HEAT Head Coach Pat Riley

On the Game:
“We have an opportunity now to take it home. We worked very hard up here in New Jersey to get these two wins and to come back after the first game debacle. They caught us and I think our guys have responded tremendously. We had to respond today to what I thought was going to be their strongest effort and you can see it in their offensive rebounding in the first half. You can see it in their free-throw attempts because they were attacking the basket. They didn’t shoot the ball very well in the first half but we had to match their effort. I think over the course of the game we matched their effort and then at the end, made the plays that we had to make.”

On the defense:
“They all can defend. We don’t really want to put Dwyane on Vince for a long period of time. But at the end of the game, I think he’s probably our best perimeter defender and has to do both. I think Posey does a good job on him. I do think the defense has improved over the course of the playoffs. Chicago was a test from a standpoint of multiple situations and movements and having to guard more than one or two things, a little bit similar to what New Jersey does except that they isolate a lot more. But yes, the defensive unit at the end made some stops. I thought Udonis came in and controlled the boards for us. Anytime we needed a big defensive board, he was there.”

On Dwyane Wade:
“He’s an amazing athlete from the standpoint of having timing. Sometimes he’ll try to get people off and get off to a bad start. He was very aggressive at the beginning. He just took advantage of the opportunities. We were just going to him and Shaq at the beginning of the game and playing off those two guys. I told the guys in the huddle, regardless of what scheme they put on him, he’ll figure it out. You just have to be ready to shoot the ball. He’s amazing from that standpoint. He finds the gaps. He gets into the gaps. He made a big pass to Udonis on a slip in their zone late in the game. He will find players and I think that is one of the great things about his talent. He has great vision.”

HEAT Center Shaquille O'Neal

On the game:
“Our entire focus for the two games here was to get one and possibly two. Now that we did that we don’t want to give up any. We just want to close them out at our place. We know they are a team with a lot of pride and they aren’t going to go away. We just have to close them out. We just have to pick it up. We should have had a bigger lead but we made one or two mistakes. We got our composure back. We knew we really really needed this game today. So we just took care of business once again.”

On the supporting cast:
“Antoine and Haslem were playing a loose defense. They were playing it towards me and then towards Wade and both of them stepped up and hit some big shots. Those guys are going to be the missing factors. If we do what we are supposed to do we will be fine. The only time we get in trouble is when we don’t do what we are supposed to do. I think they are the missing links to our run. Those guys are hitting shots, including Gary, and we are going to be a hard team. Gary hit a big shot. U.D. and Antoine carried us in the third quarter. Those guys were leaving them open and they were stepping up to the shots.”

On the team:
“We have a very unselfish team. We move the ball and play pretty good defense. We rebounded the ball well and just came up here for these two games and did what we were supposed to do. We watched a lot of film and practice a lot. So it’s drilled into our heads what we are supposed to do. We were up at eight o’clock this morning going through a walk-through so we knew what we needed to do against a great New Jersey team. For us, it was just one of those games. Sometimes it happens like that. We bounce back very well.”

On himself:
I’m just playing a smart game. I’m getting it and trying to keep everybody involved. It’s an easier game for me when everybody is involved. We just want to take care of business and finish it off. We are not really worried about the rest. We’ll get the proper rest because we are a veteran team and know how to take care of our bodies.”

HEAT Guard Dwyane Wade

On the game:
“Tonight, with those guys, we know that we need them to be as good as we know they can be because Shaquille and I draw a lot of attention. Those guys stepped up tonight. They played big and when they do that, we are a pretty good team. So, we are looking forward to doing things more in the playoffs.”

On his flow:
“Once you come out and that first shot goes and that second shot goes and you need to see if the third and fourth one will go. I was in a flow early. This team can be very good.”

On being ready:
“I wanted the team to look at me and say that, this guy is ready. That is what I tried to do and those guys finished it. It was a great team effort for the Heat tonight. We are not surprised. When we play Miami Heat basketball on both ends of the floor, we are a tough team to beat at home or on the road. We’re never surprised at all when we go home to game five and try to close it out at home. I think this team, when you see it every now and then, so you kind of knew what it would look like if we came together, they’ve seen what it looked like when we didn’t. We just hoped that when it comes, it comes fast.”

On the chemistry:
“Hopefully it stays. This team is finally getting an opportunity to really learn each other; We know what each others are like. We really depend on each other defensively and let everyone be there. So it’s a good feeling. It’s kind of where we were last year when we were really depending on each other and we all stepped up for each other.”

HEAT Forward Antoine Walker

On the game:
“I think the during the season and throughout the playoffs, we’ve had different guys step up. We got the green light to shoot whenever we are open. In my situation, Shaq found me for one and Wade penetrated and found me for another one. Wade has done a tremendous job. He’s probably one of the best mid range shooters at his position and tonight we stepped it up and made shots when we had to.”

On the series:
“They go to Miami and get one, they come home, and they had an opportunity back in New Jersey. I think we have to come out with the same energy that we’ve been coming out with these past few games. We needed to knock them down defensively, not give them anything, and make them work for every basket. The first series we closed it out on the road in Chicago. It would be good to close it out in front of our home fans. We have to act like its game seven.”

On Wade and the team chemistry:
“The great thing is that Dwyane gets into the lane and he draws so much attention. I just try to get in the right spots. After playing 100 games with everybody we kind of know where to be. We just started to get into a rhythm and now it’s becoming second nature to us so offensively things are running a lot smoother.”

On Wade:
“He can get whatever he wants offensively and its great when he comes out aggressive and they have to load up on him and now those open three’s and open shots become available for everybody else on the court.”

Nets Head Coach Lawrence Frank

On the Game:
“I think the big run for us was when we cut the lead to one earlier in the game. We had some great opportunities at the rim and to get to the line. There was a great momentum shift where we had the chance to take the lead but never got it. Down the stretch they made some big plays. We just haven’t done a good enough job defensively to put ourselves in a position. We hit some big shots down the stretch. Nenad hit a big shot off the pick and roll with Vince, but for the second straight game they made plays down the stretch. I think a period earlier towards the end of the third quarter we had an opportunity to go ahead and we didn’t. You just have to give Miami credit. Every time you lose you just have to give credit to the opposition. When we attack the paint, usually good things happen. We had some good looks that unfortunately didn’t fall and they hit some huge shots late in the game. Antoine Walker was hitting three’s and then Gary Payton hit a big three at the end. Those are big shots and you just have to give those guys credit for making them. .”

On Vince Carter:
“It was nothing different than what we have seen the last three games. Vince sometimes made passes and we didn’t execute when the ball was in the middle. I don’t think anything really caught him off guard. There were times as a team we made the right plays and other times we didn’t. There weren’t any different schemes that we saw today that we didn’t see in the previous three games.

On Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson Getting to the Line:
“If you look at both Richard and Vince, they both average over seven free-throw attempts a game. Vince went to the line four times and Richard went there two times. Richard put the ball down virtually every time but we just lost the game. Richard is getting to the paint but yet he hasn’t gone to line over the course of the series.”

Net's Forward/Guard Richard Jefferson

On the game:
“It seemed like we are right on the cusp of breaking through. They hit some big shots. Antoine Walker hit a bunch of shots and Udonis Haslem didn’t miss one tonight. You have to give them credit today. They hit shots and they hit a lot of shots. I give them a lot of credit. I have all series and they’re a good defensive team and Riley is a great coach. I must be doing something wrong. I think I shot a total five free throws in the last 100 and something minutes. I think I shot more free throws in the 20 minutes played in game one then I have in the last three games. So I must be doing something wrong. I might have to reevaluate the way I’m playing the game. For me to get two attempts this game, I think three the game before, and zero the game before that. I don’t know if I have ever had a stretch like that in my career. So maybe we haven’t been getting the benefit of the doubt with a few calls, you just have to be aggressive and hopefully good things will happen.”

Net's Guard Vince Carter

On the game:
“First and foremost, you have to win the one game to get to three wins so I think worrying about three wins is looking too far ahead. We just need to worry about the next game because the next game is very important for us. For us to win the series, we have to win the next game first. Right now, we just have to go back to the drawing board, clear our heads, not worry about what has happened so far, and come in ready to play.”

On Miami’s role players:
“Dwyane is going to get his and so is Shaq and we understand that. You just can’t let the other guys have big nights if you expect to win and that’s what happened tonight. Udonis was big with his offensive rebounding and with some of his clutch shots in the paint. Antoine was big on the wing as well and I just think that they were the X-factors for them throughout the whole game.”

On being unselfish:
“You have to take what they give you. Just be unselfish and move the ball. RJ was hitting shots. We trust and believe in Nenad’s jump shot so I just wanted to be aggressive. I just want to get to the paint and draw fouls and get to the free-throw line. If not, then just move the ball. You have to make them pay for putting three or sometimes four guys in the paint and hope that the other guys can hit some shots.”

On protecting home:
“It’s tough. You come home and you want home cooking. You want to take care of your business at home and whatever happens when you’re on the road happens but when you’re at home, you want to protect home and we didn’t do that. By any means, we didn’t. It’s tough. We’ve put ourselves in a hole. We’re a better unit and very confident and we still trust each other. We’re not going to hang our heads and say that it’s over because it’s not. We still have another game to play and we still have a long series left.”

Net's Guard Jason Kidd

On the game:
“This was a big game and we thought we could even out the series and go down to Miami and go from there. But now, our backs are against the wall and each game is an elimination game. We have to take one at a time and see if we can get game five down in Miami. We were trying to set the tempo. In the beginning, I thought that the tempo was in our favor early on and we let it get away from us. I had some great looks and some lay-ups but my job is to put pressure on them and just keep coming.”

On Miami’s late-game play:
“They made shots when they had too. There was a stretch there when we were down one and we couldn’t score. We had great opportunities to take the lead and they didn’t score. It was the perfect opportunity for us to get over the hump. Coming down the stretch, they scored and we didn’t. We have to find a way to slow these guys down.”