Practice Quotes, 4/26
Head Coach Doc Rivers:
Thoughts on Mashburn not making the trip to Orlando:
“I don’t know what he has, but he could always show up tomorrow. Once the game starts and he’s not there, then we’ll believe it. Until then, we prepare for Mashburn and for everybody else, I think you have to do that. You never know, maybe he’ll feel better in the morning. I think it’s a tough break for them, but one of the things I said all year is I don’t feel sorry for anyone’s injuries; I tell everybody now, you can be at full strength and you let us have Grant Hill at full strength, and Tracy McGrady at full strength, and Mike Miller at full strength and we’ll lace it up and see how it goes.”
“It’s a tough break for them, no doubt because I think he means so much to them offensively. He’s a hell of a player.”
About how being home doesn’t guarantee anything:
“It’s easier to win on the road in the playoffs because you have more time to prepare for the team you’re playing. The only thing home court does is you’re more comfortable obviously and you have the crowd behind you. That helps, that does help. I don’t think it hurts them, but it helps us. We just have to do our job and whatever that job is we have to do it.”
About P.J. Brown joking that he doesn’t believe McGrady’s injury:
“The way he played [McGrady] I wouldn’t have either. P.J. makes a good point. When you look at him the way he’s playing and scoring, you’re thinking well maybe he’s not but we’ve all seen Tracy before and I think anyone that’s watched Tracy this year knows he’s not moving the way we’d like him move. He still moves pretty well though.”
About Tracy’s play:
“The thing is the way he’s scoring. I think that it’s far more impressive than that he’s scoring. He’s scoring and keeping everybody involved at the same time and I think that’s the difference between Tracy McGrady this year and last year. Last year he did it, but not to the point that he’s doing it this year. This year, Tracy can have a 50 point game and still get everyone involved; that couldn’t have happened last year. I think that’s the single biggest change that he’s made and that we’ve made and I think it’s helped the team.”
Charlotte adjustments to Troy Hudson:
“Troy’s tough. It’s tough to adjust to Troy’s speed because you can’t practice that in practice. But I’m sure their going to try to trap him and control him a little more. I think they’re actually going to push the ball up a little bit more also. I thought in game two, we really took them out of transition. They’re not a big transition team, but they will get into it at times. In the two third quarters in game one and two when they did, it actually got them back into the game. It doesn’t hurt us. We want the game to be that speed. The best script for us, is for us to run and make them walk. If you could script that, it would be perfect, but that’s tough to do.”
Were you ever sick enough not to play?:
“I don’t think I was ever sick enough not to play. This [Mashburn’s condition] sounds like more than just a regular flu. I’ve never had to go to a hospital for anything in that nature and the fact that he’s in the hospital tells me that this is very serious. It worries you a little bit, it really does. You worry about a guy who’s been in the hospital three, four times already. That scares the hec outta me. I think as competitive as we are, we want to beat this team and it’s a good break for us that Mash can’t play, but there is a human side to this and you feel bad about it. You don’t feel bad about him missing, you feel bad about whatever he’s going through to be serious enough to go to the hospital.”
Tracy McGrady
His response to P.J. Brown joking that he’s not really hurt:
“Oh yeah, I saw that. I just laughed at it. That’s because I went out there and dropped 31 with a bad back. I would say the same thing.”
“P.J.’s a good guy. He was just saying that, he didn’t mean anything out of the way.”
Response to hearing that Mashburn won’t be making the trip to Orlando:
“Mash not coming? He’s really that sick? I hope he gets better. We can’t worry about Mash or worry about who’s playing or not. We don’t have Grant Hill so…no sympathy for them.”
Could you ever imagine yourself sick enough to not play?:
“I couldn’t imagine myself. I’d at least give it a try. I don’t know what type of guy Mash is, so I really can’t knock him for not coming, playing, and giving it a try. I don’t know how sick he is. Like I said, I hope he feels better, but he’s probably real sick to not be able to play.”
His health:
“These days off have really helped me out as far as relieving the pain in my back. It’s getting better by the day and we got this specialist in that’s working with me three hours a day. I’m feeling fine, and hopefully he don’t work me too hard today where I have a sore back tomorrow. Right now I’m feeling pretty good. I’m feeling better than I did in game two, so the back pain is really calming down.”
The Back Specialist:
“He has a different technique. He has me working muscles that never in my life have I worked before. It’s the same guy that helped out Mashburn. This is different from massages, this guy has me actually working with rubber bands, all kinds of exercises.”
Horace Grant
On what the team needs to do to win Game #3
“We just need to come and play like we should in terms of keeping them off of the boards. If we do that then I think that we can win this game.”
On what made the difference in winning Game#2
“We were a lot more focused. Also, the way that Pat Garrity played. He laid his body on the line for the team and kept P.J. (Brown) off the boards for most of the night. Our guards helped us rebound and they did a good job keeping their guards off the boards, as well.”
On the similarities between Orlando Head Coach Doc Rivers and Charlotte Head Coach Paul Silas
“They are both two hard-nosed coaches that will tell you how it is, regardless of hurting your feelings or not. We need more guys like that, in terms of coaching, that players can respect.”
Mike Miller
On his ankle injury
“This injury is usually a four to six week process and I only gave it about two or three weeks to heal. It’s not going to get any better until I give it some rest and that’s the bottom line. I’m just going to play through it and we’ll see what happens.”
On the mental effect of playing with an injury
“It’s frustrating, believe me. It’s hard going out there and only being able to do about 60% percent of what you’re capable of doing, but everything happens for a reason. The timing was bad, but maybe this situation is teaching me something, too.”
On Mashburn not playing in Game #3
“It changes a lot. It takes their leading scorer out of the game, and it changes what we do defensively. Yes, we’ve got to go out there and make the adjustment with him out of the lineup, but we still have to do the things we need to do to win the game.”
“They’ve still got a lot of good players. Lee Nailon is playing well, Baron (Davis) is capable of doing a lot of things and Elden Campbell is playing well, so they’ve still got a great team.”
Thoughts on Mashburn not making the trip to Orlando:
“I don’t know what he has, but he could always show up tomorrow. Once the game starts and he’s not there, then we’ll believe it. Until then, we prepare for Mashburn and for everybody else, I think you have to do that. You never know, maybe he’ll feel better in the morning. I think it’s a tough break for them, but one of the things I said all year is I don’t feel sorry for anyone’s injuries; I tell everybody now, you can be at full strength and you let us have Grant Hill at full strength, and Tracy McGrady at full strength, and Mike Miller at full strength and we’ll lace it up and see how it goes.”
“It’s a tough break for them, no doubt because I think he means so much to them offensively. He’s a hell of a player.”
About how being home doesn’t guarantee anything:
“It’s easier to win on the road in the playoffs because you have more time to prepare for the team you’re playing. The only thing home court does is you’re more comfortable obviously and you have the crowd behind you. That helps, that does help. I don’t think it hurts them, but it helps us. We just have to do our job and whatever that job is we have to do it.”
About P.J. Brown joking that he doesn’t believe McGrady’s injury:
“The way he played [McGrady] I wouldn’t have either. P.J. makes a good point. When you look at him the way he’s playing and scoring, you’re thinking well maybe he’s not but we’ve all seen Tracy before and I think anyone that’s watched Tracy this year knows he’s not moving the way we’d like him move. He still moves pretty well though.”
About Tracy’s play:
“The thing is the way he’s scoring. I think that it’s far more impressive than that he’s scoring. He’s scoring and keeping everybody involved at the same time and I think that’s the difference between Tracy McGrady this year and last year. Last year he did it, but not to the point that he’s doing it this year. This year, Tracy can have a 50 point game and still get everyone involved; that couldn’t have happened last year. I think that’s the single biggest change that he’s made and that we’ve made and I think it’s helped the team.”
Charlotte adjustments to Troy Hudson:
“Troy’s tough. It’s tough to adjust to Troy’s speed because you can’t practice that in practice. But I’m sure their going to try to trap him and control him a little more. I think they’re actually going to push the ball up a little bit more also. I thought in game two, we really took them out of transition. They’re not a big transition team, but they will get into it at times. In the two third quarters in game one and two when they did, it actually got them back into the game. It doesn’t hurt us. We want the game to be that speed. The best script for us, is for us to run and make them walk. If you could script that, it would be perfect, but that’s tough to do.”
Were you ever sick enough not to play?:
“I don’t think I was ever sick enough not to play. This [Mashburn’s condition] sounds like more than just a regular flu. I’ve never had to go to a hospital for anything in that nature and the fact that he’s in the hospital tells me that this is very serious. It worries you a little bit, it really does. You worry about a guy who’s been in the hospital three, four times already. That scares the hec outta me. I think as competitive as we are, we want to beat this team and it’s a good break for us that Mash can’t play, but there is a human side to this and you feel bad about it. You don’t feel bad about him missing, you feel bad about whatever he’s going through to be serious enough to go to the hospital.”
Tracy McGrady
His response to P.J. Brown joking that he’s not really hurt:
“Oh yeah, I saw that. I just laughed at it. That’s because I went out there and dropped 31 with a bad back. I would say the same thing.”
“P.J.’s a good guy. He was just saying that, he didn’t mean anything out of the way.”
Response to hearing that Mashburn won’t be making the trip to Orlando:
“Mash not coming? He’s really that sick? I hope he gets better. We can’t worry about Mash or worry about who’s playing or not. We don’t have Grant Hill so…no sympathy for them.”
Could you ever imagine yourself sick enough to not play?:
“I couldn’t imagine myself. I’d at least give it a try. I don’t know what type of guy Mash is, so I really can’t knock him for not coming, playing, and giving it a try. I don’t know how sick he is. Like I said, I hope he feels better, but he’s probably real sick to not be able to play.”
His health:
“These days off have really helped me out as far as relieving the pain in my back. It’s getting better by the day and we got this specialist in that’s working with me three hours a day. I’m feeling fine, and hopefully he don’t work me too hard today where I have a sore back tomorrow. Right now I’m feeling pretty good. I’m feeling better than I did in game two, so the back pain is really calming down.”
The Back Specialist:
“He has a different technique. He has me working muscles that never in my life have I worked before. It’s the same guy that helped out Mashburn. This is different from massages, this guy has me actually working with rubber bands, all kinds of exercises.”
Horace Grant
On what the team needs to do to win Game #3
“We just need to come and play like we should in terms of keeping them off of the boards. If we do that then I think that we can win this game.”
On what made the difference in winning Game#2
“We were a lot more focused. Also, the way that Pat Garrity played. He laid his body on the line for the team and kept P.J. (Brown) off the boards for most of the night. Our guards helped us rebound and they did a good job keeping their guards off the boards, as well.”
On the similarities between Orlando Head Coach Doc Rivers and Charlotte Head Coach Paul Silas
“They are both two hard-nosed coaches that will tell you how it is, regardless of hurting your feelings or not. We need more guys like that, in terms of coaching, that players can respect.”
Mike Miller
On his ankle injury
“This injury is usually a four to six week process and I only gave it about two or three weeks to heal. It’s not going to get any better until I give it some rest and that’s the bottom line. I’m just going to play through it and we’ll see what happens.”
On the mental effect of playing with an injury
“It’s frustrating, believe me. It’s hard going out there and only being able to do about 60% percent of what you’re capable of doing, but everything happens for a reason. The timing was bad, but maybe this situation is teaching me something, too.”
On Mashburn not playing in Game #3
“It changes a lot. It takes their leading scorer out of the game, and it changes what we do defensively. Yes, we’ve got to go out there and make the adjustment with him out of the lineup, but we still have to do the things we need to do to win the game.”
“They’ve still got a lot of good players. Lee Nailon is playing well, Baron (Davis) is capable of doing a lot of things and Elden Campbell is playing well, so they’ve still got a great team.”
