HEAT Head Coach Stan Van Gundy

On the game:
"You know, I thought that their front line obviously, all three of those guys, both Wallaces and McDyess, all had great games tonight, both on the glass and scoring. I thought they did a great job there. And then they defended our guards very, very well. I thought those were the two things, plus they have a seven rebound advantage. Those are the things that made the difference in the game.

"I thought that, you know, we fought hard to get back in the game, but I didn't think over the course of 48 minutes that we defended with the sense of urgency we need to play a team of this caliber in the playoffs. We're going to have to do that for much longer stretches, much closer to a full game. We took care of the ball pretty well. I think I've got to really take a look tonight and make some adjustments in what we're doing offensively to try to get Dwyane a little bit more room.

"And the last thing before I'll take questions is I thought that Shaq gave us a great effort. It got tough on him in the second half. He hasn't played much lately, but he really gutted it out out there to give us 33 minutes tonight and played a solid game."

On Dwyane Wade:
"Well, I mean, Tayshaun Prince has great, great length, which allows him to play off of Dwyane, probably play him with a bigger cushion than anybody else in the league plays him with and still get a hand up. It makes it tough to get room to go to the rim. He can bother shots.

"I think that we can make some adjustments hopefully to help Dwyane. I think Dwyane can take a look at it and make some adjustments and he'll come back strong. It's been a trademark of him over two years to make those kind of adjustments the playoffs. It's his fifth playoff and he's done it in every series and we have great confidence he'll be able to make tomorrow adjustments and play better in this series. I'm not sure I did much to help him tonight. We've got to try to take a look at some things and try to get him in some better spots and with a little bit more room.

On Shaquille O'Neal:
"He went out there and did it for the team tonight. I mean, he's given us everything he has. Our other guys saw that. He was very effective. I think he will continue to be effective in the series, and we've just got to get some better performances out of other people, but we can't worry as much about the offense as we've got to defend better. They shot a very high percentage tonight. Any time you're giving a team above 45 percent, that's just not going to get it done and we can't get out rebounded by seven. If you look, 15 to eight on second chance points is huge."

HEAT Guard Dwyane Wade

On how tough the loss is on the team:
"Very tough in a playoff and tough to lose at home. You've got to come here tomorrow and learn from it, but at the same time, we learn from what we did wrong and we learn from what we did right and we take that into Game 2."

On making adjustments after a tough game in the playoffs:
"First was all, I'm very confident in my ability. I shot terrible tonight, but I had some good looks. It wasn't like all my shots they contested and I just didn't have any good looks. I have to take that positive mind state into tomorrow, look at the film tomorrow and see what I have to do different, see what I have to do to have my team win and I will do it. I'm not really worried about that.

"Good win by Detroit to come in and get the first one, but we can come in tomorrow and be ready for it."

On Shaquille O'Neal:
"He looked pretty good, came out strong early on. Shaq is really hurting or not hurting, he really wants to win, and he came out tonight and proved it. We weren't able to keep him in the game for long stretches, but as the series goes on and he gets more comfortable I think you'll see more domination from him."

HEAT Forward/Guard Eddie Jones

Talk about Shaq:
"He came out and gave it a great effort, did what we expected, and he gave us a great lift at the beginning of the game and also down the stretch. He was making great plays with people, rebounding, playing defense, doing the job.

"We expect him to come out and play well."

When you look back at what happened tonight, what do you attribute it to?:
"Well, all the rebounding. We gave them too many easy ones, you know, dunks, lay ups, open shots. We gave just too many of those things."

HEAT Center Shaquille O'Neal

On the game:
"We played a pretty good game, we just made a lot of stupid mental errors. Not all of the guys have been in a game so hard fought. It was a test for us. We've had it too easy for too long. Now that we have a test, we have to come out and fight.

"We had a lot of opportunities to win the game, but we just didn't we've just got to go back and look at the tape, make adjustments and come out and do what we gotta do, do what we're supposed to do.

"We took a lot of good shots, but Eddie shot one that went in and out. I missed a couple of hooks, but we've just gotta take the opportune shots, especially in a game in the 4th quarter when there are still a lot of opportunities to win the game.

"And you know, this is nothing but a test for us, and we're not going to hang our heads now, we're just going to continue to fight."

Detroit Pistons Head Coach Larry Brown

Could you talk about what your defence did down the stretch after they tied it up?:
"Well, I thought defensively we guarded about as well as we could the whole game. You know, when they made the run, we kind of got a little bit quick and maybe went a little bit one on one and got them some easy baskets. We knew they were going to come back, and when they did, we just limited them to one shot, got some turnovers, got some blocks, got a charge. We did all the things I think you would hope to do down the stretch.

"I think both teams are a lot alike on the defensive end. They're hard to score against, and I'm hopeful that we are. We really executed down the stretch, used the clock good, never gave them much opportunities to run other than that one brief moment. So good win for us."

On defending Dwyane Wade:
"Well, last game he fouled out and never got into the game, so the game before that he got a triple double. You know, tonight he didn't make his outside jumper, which he's been making in the playoffs, and I think we didn't allow him to get out on the break and get easy baskets where there's no way of stopping him in the open floor.

"But I thought Rip and Dwyane had a lot of good looks. I went in and I kept telling Rip that, you get shots like that, it doesn't matter, you've got to take them. I think you could probably say the same thing for Dwyane. We try to guard, but with players like him, you just hope that he's not making an outside shot.

"We have length, you know, if he beats us, which I don't know if every team has that. And that's all you can hope for. "

Pistons Center Ben Wallace

On guarding Shaq:
"It's tough. Man, any time you've got a big guy like Shaq, you've got to fight with him down there, a guy who can pass the ball and execute, can make moves on you. He's agile and light on his feet, and he's tough, man. You get beat up down there.

"All I can say is it's tough. Until you've been down there, you really can't understand what you have to go through."

Pistons Guard Chauncey Billups

On Rasheed:
"Rasheed was on tonight. He was very aggressive. Of course he's a great shooter, so he's going to hit a lot of shots, more shots than he misses.

You know, once he started going, I started to go to him. We all started to go to him. I think our big guys were unbelievable in this game. All of them. We gave them some hard minutes defending Shaq very well. Ben was unbelievable in everything he did, McDyess was great coming off the bench, so our big guys were unbelievable."

On the win:
"It was a big win. That team had a lot of time off, so we came here and caught them off guard a little bit. We defended a lot better than I think the teams that they played. So they've got to adjust to that. I think they got any shot that they wanted, and we're not going to allow you to shoot any shot you want. We're going to take you out of your sweet spots and challenge you, take you out of your comfort zone. We did that tonight. It takes some adjusting, and they will. They'll be adjusting and be ready for the next game."

Pistons Forward/Center Rasheed Wallace

On playing agressive tonight:
"It was just the way we played, just taking what they given us. We had to do a good job with the Big Fella. I pretty much just took the shots that they gave me."

On Shaq being at full strength or close:
"That I'm not sure of because I'm not sure how bad that injury of his is bothering him. That I couldn't really recollect on. That's something for them to figure out in their locker room, how to get him more shots."