Round Two, Game Six: Detroit Pistons 84, Cleveland Cavaliers 82

PISTONS.COM

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Rasheed Wallace Points: 24 3PM-A: 4-8 Blocks: 2 Assists: 4 Minutes: 45

On whether the Cavs were tight:
“I told our guys today this is a game where both teams feel that it’s a must win. For us, there’s no question because we were done. I think that Cleveland felt it was a must win for them because as LeBron said publicly, they didn’t want to go and play a Game 7 up in the Palace. They wanted to take care of things here. I don’t think they played tight because I think LeBron didn’t play tight. He was aggressive the last five minutes, made plays, made free throws, the only miss was the one he tried to miss as far as so he could get the tip in.”

On defending LeBron with smaller players tonight:
“We tried, number one, to put a little more pressure, and not get him as comfortable. He’s so good with the ball because he’s so big. He can see over people. So you can’t let him where he is spacing you up so much, we tried to get him where we could put a little more pressure on him. Change the people on him a little bit, changed our coverage, went some traps, did a little bit of everything. I thought our zone defense was great for us. It changed tempos as far as the game. And just tried to give different looks. When you play someone who is in a rhythm which I think he is you can’t give him the same look every time.”

On Rasheed Wallace’s approach tonight:
“I think our whole team has had a different approach. As I told you guys prior to the game, I didnt know if it was good or bad as far as the guys being very quiet, very focused, they’re definitely sensing a sense of urgency. Sheed was one of the main guys. Sheed likes to have a good time in that ring but he was very much businesslike and the whole team carried that through. And we played that way. We executed our defensive gameplan pretty much how we wanted to execute it. Offensively, we ordered some wrinkles. We were able to get Sheed the ball with some space, loosen some things up later as far as for Chauncey.”

Was he surprised that the Cavs didn’t call a timeout or shoot a three immediately at the end:
“They only had one timeout left and I think they felt that if they were in a situation where if you have that time out and you call it and you do get a score and the other team comes down then they might have it at the end line with no timeouts. I think they were anticipating that LeBron could get something good in transition. Maybe their idea was he was going to go and get fouled quicker maybe, I thought maybe he was going to pull a three. I wasn’t that surprised really. We told our guys that they were going to come and not call a timeout.”

On their offensive rebounding:
“Ben was phenomenal on the offensive glass, just keeping the ball alive. Sheed was good. In some of their switches, we told our bigs if they get a small guy and want a place to go get near the glass you have a chance to get an offensive rebound. I just thought we had good energy. Like I said before, this is a team that’s battle-tested. They’ve been in these situations many times and they’ll step it up a little a bit. We’re excited about going home. There was columnist this morning that wrote that our crowd is a bunch of front-runners and we didn’t cheer til we got ahead or whatever and questioned the enthusiasm of our crowd. Well, I guarantee you Sunday its going to be a very energetic and entertaining game and a loud crowd.”

Was this the biggest win of his coaching career:
“No, not really. It’s the biggest win because it’s the one we won tonight. I think that’s how it usually goes. I had some big wins in Minnesota when we got to the conference finals but in Detroit it’s the biggest win because it keeps us alive and there were a lot of people who thought we were dead. So we go home breathing. Sunday will be a very entertaining game.”

On the game:
"We kept fighting. The last play of the game I went up tried my best to get it and damn near tipped it in. It’s like that. It’s great playoff basketball."

The tempo to start the game:
"We came out in the first quarter way to excited. I was like a kid in the store at a Chuck-E-Chesse’s. I was way to excited. It trickled down. I was excited everybody else started to get excited."

More on guarding LeBron:
“I tried to use my quickness. Making him work as hard as he possibly can. I know he is going to play 48 (minutes) so while I am on him I got to make him earn every ounce. That is my job.”

Playing from down 3-2:
“I don’t think it is difficult. I just think when you hear people bury you before you are dead it is kind of weird. We just have to get focused and come out and play. We still did not play our best game. We were still really anxious in the beginning of the game. Chauncey was really anxious. He made some plays that were uncharacteristic of what we normally do. But, we got our focus back and maintained it and scratched and clawed our way back into it.”

Outlook after game 5 and 6:
“Like I said after the loss nothing needed to be said. We knew what needed to be done.”

Who made the tip for Cleveland?
“(Drew) Gooden got his hands on it.”

On the crowd:
“Our crowd was terrific. The atmosphere in there was great. They almost helped us get over the hump.”

On the Pistons three-point shooting:
“You have to give the Pistons credit. One of the areas that we talked about trying to take away from them was their ability to shoot the three-point shot and I thought Rasheed (Wallace) in that second half hit some threes to keep them in the game and then they eventually took the lead. With him going 4-8 from the three-point line, that makes it tough.”

On the Pistons offensive rebounds:
“Throughout most of the game we did a solid job but in the fourth quarter we let that area get away from us. That was big down the stretch in a close ballgame.”

On game seven in Detroit:
“This is what the NBA Playoffs are about. Everybody should enjoy and look forward to a game seven. We’re playing against one of the best teams, if not the best team, in the league and to try and go up to Detroit and get a win in game seven, what better challenge is that. I’m looking forward to it and I know everybody in that locker room is looking forward to it. We won up there before and we believe we can win again. But it’s one day, one game at a time and Sunday is our one game.”

On Larry Hughes:
“I don’t know with Larry. We’ll watch the tape tonight and we’ll think about it. We’ll practice tomorrow and then if we feel he’s ready and we’re ready we may play him on Sunday but right now it’s too early for me to make that decision. But in time I will.”

On this game being frustrating:
“It’s not frustrating. We’re playing against a good team. They came in here and beat us on our court and they played well. Much props to them. We just have to regroup and get ready for Sunday.”

On feeling like they let one get away:
“We had our opportunity to win and they had their opportunity, but they took advantage of it. It’s not disappointing at all, but we could’ve did some things better. I had a lot of unforced errors but we gave ourselves an opportunity to win, which is something that we’ve been stressing all year. We just didn’t come out victorious tonight.”

On the foul call at the end of the game:
“Of course I didn’t want the foul, because I got off a good pass to Flip with 1.4 seconds on the clock. Being the smart team that they (Detroit) are, they committed the foul. They wanted to give up two points before they gave up three points. So it was a smart play by them.”

On not showing poise at the end of the game:
“No, I don’t think so. We went down a few time and went up a few times, but we never lost our poise or gave them a sense that we weren’t into the game. We gave up some late offensive rebounds, but they are a good offensive rebounding team. Everything that happened tonight was controlled by us. We just have to do a better job of executing down the stretch. But as far as being poised down the stretch; I think we were.”

On game seven being the biggest challenge of his career:
“By far. Of course. I think game seven is going to be electrifying. Their crowd is going to be up for it. Their team is going to be up for it. We’ve won on their court before, and in order for us to move on we’re going to have to do it again. We’ve got to take the challenge.”

On what it will take to win on Sunday and will Larry Hughes be a part of it:
“Well of course. You always hope Larry’s going to be a part of it. He’s a big part of our team. In order for us to win we just have to keep playing like we’ve been playing. We’ve given ourselves an opportunity to win the last four ball games, so we’ve got to bring high intensity. We know it’s going to electrifying in that arena. They’re trying to move on and we’re trying to move on also, so we have to bring our A game. We can’t make too many mistakes on a game seven, especially on the opponents court.”

On not calling a time out at the end of the game:
“Sometimes you’re best shot is when the defense is not set up. A lot teams win games like that. We could have called a time out. Could have, would have, should have, but it’s over with.”

On not calling a time out at the end of the game:
“The Palace is going to be on their toes, all their fans. We have to go in there, our team, our coaching staff, and whatever fans are going to come up and we have to go find the energy we need and just leave it out there on the floor.”

On not boxing out and not pursuing the basketball:
“Those guys are very athletic. They attack the offensive glass very hard. The things that we did well in games 3, 4, and 5 was that we boxed out well and we pursued the basketball. Tonight we didn’t do that in the last couple minutes and because of that it cost us.”