HEAT Head Coach Stan Van Gundy

The events of the final couple plays:
“We had plenty of time to grab it and put it back in the basket, but that was not the problem. The problem was giving Paul Pierce the jump shot. It’s very frustrating – coming off a back-to-back game; a tough loss last night – we came out with nothing. We gathered ourselves and played very hard to get back into the, and we just don’t make defensive stops and get rebounds to win the game. We weren’t anywhere near Paul Pierce off the pick-and-roll on the last play. That to me is unfathomable. I do not understand that; when you’ve fought that hard to be in a game, that you’re not going to be anywhere near him on that play. It’s unbelievable to me. But we just don’t lean. If you look at all the close games we’ve lost, we’ve lost almost all of them because we couldn’t get a stop and rebound at a key time, and we just keep getting our hearts broken. You would think, at some point, the guys on the floor would say ‘not tonight,’ but we don’t. We’re just hoping people miss, and I’m pissed off about it. Obviously it has not sunk in with our guys.”

Can your guys get to that point where they will say ‘not tonight’ anytime soon?:
“No. It’s not just going to happen. Somebody’s going to have to say, ‘You know what, we keep getting beat like this while that damn clock is running down, we need and extra effort – not less of an effort and hoping people miss.’”

“The last play is just absurd – to not be up on that, on Paul Pierce, the best player on the team; let’s just let him shoot a jump shot.”

Shaquille O’Neal and his minutes:
“We rested Shaq as long as we could because of his minutes and his energy problems. He only got 33 minutes tonight, and normally, in a game like that, we would play him 38-40 minutes. But we were trying to watch the minutes a little bit tonight.”

Al Jefferson’s 4th quarter impact:
“Best player on the floor in the 4th quarter. He took over; great, great game for him; obviously their MVP tonight. They have to be very happy with him. He was phenomenal.”

Miami’s recent losing skid:
“You guys decide things about that – like crises. The concern is not the four straight losses or where you are (standings wise). We said it at the beginning of the year at the first meeting that everybody is going to go through tough times. Our problems – in terms of you guys (media members) viewpoint – is that we didn’t; we didn’ t go through any tough times the entire year. Other people went through them (tough times) early; we’re going through ours now. The crisis is not being able to win close games. I wouldn’t call it a crisis, but that’s the concern.”

HEAT Forward/Guard Eddie Jones

“We played tough defense the whole fourth quarter, but we just had one let down. I think that time of the game we need to focus in more. I think we are focusing in more, but the result isn’t what we want it to be. We have to get our stuff together. Playoff time is a week away. We can’t go downward from this stage. It is important to have some type of momentum going into the playoffs.”

HEAT Guard Damon Jones

The Heat’s recent losing skid:
“I don’t make anything of it. We have had stretches where we have won 12 or 13 in a row. Now, we are on the worst stretch that we have had all season and that is a four game losing stretch. We were one play away from winning the game tonight, and we were one play away from winning the game last night. That has been the story of our season. We don’t make plays down the stretch and we lose close games, but nobody is hanging their head and our confidence is still sky high. We are the best team in the East right now. If we lose the rest of our three games, which we wont, then we would still be the best team in the east. Nothing changes. We still are going to have home court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs and we are going to approach it like that. I think we have to make plays throughout the game and not make the games so close. Like I said, we got out rebounded tonight by 15. When you don’t have the energy and effort that is needed in the beginning of the game then it’s going to be a close game.”

HEAT Center Shaquille O’Neal

“We have to find a way to pick it up and limit our mistakes. It is all about us. It has always been about us. We got into a hole and we fought our way out the hole and then we were not making plays down the stretch and we were making silly mistakes down the stretch. It is just a learning process. This is something that we have to do some more soul searching about. We will figure it out. It is all about us and all about what we do. We just have to pick it up and we will. This is something to panic or worry about. I have been in this situation many times before. We just have to dig deep down and suck it up because it is not going to get any easier. The key is not to panic because we know what the problem is. The problem is us. Each individual has to look in the mirror and each individual has to do their job and master their job, including myself.”

Boston Celtics Head Coach Doc Rivers

“Wow, that was a great win for us. We started off the game and our pace really dictated the game and that’s obviously the way we would’ve liked to play the entire game. They made a run. We fouled so many times in a row to start the third quarter that we never could get the ball out and run because there was no misses; everything was ball stoppage. So that took us out of the running game. I thought Al (Jefferson) and Perk’s (Kendrick Perkins) energy, they came in, and Marcus (Banks) too, with the ball pressure. I thought those three guys came in with their pressure and really changed the game back for us. They defended. That last play, you know obviously there was no blocked shot on it with (Dwyane)Wade getting all the way to the basket. Kendrick Perkins came from the other side and made an incredible effort. And with his presence, Wade had to adjust his shot and that’s the only reason he misses. So our young guys just played extremely well down the stretch.”

What the win does for the team’s confidence:
“Well, it’s nice. It tells us that we can play with them. We needed to beat them, honestly, we just needed to beat them. And it wasn’t an artistic win. But I think for us, because of our past, last year. You know, this year so far the Heat have beaten us, Indiana swept us all last year. We beat them once already. We had to beat Philly. You got to get a win, so when you see that team again you have some kind of confidence. Beating Detroit here was huge for us. So, we beat all the good teams. So now we know we can play with them. But again, when we play the right way we’re pretty good.”

Leaving Al Jefferson in longer:
“He had five fouls, number one, and I thought we needed more defensive stops at the end than offense. And I wanted to get Shaq (O’Neal) away from the bucket. The reason I put Raef (LaFrentz) in is because Shaq started basically standing around the bucket. We couldn’t post Paul or anybody. And I knew at the end we were going to go to Paul (Pierce) or Ricky (Davis). So I needed to get somebody to make Shaq get out of there. And he did. But we didn’t make the shots.”

Decision not to call late time out:
“I drew it out before. I told them we were going to run a double pick and roll. The reason I didn’t want to call a time out was because they may have taken Shaq out. We wanted to run a double pick and roll with both bigs. We hadn’t run that the entire game, and my thought was, ‘make or miss,’ I said, ‘we’re going to push it up and we’re going to come off that screen if either Shaq shows or he doesn’t. If he doesn’t show we should have a shot.’ It was a gamble, obviously, but it worked out for us.

Celtics Forward Al Jefferson

“I was just playing my role. Offense, defense, and rebounding. Doc got over to me in the first half saying that I was chasing the ball. He said let the game come to me, and I felt like that’s what I did. I let the game come to me and I got open shots.”

Do you feel you deserve more minutes:
“Not really, I don’t even think about the minutes. I know whatever Doc does he does for the best of the team. So it doesn’t really concern me. He calls my name and I’m just ready to play. If he don’t, I cheer them on.”

What does this game do for the team and your’ confidence going into the playoffs:
“It does a lot for my confidence. I feel real good about my situation and it feels real good for the team coming in and whopping Miami. They’re the #1 team in the East. So I feel real good. If we can beat Miami we can beat anybody. And we hope that Philly loses.”

Celtics Forward Ricky Davis

It seemed like you were able to wear them out down the stretch:
“They played last night. A little overtime, a little getting in late. We just wanted to wear them down, keep running them, keep beating them to the boards, loose balls and just out-hustle them in every category.”

What does this tell you about your’ basketball team:
“The Heat’s just another team. They’ve got good chemistry and they know how to play. It shows us that if we get our’ minds together, we can go as far as we want to go.”

Celtics Guard Paul Pierce

Nice win tonight:
“Huge win. Every game is huge for us. To go against the best team in the East and get a win. To play the way that we’re playing at the end of the year, it’s a great win.”

Dictating the tempo against the Heat:
“We didn’t dictate the tempo as much as we would like in the second half. In the first half I think we ran a little more. Second half we got into a half court game with them, and that’s tough when they have Shaq out there and we couldn’t get stops. They were going down low to Shaq and we were fouling him. We did what we needed to do to win the game, and that’s about it. We grinded it out. The guys off the bench really gave really gave us a lift.Ricky Davis early in the game, Al Jefferson late. It was a total team effort.”