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| Friday, December 12, 2008 Final Score: Boston 94, New Orleans 82 Hornets Post Game Quotes
Re: They are one of the best defensive teams in the league. How much of it was there defensive schemes, how much of it was you getting shots and you not making them… “I thought they did a real good job defensively, there’s no doubt about that. But we had our opportunities, we had good looks, but our shooters just weren’t making shots tonight, that’s the biggest thing. David played a great game, CP played a great game. If we had one more guy tonight that would have been able to step up, then we would have had a better opportunity. I was proud of the way we fought, and this is something that we’ve got to build on because we’ve got to play this way every night. I thought it was a very physical game, we were physical, they were physical. And again, we’ve got to take that Toronto and play with that type of intensity.” Re: You missed Tyson tonight… “Yeah, yeah. We missed him big time tonight. Just his athleticism, his energy, and his second chance points we get when he’s in the game. Some of the putbacks that he’s able to do, we definitely missed him tonight.” Re: You come away from this game with a lot of positive things… “Yeah, but the one thing I was a little disappointed in the second half was our defense. In the first half we did a pretty good job defensively, in the second half they got 55 points. 45 points were on free throws and in the paint. That can’t be allowed. We did a real good job of keeping them out of the paint in the first half, the second half we left Peja out there on the island when Paul Pierce was able to get to the basket. We just didn’t do a good job of reacting to Paul when he was in an aggressive mindset. That’s something that we’ve got to take care of. 10 points out of the paint, and Eddie hit two of them which were threes. They didn’t score a whole lot outside the paint.” “Paul’s a very aggressive basketball player, I think he’s one of the best in the league. He creates problems when he puts his head down and tries to get to that basket. We just didn’t do a good job of reacting when he was in iso situations. We were so scared of Ray Allen and their shooters that we were allowing him to get to the basket instead of taking away that paint and forcing him to kick the ball to those shooters.”
“There were stretches where we just couldn’t make shots, but there were other stretches where we were aggressive. We just had a bad third quarter. We lacked effort.” “We know they’re a great basketball team. We’d been getting stops up until that point. Like I said, we had stretches where we were making shots and stretches where we weren’t. During that stretch we got some buckets to go. But when it came down to it, we had to go small, and they stayed big. They were able to get some key extra possessions on their end.” Re Tyson Chandler not playing: “He’s our center man. That’s really it. He’s not out there, which is a big hole in the middle for us. I thought Hilton [Armstrong] and Mel [Ely] stepped in and played well. I thought they fought hard. But we didn’t have our full gun.” “We didn’t figure it out in the third quarter. They were really loading up on us and making it difficult for us to get on one side.”
“I think this game came down to rebounding. We cut it to about six with about 2:35 left, Ray Allen shoots a three in the corner, they get an offensive rebound, made a shot and put us in a tough situation.” Re is Celtics team better than last year: “I don’t know, they’ve got pretty much the same team. Except for Posey. Pose is a big loss, I’m glad we’ve got him. But we felt like we could have got this one.” Re is this a team to measure against: “Yeah I think so. Tonight we played hard. I’ll tell you right now that I’m not about any moral victory. We played hard. You win or you lose, and we lost. Hopefully we’ll have the big fella back next game, but if not, guys like Hilton Armstrong, Sean Marks did a great job coming in and filling that void.” Re acquisition of Antonio Daniels: “I think it’s going to help a lot. AD has been in every situation you can be in in this league. He’s another guard that loves to play. Hopefully he’ll be that guy that we need.” Celtics Post Game Quotes
“It was a good win for us. I mean they (Hornets) were sitting here last night watching us play and you know, I don’t care if you don’t play a lot of minutes; you’re still playing in that game. It was a struggle. I’ll tell you, it was not a pretty game aesthetically; if you looked at the game it was pretty ugly. Lot of frustration in the first half, but I just thought we mentally grinded it out. Made a couple spurts. It was a game of spurts and we had the longer spurts in the second half.” Re was he proud of his team for being able to fight: “Yeah, I was proud. Tonight was one of those games you’re really happy with because you didn’t play well, you were sloppy, you were turning the ball over. Foul trouble. Frustration. We had to go with different lineups, you know Rondo wasn’t Rondo tonight and Eddie had to step in, Tony had to come in. Baby and Leon because Kevin in foul trouble. Paul was phenomenal tonight. But we just struggled tonight. And give them credit. They had something to do with it. It’s one of those wins that you like because nothing went well in a lot of places except for our effort stayed good. What did we miss? How many free throws? 13 free throws, we gave up 25 points in turnovers, and we won the game.” Re is he concerned about the missed free throws: “Yeah, but I can’t shoot ‘em. So we’re just going to keep working on them, you know what I mean? I thought tonight that some of them were front rim, tired legs. I was trying to get our guys to get off the jump shots, because of that as well.” Re second unit in fourth quarter: “Yeah, second unit was terrific. I thought even middle of the third quarter – they came in because Kevin got the fouls – they just did all the little things. They didn’t do anything, one thing that was great, they just did a lot of good things. And I thought they got all the loose balls, and they made all the tough plays.” Re fewer turnovers in the second half: “We were really careless, the first half. Missed layups, just bobbled balls. And I don’t know if that was low focus or fatigue. But either way, we still got the win.” Re what was it like seeing James Posey in another uniform: “Didn’t like it. He’s up to those same tricks. You know, it’s funny, last year I loved what he did, setting flops, charges, grabbing, holding, getting away with hitting on the arm. Today I think I complained about Posey the entire game. He’s a pain in the butt, he really is, and now I know why I loved him on my team.” Re what kind of challenges are there playing Chris Paul: “All kinds. Tonight he didn’t look for his jump shot, which was good for us. He was attacking the lane, which was bad for us, but it allowed us to go on through a lot of pick and rolls with him tonight. But he just didn’t give up the ball. You can’t get the ball out of his hands. And you know he just creates havoc.” Re what does winning streak mean: “Nothing, really. I mean honestly, not a thing. I don’t think anybody even mentioned the winning streak. Like I said before, we don’t get anything for it. So, nothing. It’s great, I mean I’m sure some other time it will be nice to know we had a streak like this, but that’s about it.”
Re James Posey: “I think we’re just happy for him. I understand it’s a business. Posey moved on but it was good to finally see him get his ring and congratulate him. Knowing he was a part of something special. But once the game starts and we tip off we’re trying to get a win.” Re New Orleans: “New Orleans is a great team. They had a couple bad losses but you understand they were one game from winning the West a year ago. They’re definitely a contender so it’s not a thing where we’re going to expect to go out and blow teams out every night. They’re well coached, they understand the game. With Pose over there they understand what we do over here. We’re coming off a back to back so it just took some time to gather ourselves but then I thought in the third we came out a lot more aggressive with the defense and we were able to adjust to what they were doing in the fourth quarter and finally get some stops to put this game away.” “You’re talking about playing a team on a back to back who in many people’s eyes is going to be a contender. That’s the toughest thing to do in the league…coming from Washington, getting in late, going to bed at 3:30 or 4:00, waking up and playing a game again against one of the best MVP candidates Chris Paul and David West. This team is mentally tough. We’ve shown, we proved it and we don’t make excuses. The good thing about it we just try to find ways to win.”
Re James Posey: “The hardest thing is seeing a personal friend and an ex-teammate that was a part of something. We will always be forever linked. Understand it is a business and once the ball is jumped up then that’s what it is until the summertime. That’s one of the hardest things to do in this league.” Re Win Streak: “I didn’t even know about the streak. I haven’t even thought about our record. We’re preparing for teams individually. That’s what we say every night. That’s what we do. When we got on the plane last night we talked about it on the plane but no one had any prior knowledge. Probably Ray cause he just knows everything. Doc said in the locker room tonight our ultimate goal is to try to win this championship. In the way you accomplish other things. That’s just what it was. I think we’re playing decent basketball right now. There’s always room for improvement. The ultimate goal is the trophy.”
“Oh that was a great feeling you know, just to, once he stepped on the court, and we all embraced him, you know, and said the Ubuntu thing again, I could just think about all the memories I had with him, but um, I’m happy he got his second one and um, gotta move forward now. Yea man I mean he was a big part of our team, you know, and gotta give credit where credit is due, man, I’m still thinking about it now that you brought it up man, big shout out to James Posey and unfortunately we got the win today. It felt different but like when he took that charge on me, I said there goes James Posey again, then he got another charge on Leon, and I was just like, there goes James Posey again, and it’s just the little intangibles that he do, and it just makes him.”
“Oh man I knew what he was going to do, I tried to slow up, but you know, he, he’s a good actor, so he sold that, he sold it to the refs so you know they called it on me but I was mad at myself for falling for that. I seen that plenty of times, practice, in games, I’ve seen it a lot man, and I feel for it, and I seen it a little bit late, I tried to slow up, but I knew he had me because he gonna fall, he fell, got the offensive foul. Oh it was good, it was good man, Posey’s a great guy, um, man you know, always going to be missed, but you know he came back tonight and uh you know, we got together with him, and then we beat him, we gotta move on.” |
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