HEAT Head Coach Stan Van Gundy

On the game:
“When you get three guys to score-season high points, that is going to help a great deal. We finally got the big rebounds down the stretch. They (The Milwaukee Bucks) didn’t get second shots. I thought we made good plays, and guys knocked down shots.”

“Our first quarter was incredible. Our energy level was running, and it is hard to sustain that when you are playing three guys over 40 minutes. Tonight was a step forward. We made some shots at the end, we got rebounds at the end. Those are the things that had been hurting us, but we hung on and got a win.”

On Lamar Odom:
“Lamar hit a huge shot tonight. I wanted to put the ball in his hands because he is a guy that can put the ball on floor and attack and make plays.”

On Caron Butler:
“His energy level was absolutely incredible. I have not seen him run the floor like that ever. He was down the floor all night long. He and Rasual (Butler) both were incredible.”

On Rafer Alston:
“His game will rate out at about as good a game as you can have. He was incredible. He played a phenomenal game for 43 minutes.”

“I never have to worry about his energy, and I never have to worry about his intensity, and I never have to worry about his passion. That guy absolutely loves to play basketball and compete, and I love having him on our team.”

HEAT Forward Lamar Odom

On the last quarter:
“We just tried to stay tough. I couldn’t hit a shot at the end of the game, but I was going to keep taking shots until one fell. I finally got one to fall. It was all about making a play and rebounding the ball at the end of the game. This close game helps to educate us. We have had and will have a lot of games like this. We need to take this experience and understand what we did well and apply it to the next game we play.”

“There will never be a hesitation with a shot from Lamar Odom at the end of the game. Sometimes you make them, and sometimes you miss them, but that is where I thrive. I love having the ball and I love making the play.”

On the play of Rasual Butler:
“Rasual hit some big time shots tonight. He hit a bunch with a defender right in his face. He is a big time scorer and I love to see him out there shooting that jump shot.”

HEAT Guard Rafer Alston

On the game:
“Tonight, I thought I could hit almost any shot. I realized that I had passed up on good scoring opportunities in our last game in Milwaukee, so I was looking to see if I could do a better job of getting to the basket. They [Milwaukee Bucks] are a great running team on offense, but they often don’t get back in time on defense. Whenever we got a defensive rebound, I looked to race it up the floor on offense.”

HEAT Forward Caron Butler

On the game:
“This was a whole team effort. Everybody stepped up. We have to credit Rafer [Alston] for his excellent play, and Lamar [Odom] for doing everything. He was a monster on the boards at the end of the game. Eddie [Jones] made some great plays, and obviously Rasual [Butler] came in and was a big lift for us.”

Bucks Head Coach Terry Porter

On the game:
“We did a great job of getting back in the game giving ourselves a chance to win that game. The big flaw was that we gave them 23 points off of our turnovers. They had 42 points in the paint against our 26 points in the paint. Twenty-three points is a lot to give. I thought they came out a lot more aggressive and looking to push the ball. We just didn’t do a good job in transition and getting back on defense. When you get back into a game like this, you have to have everything go right at the end. You cannot miss a free throw and an open three. We did and they did a good job of executing their game plan on the offensive end. We didn’t have that many offensive options tonight.”

Bucks Guard Desmond Mason

On the game:
“We started off completely flat. We hadn’t done that in a really long time and the HEAT took advantage of it. Throughout the whole course of the game we had opportunities to take the game over. Sometimes it went back and forth. When it got down to the stretch they got a few more plays than we did. We haven’t put ourselves in a hole like that in a long time. We can’t continue to do that on the road.”

Bucks Forward Keith Van Horn

On the game:
“Turnovers really hurt us. They (the HEAT) got so many fast break points off our bad passes. You can’t let a team like that get off like that at home. We let them get confident in the first quarter, and no matter how we played the remaining three quarters, it was just tough to get back. Obviously, we were missing Brian Skinner. I think he would have made a big difference, but we have to play with what we have.”

“I think the issue tonight was we didn’t make the extra pass like we normally do. We need to do a better job of finding the open guy when defenses collapse. The HEAT did a good job collapsing on the penetration and double-teaming when they needed to.”

On the last possession:
“I felt on the last possession that the ball was going to go in (the hoop). Usually when you get a shot within three or four feet at the end of the game you can be sure it’s a good shot.”

Bucks Guard Damon Jones

On the game:
“I’m going to give a lot of credit to the Miami HEAT because they came out real aggressive, but I think we lost this game in the fourth quarter last night. For whatever reason, we didn’t finish out the game last night. We were in a dogfight last night and the HEAT really jumped on us with 39 points in the first quarter. We had a chance to get back in it, but they made the plays they needed to make down the stretch.”

“I think that we had some careless errors. Miami doesn’t play defense that makes you turn the ball over. I think that we just didn’t execute as well as we’re capable of executing and therefore we made some unforced turnovers. They (the HEAT) played a hell of a game tonight and they played like a team trying hard to make the playoffs. They did what they had to do to get a win.”