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.
Q. Game 1 you get off to an 8-0 run, last night 11-0. How important are those quick starts for you?
Doc Rivers: They’re important, obviously. We’ve got to sustain it clearly. But it’s nice, especially on the road where we hadn’t won. Confidence-wise, that was important. Game 1, we had just come off of a Game 7, so confidence-wise that was important, as well. (Continued)
Written by TheMicrowave
on Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Point Guard Rajon Rondo answers questions on Practice Day, Sunday May 25 2008, after the Boston Celtics’ win against the Detroit Pistons in Game 3 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.
Q. Game 3 last night, 11-0 run. How important are those quick starts for you?
Rajon Rondo: Very important as a team. They get our confidence early. The game is about runs, so teams are going to make those, but if you get on an 11-0 run that’s a big cushion obviously. (Continued)
Written by TheMicrowave
on Sunday, May 25, 2008
Point Guard Rodney Stuckey answers questions on Practice Day, Sunday May 25 2008, after the Pistons’ loss against the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.
Rodney Stuckey: We all knew what they could do on the road. They’ve been winning on the road all year, and just because they haven’t won one on the road in the playoffs, that doesn’t mean nothing. We just came out really slow and they took advantage of that.
Q. Having said all that, how will this team come out in Game 4?
Rodney Stuckey: I hope we respond good. I know we will. We’ve just got to come out from the get-go and just play hard for 48 minutes. I know we’ll do that. (Continued)
Written by TheMicrowave
on Sunday, May 25, 2008
Shooting Guard Rip Billups answers questions on Practice Day, Sunday May 25 2008, after the Pistons’ loss against the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.
Rip Hamilton: Yesterday was yesterday. I mean, I didn’t like the way that we came out, so we’ve just got to come out tomorrow and hopefully be better and come out and hit first and get a win.
Q. Can you say something to the fans in Taiwan?
Rip Hamilton: Thanks for watching the NBA. That’s fantastic. (Continued)
Written by TheMicrowave
on Sunday, May 25, 2008
Point Guard Chauncey Billups answers questions on Practice Day, Sunday May 25 2008, after the Pistons’ loss against the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.
Chauncey Billups: The thing is I don’t want to be talking about it. The bottom line is I’ve got to play better, we’ve got to play better, and whether it’s hurting, still hurting or not, I’ve still got to play better. I’ve still got to play through it. That’s exactly what I intend on doing.
Q. What’s the mood, still bummed out or let it go or –
Chauncey Billups: I think after a game like that you’re mad, you’re disappointed at the end of the game and through that night, but the next day is a new one, and you’ve got to wash it off, and you’ve got to dust it off of you because you can’t let a game like that hurt you in the next game. So I think that’s exactly where we are right now. We know we blew a great opportunity to really grab hold of the series, blew it, but we’ve done that a lot here for some reason, some strange reason.
We’ve got a game tomorrow that’s a huge opportunity for us. (Continued)
Written by TheMicrowave
on Sunday, May 25, 2008
Forward Tayshaun Prince answers questions on Practice Day,Sunday May 25 2008, after the Pistons’ loss against the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.
Q. Do you feel like coming home you guys might have relaxed a little bit?
Tayshaun Prince: I don’t know if that’s the case, but I do believe that focus is different at home than on the road, no matter what. I just think it’s that way. How you get it the same, I don’t know. I don’t know how you do it. (Continued)
Written by TheMicrowave
on Sunday, May 25, 2008
Detroit Pistons’ Coach Flip Saunders answers questions on Practice Day,Sunday May 25 2008, after the Pistons’ loss against the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.
Q. You said yesterday that this is as important of a game as you guys have played. Given that, do you just throw out all the stops, change things, do anything drastic?
Flip Saunders: Well, I mean, I think one thing this series has proven more than anything, the team that can sustain the most energy over the course of the game is going to win. We can’t have anything less than all-out, throw-your-body type of energy, point blank. (Continued)
Written by TheMicrowave
on Sunday, May 25, 2008
Center Kendrick Perkins and Point Guard Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics, after the Celtics’ win over the Detroit Pistons in Game 3 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.
Q. Can you just talk about the way you guys controlled the interior tonight. A lot of dunks and lay-ups early and then just controlling the glass, as well.
Kendrick Perkins: Well, Doc had been mentioning to us about just being active. They double on Paul, they’re going to double on KG. I’ve just got to make myself available, and when I catch the ball, just got to make sure I finish and dunk. (Continued)
Written by TheMicrowave
on Sunday, May 25, 2008
Forwards Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics, after the Celtics’ win over the Detroit Pistons in Game 3 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.
Q. Can you just talk about that fast start you guys got off to.
Paul Pierce: We wanted to come out real aggressive, kind of take the crowd out of the game. We know Detroit is a good home team, and if they got off to a good start and got the crowd going, it was going to be a tough start for us. I think the main thing was to get the lead early and we was able to do that. Unfortunately we got early fouls on Kevin and Ray to set us back, but I thought the bench came in and did a good job. PJ Brown and Sam Cassell held it down until these guys were ready to get back.
Kevin Garnett: Pretty much what Paul said. You know, I thought we came out aggressive early, ball moved from strong side to weak side. I thought we took shots when we had them. I thought defensively we were connected, we all talked. We were aggressive on both ends. That’s how you’ve got to play against this team.
I thought second half I thought they brought the pressure. Third and fourth quarter I thought the refs let them get away with a lot of ticky-tacks, forceable fouls and stuff like that, but that’s their reputation, put pressure on you and foul here and there. Had some turnovers there in the fourth, but for the most part we were still aggressive and were able to pull the win out. (Continued)
Written by TheMicrowave
on Sunday, May 25, 2008
Coach Flip Saunders of the Detroit Pistons, after the Pistons’ loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.
Q. Your offense flowed so well in Game 2. Did they change up their defense quite a bit or you guys just weren’t executing the way you normally do?
Flip Saunders: I think it’s a combination. I think, one, they came out really aggressive. I think one thing in these three games has proven whichever team has been the most aggressive team has been the team that’s been on runs, and whoever can maintain an aggressiveness over the 48 minute span is going to have success. I thought we came out aggressive, we missed some shots. We had some good looks, we missed some shots.
They made shots early. I’ve always said, we’re the type of team the way we play, when you try to grind it out, it’s tough to play from behind like that. I thought that when we fell behind, we played a little bit out of character at times and rushed some of our offense. We didn’t look to get to the weak side like we did really in Game 2 nearly as much and attack to the middle and attack to the weak side. (Continued)
Written by TheMicrowave
on Sunday, May 25, 2008
Coach Doc Rivers of the Boston Celtics, after the Celtics’ win over the Detroit Pistons in Game 3 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.
Q. Doc, you guys just seemed to take care of this from the start with your aggression. Can you talk about just how important that is for just developing your flow.
Doc Rivers: Well, it was great. And it was both ends, which was really important. We talked a lot about both ends of the floor over the last 48 hours, offensively making ball change sides. I thought we did it a lot. We got great shots, the movement. Scoring the 25 in the first quarter I thought gave our guys a lot of confidence, and then just taking away shots. Our thought was try to defend the post and have contested jump shots, and I thought we did that. (Continued)
Written by TheMicrowave
on Sunday, May 25, 2008
Coach Flip Saunders of the Detroit Pistons, before Game 3 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals.
Q. At shootaround today how did Chauncey respond?
Flip Saunders: He was good. He had no ill effects or anything.
Q. A question about Jarvis: How has he handled his whole situation, not playing after playing so much during the regular season from a mental standpoint?
Flip Saunders: That’s the question you ask? You’ve got to be kidding me (laughing).
He’s handling it okay. (Continued)