HEAT Head Coach Pat Riley

You can try to plan to stop Dirk, but how do you plan to stop Jason Terry when he's getting shots like he was tonight?
We talked a lot about it. You've got to close down his air space, you've got to be very aware of where he is, and I thought there's no doubt that he kept them in the game the first half. We had an 11 point lead and I think we missed six or seven shots in a row to close the second quarter. That really sort of hurt us and gave them a lot of confidence.

But it was a two point game going into the fourth quarter, and it's a fight, it's a fierce battle, that's what it is, that's what it's going to be.

The minute and a half or two minutes, it goes, we're down ten, and we've got a shot to tie it and that was about it. We'll see, we'll come back on Sunday.

Dwyane Wade, 28 points, Shaq 16, what type of scoring ratio do you need from both of them to be comfortable?
Well, we need I like the tempo of the game for us tonight it. Wasn't a wild up and down game. The only time it got that way is when we turned it over and we didn't get back in transition. We controlled the paint after the first half. We outrebounded them. We were horrendous from the free throw line.

So we need balance. Both of those guys have to play well, but we need balance, and we need a few more guys stepping up and making timely shots, which is how we got here.

They played Shaq different than Detroit did; what do you guys have to do, seeing a lot more double teams?
He studied the film, he can catch the ball, there were times they came on in the second dribble on the real first hard dribble that looked like a threat dribble, they would come down, and the first half, he just picked it apart. We're hitting open jumpers, got layups a couple times, we just have to have better spacing out there. They are tag teaming him with Josh and Dampier and they are doing a decent job of making him work.

What does it say about their team, Pat, that Howard and Nowitzki get only seven field goals and yet they come away with a win?
Well, they are at home and they got a great, great game out of Jason. They hit timely shots. Dirk then hit a couple of threes, you know, so it isn't whether or not a guy or two guys don't score. You know, this is a fight. This is what it's about. It's competitive and it's going to be ugly and sloppy at times. You have both teams going at each other hard, and somebody exhales for two minutes, you might be down eight or nine points, that's the way it was. That's what happened to us in the fourth quarter.

You just mentioned the fourth quarter, timeliness, what do you think factored into that fourth quarter, 12 points?
Well, I mean, missing free throws and we didn't make any outside shots. All five baskets we got in the fourth quarter were in the paint.

So we got at least a half a dozen good looks from the outside. You've got to knock down a few of those. They did a good job. They threw a zone at us I think three or four possessions in a row, and you have to attack it. We didn't do a very good job of that, so we've got to really study that and I think that's going to be part of their plan is to throw that at us, and we have to do a better job.

It looked like Dwyane Wade kind of fell hard. Is he okay?
He's okay.

He's okay? He'll be all right?
Yeah. He falls eight times, gets up nine. (Laughter) I think.

HEAT Center Shaquille O'Neal

On the game:

First thing's first, nice tie. Second thing, Jason Terry, the game he had tonight, how tough were the daggers he threw at you tonight in the fourth quarter?
It was very aggressive. We made too many mental mistakes. You know, we can't really leave shooters like him and Dirk open, a couple times. They moved the ball very well and they had some big shots. We still had a lot of opportunities to win the games but we made a lot of mental mistakes, and we'll have to go back and make some adjustments.

They just did what they are supposed to do and won at home and now we just have to try and get a win on Sunday.

Were you surprised when Pat took you out with two minutes left in the first half after that second foul and how important do you think that was in the overall outcome?
We just have to do the things that we were doing and we were getting the ball inside and kicking it out. We just have to play smart.

We're going to go back and make some adjustments and usually after we go back and make adjustments, we usually play well. We know we have to get one up here and we're just going to try to get that one on Sunday.

Talk about the fourth quarter for you guys, the power outage, what happened there?
Like I said, it's a lot of silly and mental mistakes, just doing things that we're not really accustomed to. We had some costly turnovers. We double covered guys that we shouldn't have doubled and hit big shots. We let them get to the paint too much. Jason Terry had a fabulous game. We have to try to slow him down.

They were doubling you, do you recall like they took you away tonight or you just need the ball more?
No, I was just getting the ball to my guys. We just have to mix it up. First half I thought we played pretty good except for the last three minutes in the second quarter.

You know, we've just got to keep doing what we've been doing inside out.

Today we made a lot of mental and a lot of silly mistakes. We can't make mistakes against a team like this.

Antoine and Gary both said we need to get the ball inside more. How does the game change if you could get the ball inside more?
They are going to double and we know we can get everybody open, we've just got to play smart. So, you know, like I said, we're just going to go back and look at the film, see the mistakes that we made and hopefully we don't make those mistakes on Sunday.

1 for 9 from the free throw line, are you disappointed with your free throw shooting?
Yeah, throughout my career, I know that if I want my team to win a championship, I have to step up to the line and hit them, and I will. Probably just, you know, thinking about it a little too much.

You know, we've still got a lot of opportunities to win a game, on Sunday, we're going to look for me to shoot a little bit better.

HEAT Forward Antoine Walker

On the game:

Tell us what happened, where did this game start slipping away from you guys?
Well, I think in the second quarter, we had a chance to kind of, you know, kill their confidence, we took a 10, 11 point lead. They did a good job of bouncing back and obviously took the lead before the half.

Just had too many turnovers, too many mental mistakes. We have to step it up a little bit and make sure we get the ball to Shaq a little bit more. 11 attempts isn't enough for him. Even though he did a great job of passing in the post.

How do you make sure he gets more touches, just re post quick or what do you do?
We have to watch film and we'll figure that out. We'll make some adjustments and try to get him the ball a little bit more. It's not necessarily try to force feed it into him. It's the situations where times in the games where, you know, down the stretch, we had to get it back to a 3 or 2 point game, maybe get the ball to him, or get fouled or he'll foul somebody. It's those times we have to get the ball to him and play off him.

What's it like when Shaq when he goes to the line and you know how many free throws he does in practice and he gets to the line and he's not able to do it?
He's fine. I'm not worried about that. He's made so many big free throws throughout the playoffs, that's going to come in time as he continues to get more comfortable at the line, he'll be fine.

He's one of those guys, he can miss nine in a row, 4th quarter, two minutes to go, he'll manage to step up and make two. I'm not worried about that at all. We have to continue to make him a factor inside.

How frustrating is it to come out of this game having shut out Nowitzki in the fourth quarter yet Jason Terry kills with you 12 points in the fourth quarter?
We just have to continue to work with Dirk. Dirk is doing a lot of pick and rolls and trying get the ball to him in every situation. Obviously we have to pay attention to Jason Terry, his mid range game was going tonight and he was able to make some threes. That's the one , two punch but tonight we were still able to keep Josh Howard down a little bit.

We can't have both of them getting off, if it's just trapping Jason Terry, we have to force other guys to beat us on the floor. That's obviously something we can adjust to and he played big for them tonight.

Dallas Mavericks Head Coach Avery Johnson

On the Game:
Well, obviously we're glad to get this game under our belt. It was a game whereas we didn't get off to a great start, we were fortunate enough to be pretty steady throughout the whole game defensively. We were fortunate that they missed some shots. This wasn't one of our better games, especially offensively.

But, again, it's the Finals and you take them however you can get them. And we had some guys really out there battling, it's been the first time in a long time we've lost the rebound game, so we're going to have to be stronger and tougher on the boards as a team.

Again, we take the win, we've got something on film now that we can look at. By no means are we satisfied, because we know we're playing against a terrific team.

Was this more of a game that they seemed like they were kind of feeling each other out a little bit and no rhythm really got going?
Yeah, you know, it wasn't obviously the prettiest game. And again, there are things that we wanted to do coming into this game offensively and defensively and it just didn't happen. Both teams had a little layoff, and so whether it's just feeling them out or a little rust on both of our parts, we know we're going to have to have a much better overall team effort as this series moves on.

Wanted to ask you what you thought about Damp and Diop on Shaq tonight?
We tried to get them in and out, tried to save the fouls. You know, we knew that we needed a lot of energy from Damp and he was close to getting a double double tonight, and his experience and energy. As you saw tonight, we pretty much had our whole team guarding Shaq. We've seen how he's really exploited single coverage.

So we've just got to mix it up. I think on any good player, whether we played against, you know, Gasol with Memphis or Duncan or Parker or Nash, I just think you've got to give these guys different looks. Any steady diet, they are too good.

It didn't seem like Dirk had a real good night starting out shooting and his night just kind of just leveled, how do you take that to the next game to be able to get the whole team to pick themselves up?
It wasn't one of his better nights. It wasn't one of his better nights, but Dirk is a warrior. It will be interesting to see on film tomorrow kind of how he moved and what he did and I'm sure he's going to be happy with the win now. But I think from an individual standpoint, you didn't really see the real Dirk.

Of all of the guys you tried on Wade, were any of the combinations to your satisfaction?
Well, he burned us bad early. It seemed like he had 20 points in the first quarter.

But, again, we knew all along coming into this series that multiple guys were going to take him. We've seen some other situations where a team has only used like two guys on him. We'd like to have a minimum of four guys guarding him, because we think he's that good. And we think we have different guys that defend in different ways.

Throw out the box score, we know what Dirk didn't do, what J.T. did, but going into the game, how much did you need Jason Terry tonight to step up and be the second option to Dirk?
Well, we've been asking for the real J.T. to come back to us. We thought he was going to have a breakout game in Game 6 against Phoenix but he got two quick fouls and three fouls in three minutes and he came out, I told him he was going to sit out the whole half. He didn't have a backup and we saw the real Jason Terry and we need this Jason Terry.

This Jason Terry makes us a pretty special basketball team because on a night like tonight, when Josh and Dirk go 7 for 28, you need to get some offense from somewhere, which are not many nights. Josh and Dirk normally don't have nights like this. But, again, you know, I don't think either team necessarily played their best game. I think there's better basketball left in both of us.

Was there a specific adjustment you made after the first quarter defensively, or was it just them doing a better job of rotating, helping recovering, or was it just missing shots?
Yeah, we had some bad rotations in the first half. We let Walker get away from us a little bit for a couple of open threes. He looked like he was out there by himself and that's not normally our defense. You know, we always try to take pride in making it look like it's more than five guys out there, and it just didn't look that way.

We showed it at halftime and we thought our rotations were a little bit better in the second half, but again, you know, no flawless game for us. But we did what it took to win this basketball game. For them to score 36 points in the second half, when this team has been shooting 55 and 58 percent from the field and getting in the 100s consistently, we'll take it.

Mavericks Forward Dirk Nowitzki

On the game:

Can you talk about Jason Terry's performance tonight and how much you guys needed something like that from him and how much he needed it for himself maybe?
Yeah, that was big. Obviously in the first half we couldn't really get anything going and I thought he was the one that kept us in the game. He made some incredible object shots. He looked aggressive, he looked comfortable, he looked in rhythm from the beginning on.

It was big. Me and Josh couldn't really get anything going, they played us tough, they contested our shots and if you would have told me Josh and myself would go 7 for 28 and we win this game, I wouldn't have believed it.

So, I mean, it was big. He carried us all night. Stack was great, attacking the rim. Obviously defensively, I thought it was a great game down the stretch.

Do you think you guys do better even though Shaq was effective passing out of the double teams when you make him pass?
Yeah, we obviously saw the Eastern Conference Finals and he was so great and so dominant there, they tried to play him one on one, he got to the basket so close, jumped, and then he misses, he's right back at the rim getting the offensive rebound. You know, we try to mix it up a little bit, come a little bit, play him one on one and then come again. That's what you've got to do is keep great players off guard. They looked awesome early on. I thought they had everything going. Shaq had a couple turnarounds, their role players did great, they made shots from all over the players. I thought we looked frozen up a little bit at the beginning and we kept mixing it up on Shaq in the second half and that was big.

4 for 14 for the night, was it something Miami was doing or were you just out of sync?
You always are going to have an off night. You have to give the defense credit, I thought they tried to push up on me, tried to deny me in the post and tried to get the ball out of my hands some, and when I put the ball on the floor, somebody was running either from my blind side behind or in the front, just making me pass off the dribble.

Still, I had some good looks I thought early on in the first three or four shots, looked pretty good, and just never really found my rhythm.

But, you know, like I said, Jason really kept us in the game and won it for us.

You seemed to spend most of the game on the perimeter. Is that the result of a bigger defender like Haslem guarding you?
Well, I thought we ran a couple post up plays. And, like I said, they were fronting me and there really was no passing angle to even catch the ball in the post, Walker in front of me, Haslem in front of me.

So I just tried to make some stuff on the start and be aggressive. I thought I wasn't really taking great shots there for a while, but, you know, I just had to get myself going a little bit in the third quarter. But I thought really it was a defensive battle and the defense won us the game in the second half.

Did you think the Miami defense was taking you out of some stuff early or were your rotations offensively just not real crisp? It seemed some passes were at people's feet.
Yeah, I thought we were a little frozen up. I think this is a big stage, nobody really has been here before besides Avery and Darrell Armstrong, but he didn't even play when he was here with Orlando.

I thought we were kind of frozen up, you know, we were not making shots, we weren't making good plays on offense. We weren't swinging the ball. We forced some shots. Obviously that plays right in Miami's hands, if you stay on the strong side, they don't have to move and they can build a wall underneath the basket. And we just played right into their hands.

I thought the second quarter, we got loose a little bit, we moved the ball better. We finally got some stops which put us in transition and that was big and got us back in the game the second quarter.

Talk about the atmosphere in the American Airlines Center, how much did you feed off that when you were down early and came back?
It was great, I thought early on Miami did a great job quieting them down. But when we made that run and Jason got hot, they were awesome. We've been feeding off them all season long, we won 60 games and took them all the way The Finals.

This organization, this franchise has never been to the Finals and obviously they are as excited as we are to be here. This is as much for them as it is for us. We got the first one out of the way. We can make some adjustments, look at some film and the crowd is going to be big on Sunday, as well.

Mavericks Guard Jason Terry

On the game:

Talk about your game and talk about your play when you missed the layup or the dunk and they got on a little run.
Oh, yeah, tonight we wanted to come out aggressive, be assertive on both ends of the floor. I thought as a team we got off to a slow defensive start, picked it up in the second half and we bounced back and got some stops. We had a good defensive fourth quarter.

On the dunk, I thought it was Wade or somebody, got a little too excited, was running a little too fast, and got ahead of myself.

But I got two days to recover and I'll remember next time when I get on the break to just lay it up.

I'm curious, what did your teammates say to you after you're hitting everything else?
Yeah, I just need to stay focused, shake it off quick. I kind of grabbed my knee thinking it was my knee that caught or something, but D.A. just shook his head at me and said, "That wasn't the case." (Laughter) I just shook it off, man, had to bounce back, stay focused and keep plugging away.

When did you first sense in the game that you were going to have a hot hand, that you were going to be the hot shooter for the night?
I just wanted to come out and be aggressive. There was no point where I ever looked up at the score board. I'm just continuing to take shots. Fortunately for me they were falling tonight, thank God, but my teammates did a great job defensively. We were able to get out in transition early and get easy baskets, especially when Miami had the lead. You know, that's what got us back into the game.

Avery said, we've been asking for the real J.T. to come back to us and he said you came back tonight, do you agree with that; what was wrong, if anything, during the last series?
Well, I just wanted to stay aggressive and, you know, just be assertive. I'm going to keep repeating that. That's what he wants me to do. For my team to be successful, I have to be out there in attack mode at all times and that's what I was able to do tonight.

How were you able to keep the hot hand, you were 9 of 11 in the first half and as you tried to get Dirk going in the third you didn't get a touch and then you hit three in a row, how does a shooter keep that roll when you go so long without a touch?
Well, in the third quarter, we wanted to get Dirk going a little bit, let him at least touch it to see how he was feeling.

But, you know, Coach took me out a little early in the third. I went to the bench, I just wanted to stay focused, watched flow of the game and then when I came back in, a couple quick steals here or there, Coach kept me involved with the play calling and my teammates were setting great screens, getting me open and I was able to knock down the shots.

What do you think hurt them more, the 20 points you had in the first half or the 12 in the fourth quarter?
I don't know if my points hurt them particularly more so than our defensive effort. You know, us getting stops and coming back down on the other end and executing and making sure we got good looks at the basket more than me individually.

Take me back a year ago, you remember last year, running into to you at the Finals in your home city of Detroit, at the game, and now being a part of it and playing, that whole transformation there.
Home city is Seattle, but it felt like Detroit a little bit because I was up there just watching The Finals, seeing every game, just soaking in the moment and the environment, you know, wishing that one day I would be able to play in a Final.

I thank God for the opportunity that I have now, and we just want to keep plugging away. Man, this is Game 1 and that's all it is. No series is won in one game, so Game 2, we'll come back focused, watch the film. We'll come back and put together a better defensive performance because we still have another level to go to.

Talk about NBA Finals is where players really make their mark, first time for the Mavericks to ever get The Finals, your history in Atlanta and getting to this level, feeding on the atmosphere, what was it like, first NBA Finals game?
Really it's no different for me than in the regular season. Really haven't kicked in yet. I was kind of expecting to be all over this situation, but I think Avery has done a great job of preparing us for this moment the last year and a half.

It's just another game. Rims are still ten feet, even though it didn't seem like that on my layup. (Laughter) we just want to go out there, stay focused and execute the game plan and see what happens.

A lot of you were put on Dwyane Wade; how do you think that's going to transpire, do you think yourself seeing Wade more or what players are going to be assigned to Dwyane?
I don't know, we're just going to change it up, give them different looks. Dwyane, as you know, is tough to spot. He's just like Kobe, McGrady, all of the great one on one players in our game.

Early on it was going to be a long night for us the way he was getting to the basket, making layup after layup, but credit our guys for contesting his shots and being a little more aggressive on him in the second half.

But, you know, it's not going to fall on one guy to retain him. It's going to be a team effort. Luckily tonight in the second half, he cooled off a little bit.

Did you feel you had something to prove tonight with your 3 point shooting after not having the 3 point shot during the Detroit series?
Not anything to prove. I just feel that I'm a much better shooter than, you know, what I've shown in this year's playoffs, and you know me, it's just all about hard work and perseverance. I had to persevere through all those times where I wasn't making too many shots. Preparation is what got me to this point and I just want to continue to work and stay humble, and hey, let's get back to Game 2 and see what happens.

Mavericks Guard Jerry Stackhouse

On the game:

Talk about the play that you went to the hole and got the nose injury and what's the status?
I'm still alive. (Laughter).

It was just a hard play. I think Shaq was in there protecting the basket and protecting the lane. We were driving, trying to put pressure on their defense and just I don't know what I hit, whether it was an elbow or whatever, but it was just a few stitches and I was ready to go back.

Can you talk about Jason's performance tonight and what did he do differently tonight that he wasn't doing in the previous series?
I just think J.T. got looks tonight. He got some good looks and he's comfortable with his shots that he's been working on and practicing on. From his standards and probably everybody's standards for J.T. now, he struggled a little bit in the Phoenix series so, he wanted to come out and make amend that this series. I think he got himself off to a great start.

We were moving the ball and when he caught the ball and had any daylight, he was jumping up and knocking down shots. That's what we're going to need more of in order to continue to beat this team. We know how they are trying to play guys when they get on post, they are going to double team so we just have to swing the ball and continue to make shots.

Just wanted to ask you what you thought as far as Josh and Dampier on Shaq tonight?
Those guys did a great job of trying to make Shaq catch it off as far as he could. With him being 300 some odd pounds, they are not going to keep him off the block every time and when they do get him in a bad way, it's up to our defense to get down there and get them some help, force rotations and things like that.

Those guys did a commendable job tonight, not only I think on the defensive end, but, you know, forcing Shaq to run with that on their defensive end, while putting pressure on the offense, even though they are maybe not the focal point of our offense, just getting up and down the court and making him work a little more to get back is helping our overall game.

Do you feel like with Dirk and Josh both having pretty poor games by their standards, you guys kind of got away with one tonight?
It's the Finals, man, everybody's stepping up and playing. We don't worry and we know guys going to be stretches where the ball may not fall in but they do other things. They competed on the defensive ends, both of them had double figure rebounds. You have to look at the whole.

Obviously Jason bailed us all out. As a team we didn't shoot the basketball great but Jason bailed us out. It's a team win, we look at it as everybody that was on the floor contributed, Griff, early on in the game, him being able to get a few buckets here, get some rebounds, everybody contributed.