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Wednesday, May 26, 2004 at The Palace of Auburn Hills
Detroit Pistons 85, Indiana Pacers 78
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| PHOTO GALLERY | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| POSTGAME QUOTES | |||||||||||||||||||||||
On Indiana’s late 33-point run:“We got 29. They made a lot of shots and so did we. When Harrington made the three, I knew we were in trouble, but we got stops when we needed to. The biggest part of the game was in the second quarter when we had 10 turnovers and nine points and held them to 16. I think that allowed us to win the game. We got real tentative defensively because we got in foul trouble. I don’t know how we even could have really guarded in the fourth quarter. On Rasheed Wallace: “I thought our inside played great…I thought Rasheed did a great job. He was guarding a great young player who (the Pacers) go to a lot. He was great and so was Ben. What can you say about him? He was so active, and he guarded O’Neal late when Rasheed got in foul trouble. On the many points in the paint: “We had some good dribble penetration and good feeds from the post…Rip didn’t have any assists in the first half, but in the second he was curling screens and finding people on the inside. I thought Chauncey, Rip and Tayshaun tried to move the ball. On the defense in the 2nd quarter: “We were great. That was probably as good a quarter as we’ve played in this series. Any other team would have been down by 20 (at half), when you got 10 turnovers and nine points. But you have to give them credit. They rebounded, they made some hustle plays. On Rip guarding Reggie Miller: “He stayed out of foul trouble and kept him in front. We never helped off Reggie, we kept someone near him because he’s such a dangerous player. “I think both teams executed well tonight in the fourth. We were more patient. We had to be because we were put in half-court situations because they were scoring so frequently. We were more patient and I think that was the big key. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Pistons Forward/Center Ben Wallace
“It feels good to score 17 and get a win. It doesn’t matter if I had scored five or six points as long as we go out there and do what we have to do to get the win. Scoring against Rick or the Pacers is not added incentive to me because I’m trying to get the win. We were just passing the ball. Our guards did a great job of finding us when we were open. We forced guys to step out on Rip and he did a good job of dumping the ball down when he was double-teamed and we were standing in the paint getting layups. That’s what we have to continue to do.
On closing out the last two games: “In game one, down the stretch we were playing more like individuals instead of as a team. I think the last two games down the stretch we’ve been working together as a team, moving the ball, getting everybody involved in the offense and getting everybody an opportunity to make plays. Once we do that, we’re a tough team to beat. On the play of himself and Rasheed Wallace: “Rasheed has been doing a great job. He’s been hurting a little bit but he continues to go out there and bang and play through pain. Once I see a guy hurt and going out there and playing the way he’s playing, it motivates me to pick my game up a little bit and go out there and try to do a little bit more. Rasheed has been playing great for us ever since he got here. He definitely made me and everybody on this team a little bit better.” | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Pistons Guard Chauncey Billups
“On how he feels about his offense today: “I don’t think it’s been anywhere, except I haven’t been as aggressive to score the ball. Like, in Game 2, I was helping Rasheed who wanted to play so bad because of the guarantee that I was trying to force-feed him. We talked about, on D, being aggressive today. I was able to score, so it was all right. I thought I got the right people the ball at the right time and there were times I had some big shots.”
On the second quarter: “As detrimental as it was for us, I thought it was beautiful that we were able to still keep that lead. When you got two teams like this, two defensive minded teams, it’s going to take 12 points to win the half. The important thing is that if you’re not scoring, make sure they’re not scoring. When we do struggle sometimes to score, we step up our defense.” | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Pistons Guard Richard Hamilton
“We definitely fed off of the crowd tonight. We played good team basketball, and I think that was the key tonight. We caught our rhythm early, which helped us jump out to an early lead and stay in front for most of the game. We had a slow second quarter but we picked it up in the third and we just continued to move the ball, and we just tried to feed off of the emotion of Rasheed (Wallace) and Ben (Wallace.) Chauncey did a great job leading us; he did the things that were needed to ensure this victory. There were times when he had to make a pass, and he made the pass, he did just about everything right tonight. I just kept trying to chase him (Reggie Miller,) I knew that I was in foul trouble late so I just tried to make him earn everything.”
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Pacers Head Coach Rick Carlisle
“It was obviously a very tough game; hard to score and hard to get good shots. I thought early we struggled and thought I felt that we were excited to play I thought that early on we missed some opportunities at some loose balls. When we look back, the shooting percentage certainly stands out but I felt they got more loose balls. I thought we moved the ball better today, had some better opportunities but had tough luck with some good shots which will happen. There are certainly things that we can improve on but I like the fact that we got down by as many as 13 in the second half and we were able to battle back to a one possession game. It was a tough game. It’s one of the toughest crowds without question, I know that all too well.
On putting Artest on Hamilton: “Rip is a guy that I know very well and by putting our best defensive player on their best perimeter offensive player it gave our best chance to keep him from getting a good start. I thought Ron did a good job. It creates a lot of matchup quandaries both ways. There are always going to be counters with these teams. Both teams are so deep and both teams have so many different types of players with so many different types of diverse abilities. There were some moves and counter moves and that’s what makes this series very interesting. We have to get a better start on Friday and put ourselves in a position to play from in front if we can possibly do it. It’s pretty hard to play from behind on the road. It’s not easy because Detroit is a very well rounded team and very good at both ends.” | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Pacers Center Jermaine O'Neal and Pacers Guard Reggie Miller
MILLER: “We have to shoot better. We have to shoot in the high 40s. We have to move the basketball and we have to make shots. Obviously they are extending their defense but a lot of guys on our team are missing wide-open shots. We have to make shots.
O’NEAL: “Just like he said, we have to make shots. We have had shots that are wide-open but we’re just not knocking them down. We played really good defense. We were getting stops, we got in transition and were making things happen, our dribble penetration was great and we were able to get some easy baskets.” “This series is far from over. I feel pretty good about ourselves in this series. I know it is going to come around for us. We have too many good shooters on this team not to make shots. It’s just us going out and just knocking them down.” MILLER: “I have to be more aggressive at the offensive end but we’ve won a lot of ball games with me taking a lot less shots. Obviously, the impact and the magnitude of the Eastern Conference Finals you would want to get more looks. All year most of the shots have gone to Al, Jermaine and Ron so we’re not going to try to come up with gimmicks or schemes to now shoot 12 to 25 shots when I haven’t done it all year.” | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Pacers Forward Ron Artest
“I thought we played some pretty good defense tonight. We hung in and were right there at the end of the game. You’re not going to win when you’re shooting that badly. I’m not passing up shots, I’m just not getting the ball a lot because of the adjustments we’ve been making. We’re still in it, we wanted to win game one and game two, as well as this game; but we’re still in it, that’s the good thing about a seven game series. We had our chances to win today, and game two, but just couldn’t get the win. You never want to lose but all you can do now is go on to the next game, and try and win the next game.”
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Pacers Forward Austin Croshere
“You have to give credit to the Pistons, they are doing a great job making things difficult for us by not allowing us to get the shots that we want. I think in a series like this when teams are going to be able to make good adjustments you have to take what’s there, not what the play is always but you have to improvise. We’re just not doing a good enough job attacking the basket, and swinging the ball around like we usually do. I’m just disappointed to come up short when we gave ourselves a good chance. Game four is a huge game, if we lose it, we’re in a difficult situation down three one, but if we win, we’re going back to our place tied two-two.”
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