January 29, 2008 | AmericanAirlines Arena | Miami HEAT - 87 | Boston Celtics- 117
HEAT Head Coach Pat Riley
On the game:
“We were overwhelmed right from the get go. Tony Allen took the challenge. They, in the first quarter overwhelmed us with their quickness and their intensity and their play. It was right from the get go. It wasn’t even 10 minutes into the game.”
“At home, after a great win the other night, it is almost as though the ending of the losing streak pulled the plug, because we just didn’t bring anything.”
“They just pretty much had their way with us here. They are a great team. They are used to winning. They don’t let you get to the paint. You have to really work it in order to get something going, and we didn’t have the discipline to work it.”
“There is nothing that doesn’t surprise me in this league. It surprised me at how quickly it happened and how deep we got into a hole. They were just committed to absolutely make it complete. That is the sign of a great team.”
“We just didn’t bring it. I am embarrassed by the effort. I am just embarrassed by our effort. Usually I’m not. Sometimes we don’t play very good defense, but the effort tonight was just lacking, and that was a very poor display. I just hope we can conjure it up.”
“I read something about, “Can we, will we, is it even worth it,” talking about finishing the season. They must have read that article, because they didn’t think tonight was worth it.”
On Dwyane Wade:
“He (Dwyane Wade) has been under the weather the last couple of days.”
On Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem traveling to Orlando:
“I will find out. Udonis (Haslem) has got a boot on, so he rolled it pretty good.”
HEAT Center Mark Blount
On the game:
“They just came out from the beginning and set the tone. We didn’t step up until late.”
“12 to 16 of their first points were lay-ups and then dunks.”
“They just spread it out and got to the lane and found their big men. If they didn’t find their big men, they found their shooters. They were able to play their style, which they are good at.
On the possibility of not having Udonis Haslem and Dwyane Wade:
“I still have to go play. There are still guys out here that have work to do. We are still going to play hard and compete. That’s all we can do right now.”
Celtics Head Coach Doc Rivers
On the game;
“That was terrific, the guys played with great energy. We talked about it before the game that this was a big game for us. Every game is a big game for us when you think about playoff positioning later. You can see that we played with a great sense of urgency. We stayed in our offense early in the game, which is a rarity. We just spread the floor offensively.”
“To have 117 points when Paul Pierce only had seven and Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen didn’t play is something that we didn’t expect before the game. Paul Pierce stepped up even though he only had seven points. He accounted for so many more. He had many hockey assists where he passed to make the next pass. Rajon Rondo was great early, Leon Powe was absolute fantastic, and Tony Allen was fantastic.”
“One of the things that we talked about before the game is that no one is going to be Ray Allen and no one is going to be Kevin Garnett, but all of them could do a little bit extra.”
“We didn’t expect to be up by 30, but the guys played hard, they kept the floor spaced, and we made the extra pass tonight. Our guys like each other and they played together. Whenever you do that you give yourself a chance to win the game no matter who is on the floor.”
Celtics Forward Tony Allen
On the game:
“I had an opportunity to step up tonight and I took advantage of it. We knew in order to beat a team that was struggling, we just needed to play team basketball. And that’s what we did – played team basketball.”
On playing without Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen:
“Everybody took it as a challenge with those guys out, and we went out and played team basketball.”
Celtics Forward James Posey
On the game:
“We came out and we just executed. We just wanted to come in today and just worry about ourselves, get stops, share the ball and get offensive rebounds.”
“When I come back here, it feels great. I’m part of that as well, and you have memories and things like that, so you wear it with pride.”
“We got stops, we shared the ball and guys made plays. If you do that on any team, you can have games like that. Tonight it worked for us. It was a good job by everybody just playing, stepping up and getting the win.
