HEAT Head Coach Pat Riley

On the Game:
"You know that for us, for me in particular, it's very disappointing. Probably for 38 minutes we outplayed them. It was a lot of things. We started to give them easy baskets and then we started giving them second shots. It was a big point of emphasis for us. Then we were missing free throws in the fourth quarter and Rip Hamilton (Richard Hamilton) basically turned the game around with his defense and pressure. Then they started to zone us a little bit and we didn't handle that very well. It comes down to a tie game or one point game and they made the shots that you have to make."

On Guard Jason Williams :
"They were pressuring back up the court into a soft zone. We ran plays for guys, we got shots for guys. We must have missed four or five lay-ups. We must have missed four or five free throws in a row.

Those are all lead points that you have to make sure that you get on the road. I think our point guards, Antoine (Walker) and our ball handlers could have done a better job but that wasn't the reason for our losing. It was the reason for their winning because it got them aggressive."

On the Pistons comeback with the lineup they had to start the fourth quarter :
"Not really. They're an experienced team. We had a nine-point lead and from there I think they scored nine straight points. Once the game became a game then nobody scored anything for about four or five minutes. It was a very disappointing loss. We needed it."

HEAT Center Shaquille O'Neal

On the game:
“Out the last five or six games we have let two or three of them slip away. We had this against a good poised team and we let it slip away. We had some costly turnovers in the fourth quarter.”

On free throws:
“We just gave one away, a tough one today. We aren’t really in a position to be giving away a game, but we let one get one away today.”

On Playoff atmosphere between Pistons and HEAT:
“Every time that we play this team, we know, especially in their building, that it is going to be a very exciting place to play. We obviously came to play today, but it is a 48-minute game and the last five to six minutes we just gave the game away.” (

On Pistons run with bench players:
“It is very disappointing. They came in and put a little pressure on us and they caused some turnovers. In a time and situation like that you can’t have any turnovers and we had some costly turnovers and they came down and hit some big shots.” (

On playing against the Pistons:
“I play against anybody. Whoever the best is - that is who we want to play against.”

Detroit Pistons Head Coach Flip Saunders

On the Pistons’ trap defense:
“It’s funny because we talked about how much we really want to use it from the standpoint of not exposing it too much. But it got us active, it got us some opportunities on the offensive end, it got them away from being able to come down and run what they want to run.”

On bench play:
“Our bench was great tonight. Not from a standpoint of points scored but from the standpoint of their energy, and they gave our starters the chance to get some significant rest and have an opportunity in the last four minutes to win the game.”

“We need to be in an execution mindset coming down the stretch, and our best execution team is with the guys we had on the floor, except we could have maybe put Chris (Webber) in there, but Dale (Davis) was giving us a good presence defensively so we decided to keep him in there.”

On Richard Hamilton returning from injury:
“Rip – phenomenal, when you look at a guy who hasn’t played in a week and comes in and plays his butt off. We rotate and he goes on Jason (Williams) and does a good job in our half-court trap but also in man-to-man and just changes the whole complexion of the game a little bit.” Pistons Guard Chauncey Billups

On the game:
“It was the most energy we played with throughout the game. We kind of let them bring the game to us and down seven, eight, the whole game pretty much. We then changed defense up a little bit, got a little more aggressive and got the momentum to swing a little bit.”

On running the trap plays:
“It’s a good change up because it takes you out of the plays that you want to run and some guys get the ball and they get into panic mode and not make the smartest plays because they are just trying to get away from that trap. It takes them from just throwing it on the block and lets Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal) just read and do what he does. It was a great change-up.”

On bench play:
“Our bench has been winning us a lot of games lately. There is no secret about that. Carlos (Delfino) came in and played great, Dice (Antonio McDyess) played well, Lindsey (Hunter) gave us a lot of energy in the first half. Flip (Murray) was good. Our entire bench, they came in, you look at Dale (Davis) and the minutes he played, Max (Jason Maxiell) played good minutes but short minutes.”

Pistons Forward Antonio McDyess

On bench play:
“I think Carlos (Delfino) and Flip (Murray) put good pressure on the ball, getting steals and doing an excellent job of coming off the bench. They got us energy to get back into the game and the main thing is the guys that were missing shots didn’t really get down on themselves, especially Chauncey (Billups) and Rip (Richard Hamilton). In the first half they were not making the shots that they normally make and they came out and made some big shots for us.”

On Billups and Hamilton:
“When pressure is on them they don’t panic. They are calm in all situations, when they take shots they are always confident. I think that’s the good thing about this team, about our guards, they are always confident regardless of the situations in the game. They just go out there and shoot the ball with confidence regardless and tonight they did a good job.”