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Postgame Quotes May 3
Celtics 120, Sixers 87Recap | Box Score
Sixers: Coach Brown | Derrick Coleman | Matt Harpring | Allen Iverson | Aaron McKie
Celtics: Coach O'Brien | Kenny Anderson | Walter McCarty | Paul Pierce | Antoine Walker | Eric Williams


On the Celtics shooting:
“Not much you can say, they were 19 for 29. I thought the first half, you know, with Paul (Pierce) going off like he did, I’m looking at the scoreboard, we’re 44-41 down after a horrible start, and we’re not in foul trouble except for Eric (Snow) and nobody else was hurting us. I thought we were pretty fortunate. Our offense got a little bit scattery just before the half and we’re down 12 and we were worrying about stopping Pierce. I was concerned because I thought they were beating us to loose balls and making all the effort plays, but I still thought we had a chance. Then we come out the third quarter, got them to miss, and they come up with four or five offensive rebounds, which kind of kept us from getting back in the game early. But then we got it down to 10. Allen (Iverson) made a great three just at the buzzer. Got down to 10 and again we had some chances and we didn’t respond and then they just took it from there. They were marvelous. They did everything they needed to do. Aside from making shots, they had contributions from a lot of people. Paul obviously was phenomenal; I thought Antoine (Walker) had a great all-around game. But they beat us in the paint, they beat us second shots, and it’s obvious they shot the ball extremely well. We started out like it was a regular season game and that was – I thought we were fortunate to get back in it. But give them credit. They did everything they needed to do.”

Can he begin to assess what went wrong, and what’s next for the Sixers?
“I think it’s too early to tell but looking at the game, we looked slow. We really looked slow. You got to understand that we were playing against a team that played five perimeter guys, but we really looked slow. Put a lot of pressure on Allen, but our thing is we’ve always been able to sit down and guard people. I thought we started to guard in the second half, but every long rebound, every loose ball we just were slow to them and they got them. They’re a front running team, when things are going good, we never put any pressure on them. That’s all we talked about, coming out at half time. I thought we could really settle down and guard, but, again, they beat us to loose balls and we never put any heat on them.”

“Derrick Coleman is struggling physically, so you expect that. I don’t think Aaron (McKie) is in great shape physically. But I didn’t – hey, look, if we’d have played our best I don’t know if that would’ve been good enough. I don’t want to be thinking of what went wrong with this team. Let’s – we played against a team that went 19 out of 29 three pointers.”

his thoughts on Paul Pierce?
“Well one, I respect him because of the importance of the game. I have a lot of respect for Paul anyway. You think about this, this is a game, they haven’t been to the playoffs in quite a while. Consider the tradition of this franchise. They came out, they looked much more relaxed than we did. Heck, my point guard took five shots in the first six minutes. That’s so uncharacteristic of this team. But, again, I marvel at what he did. He did a phenomenal job. And he didn’t force shots. The third quarter I thought we got pretty good control of him, but other people on their team stepped up and he didn’t force anything. Pretty neat.”

What did he say to Coach O’Brien, and is he happy for him?
“Well, I respect this game, and to see a guy who goes from where he was to the position he’s in – because this is – you don’t get any better positions than the Celtics if you love basketball. I thought he did a marvelous job. He showed a lot of confidence in his team, they played and enjoyed playing. I think it’s so great when you see an assistant get an opportunity like he has, and he was able to do a wonderful job. That’s what our sport should be about. He earned the right to be a coach, and he certainly outcoached this one.”

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“They shot the ball very, very well. I don’t think I’ve seen any team hit that many three pointers. We went to double, they found the open man. Were able to knock shots down. So they’re pretty aggressive the whole game.”

“Any time you lose it’s disappointing. The best thing for us to do is reevaluate our season. With me, going to get my knee scoped, and get prepared for next year. Take our hats off to them, they played very well.”

“It will be interesting to see what happens, but it’s been a long year. We managed to stay together as a unit. And we learned from our mistakes as far as playing the game of basketball. And we take our hats off to the Celtics; they played very well.”

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“I just think we had some good looks. We just missed shots, and you know I don’t know if there’s a reason for it. But we got back in the game. We tied it up, and we kept playing. It’s just like we said, it’s their night tonight.”

“He (Pierce) played great tonight. I got to give it to him. Sometimes we trapped him, and he found the open man. And the other teammates were hitting shots. So either way, they did pick and rolls. We went under, and he’d step back behind the line and make a three. And then the times that we didn’t we went over. He passed the ball, and he’s an unselfish player, and he played well.”

Were the Celtics rubbing it in?
“No, I mean, they were excited. The fans were excited. It’s the playoffs, and you know, they haven’t won in a while. And it just seemed like a snowball effect for us. Because they even put in their reserves, and they were hitting threes on us. So it’s just one of those nights.”

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“I’ve been in games where it got out of hand. I’ve been in plenty of games where it got out of hand. My first year we only won 22 games, so I have a lot of experience with that. You just don’t expect it in a game like this.”

“I definitely think we need a couple of changes. Anybody could use better players. But I mean we had our shot of making it to the playoffs. What you want to do as a team is get to the playoffs and then it’s a brand new season. Every game that happens in the regular season is behind you because now you’ve got a chance to win a championship and it’s frustrating that we had that opportunity, we just let it get away from us.”

“He (Pierce) had a great game. That’s what all-stars do. They play big. You know how people say big players play big in big games. Big players play big all the time. It doesn’t matter the severity of the game and that’s what he’s been doing all season and he just had another great game. Good players don’t wait until big games to turn the light switch on and off. They just try to do it all through the season.”

“I felt like that at the beginning of the fourth quarter I felt like that when they had the 15 point lead, we were just going to dig in deep and that things were going to happen for us. And unfortunately, things just didn’t. We tried as hard as we could but that’s the way the ball bounces. That’s the way this thing goes. You try to play every game like it’s your last, but sometimes that’s just not enough and that was the case tonight. I think they wanted it more than us. This game, to be so big, I don’t think that as a team we bought it like we were supposed to. I didn’t see a lot of diving on the floor, going after loose balls. It was tough because this was it. One and you’re done. You’re supposed to leave everything you’ve got out there on the floor and for some reason, I don’t think we did that.”

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“When you face a team like that, that’s making shots, there’s nothing that you can do. I mean, I think we contested 50-60 per cent of the shots. They were just knocking them down.”

“No, I mean, just to be involved in it, I guess when you’re sitting and watching it on TV, you’re just shaking your head. Just imagine being out on the floor while all that is taking place. So you know it was a long night.”

“Those are the kind of shots that we like for those guys to take. The further you are away from the basket, the lower your percentage gets. So don’t know you they made it, and they won in big fashion.”

“Hey, man, look, we’ve been there before, and we can’t play our game and try to coach their team at the same time too. So it’s a moment that doesn’t come around that often. So you enjoy every minute of it. So those guys have been that way all year long, so I didn’t expect them to change.”

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“Tough keeping a grin off my face. It was a wonderful experience and to be able to, in the last two minutes, have the game in hand and just kind of soak up the atmosphere was a bonus. A great luxury. I thought we got a really great effort. We could talk about Paul Pierce, which is – I don’t even know how to describe that performance and Antoine (Walker’s) performance. We got a tremendous lift from Tony Delk defensively off the bench and Mark Blount off the bench in the first half. We played one hell of a basketball game.”

Eric Williams taking pressure off Pierce and Walker
“Well I think what he did, what they did is that we moved the basketball and we took what the defense gave us. They wouldn’t let Paul get to the basket. And we moved the basketball and as a result we got some great, great looks from the three-point line which has been our strategy all along. Certainly you don’t expect to go 19 for 29 from the three-point line. We practice shooting a lot.”

On Pierce’s performance
“Well, it was his second best performance of the year. He scored that many points in a half against New Jersey at New Jersey and our two captains are two special players. They have such a long way to go from the standpoint of how much improvement. I would say that Paul’s performance was -- other than New Jersey that I did not witness to tell you the truth other than on television because I got kicked out of the game -- it was the single best scoring performance I’ve ever seen. That’s as good as I can do.”

On the fans
“Well the kind of mandate that we’ve been given when we came here five years ago was to get the FleetCenter to be the Garden again. And I think what this series did was it accomplished that goal. I would like eventually to have people calling us the Boston Gardens again. Because what I’m told is that this is what is was all about from the fans’ standpoint.”

Was shooting contagious?
“I think that’s accurate. I mean, how many times have you seen guys or teams that are good foul shooting teams as an example miss a couple kind of early, and then it kind of snowballs the other way. Our guys, we’ve taken a lot of hits about the style that we decided to use. They’re justifiable hits from the standpoint of ‘let’s get more of a post-up game.’ And we want our three point shots to come from inside out. But when you’re playing Philadelphia, if we made this decision a long, long time ago, Philadelphia is going to load up to the lane, just like we do. They’re not going to let the basketball at the basket. And (Dikembe) Mutombo’s going to be back there. And they’re very good defensive players. So you have to use pick and rolls, space the court, and see if you can knock down a couple of threes.”

Did he want to stop coaching and just soak up the atmosphere
“My coaching was, if you will, a little tongue in cheek. Because I said something about, when (Aaron) McKie hit that three, I said, ‘damn it.’ I turned to the staff and kind of laughed. I really did enjoy the hell out of that last three minutes. It was so nice to see guys, subs, that are coming in and our guys are coming off the court, and for the time being, be rewarded for their efforts. Tremendous efforts, since the beginning of October. And you know you’ve come a long way when you get in there and everyone is happy and one of your captains says, ‘let’s get the one on Sunday.’ You know that you’ve started to turn a corner.”

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“I just try to stay in front of people. Me and my quick hands, my quick feet, and just harass as much as possible. Allen Iverson, you’re not going to stop him. You just can stop him when we need them (stops). That’s about it. I’ve got my teammates and I trust my teammates that are in back of me. It’s our team concept defensively. It’s been a great season. We’ve got great young guys. Our chemistry is great. The coaching staff is great. It’s been a lovely season.”

“After a while sometimes, you’ve just got to look in the mirror and say what can I do to make this team better, this organization better. Just play my role. I came in this league as a scorer which I can do. But I’ve got to pull back. We’ve got a great talent in Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker. It’s their show. I’ve just got to keep the tempo, play defense, penetrate when needed to. I still do my thing when I have to.”

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“I think across the country, they’re getting to see what this kid (Pierce) can do. We’ve known it all along, how good he is. Now he’s just showing himself to everybody else. We know what he can do. He’s a great player. He deserves to be up there with the other names for MVP.”

“It’s a lot of fun. It’s been fun the whole playoff series. This has been an unbelievable year. We really had worked hard to get to this point. We worked hard for this and we deserved it.”

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“It feels good when you’re shooting the ball well. I mean in the fourth quarter I didn’t even look up at the scoreboard. I didn’t even see how much we were up. Once you get in a groove, you’re just out there playing. Shots are going in, they’re falling in. You’re just going with the momentum and I really didn’t look up at the score until Philadelphia called a timeout after my last three pointer.”

“You’re going to expect another physical series. Detroit is one of the best defensive teams. Also, we’re 2-2 against them so we split, so there’s no real psychological edge in that aspect. So it’s going to be a grinding series. You know they’re a tough team, you know they have a lot of balance on their team. Stackhouse isn’t the only one on that team anymore. So we expect it’s going to be a long series. It’s going to be a physical grinding. We’ve got to make it a war. We’ve just got to take advantage of our home court and hopefully we can steal one in Detroit.”

“It was pretty much immeasurable. I had a tough time sleeping last night. I didn’t even get my nap in today. So it kept me awake and all along saying to myself I’ve got to play well. No matter what, I’ve got to go out and play well and not try to force anything. But the pressure I put on myself goes far beyond the pressure that anybody could ever put on me and I think that’s what keeps me hungry and keeps me motivated.”

Is shooting contagious?
“I really don’t know if it’s contagious, but I definitely had the groove, and the guys, you know, they did an extra good job of finding me in key situations to put the ball in the hole. Everybody just kind of fed off of that, and the three-point barrage was on. Other guys just stepped up made all the shots and those are the looks that we want, when we’re wide open and swing the ball and when we penetrate five guys and shoot the ball and knock down a lot of open three pointers.”

“The playoffs, they take a lot out of you, and right now I’m kind of drained from the game. So that’s just about it.”

On criticism
“I never listen to it. It’s hard for me to hear it. We, I think we put more pressure on ourselves than other people do. For people to come out and say we didn’t do the things we need to do in the fourth quarter, you know, get us over the top, maybe we can put a little bit of that to rest tonight. Because I think we did a great job, especially late in the game. We shared the basketball, and that was key. We have fun; this group has fun with each other. We don’t mind passing up shots to get a guy with an open shot. And you know, this has been a joy, a good ride for us. And we don’t want it to end.”

On the fans
“I think the fans have really been unbelievable. You know, they really stepped up and gave us a lot of momentum when we came home. You know, hopefully, other teams will see that so when they come into the FleetCenter they know that we have a good crowd behind us. And I think they’re pretty intimidating. I mean, I’m the home team and I was kind of intimidated by the crowd.”

On the pregame film
“I think it helps (seeing film.) Because you know you actually see what’s going on. I’ve been doing a terrible job taking care of the ball. Last game I had seven turnovers. But Coach put it on the film, and say this is where you’re making your mistakes at. So I want to make a concentrated effort and get out there and take care of the ball a little bit better. Find my open spots, when I can be aggressive, when not to be aggressive, and when to pass the ball.”

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“I think we’re meeting the only team in the Eastern Conference that can go deep with us. I think they get a lot of bench production like we do. I think, obviously, we’ve got to stop their spurts. They’re a spurt team. They get out and run and obviously we’ve got to find a way to keep Ben Wallace off the gas. This is one of those times you wish you had V back to put some, to put a lot of body on him. But myself, Tony, Rodney, we’ve got to step up. We can’t let Ben Wallace dominate the game. He’s been the X factor for them. He’s been huge. So we’re going to be prepared, we’re going to be ready for him. But we feel we fared well against them this season. Like you said, we’re 2-2 against them and they took one from us out there when we had a 17 point lead in the fourth quarter. Even though we’ve got to go out there and steal on of the first two games if not both of them, I mean why lose if you don’t have to. So we’re going to try to win both of them. But definitely we’ve got to get one coming out of there and get home.”

“Six years of frustration has been a long time. To be able to win and advance out of the first round, I think, getting to the playoffs wouldn’t have been the same. I would have left with a sour taste. But I’ve got 11 guys who can play the game. My goals are very high for this team. I think the way the Eastern Conference shook out, it made it winnable for us. We match up with any team in the Eastern Conference. It’s been many years since we could say that. Just to see the work all of us have put in, the things you went through in six years, to see the reward of it, to see the fans come out and support, and just to feel what some of these old guys have talked about and what we’ve heard about and just to finally be a part of it and build our own era, that’s what I was really celebrating. The fact that we are accomplishing as a team everything is new going forward. I just want to grow as a player and grow as a team. We’re just steadily learning. We continue to grow better. We just prepare every day. Now the stakes have gotten even higher. Now it’s time to step it up even higher.”

“I wasn’t really taunting. I just scored a basket. He was playing extra defense that I felt was kind of extreme at that point. He kind of was pushing me. I wasn’t really taunting at them. I don’t like Philly. I’m going to be honest with you. I wanted to win. I don’t like Philly. I don’t like anything about them. I am here to play. I don’t know that any of you thought I liked them or anything. I came to beat them. This is my first time in the playoffs. I came to win. I’ll see them next year.”

On the fourth quarter
“I think Paul’s been playing pretty consistent in the fourth as far as getting us some scoring. I just made the emphasis tonight: he carried us the first half, to be available in the fourth to take the shots when they become available. I felt like I passed on some looks in the fourth quarter, and tonight I was determined not to do that. Paul did a tremendous job, as far as carrying us in the first half, getting off to a great start, scoring, helping us build a comfortable lead. And I just was determined in the fourth quarter to make sure that I’d be a part of it. I think a lot of people are, for some reason, forgot that there’s two guys here. So we lose, I take just as much blame as when we lose. And, it’s unfortunate I guess, I think, people pick which one of us has the best games when we win. So we’re a together group, me and Paul, we’re very close, we’re into staying together, and we just got to contain to try to help each other out as the playoffs go along.”

What did Iverson say post-game?
“He just wished us good luck.”

Was this a defining game for their careers?
“I think it’s our biggest game of our career so far. Obviously as the playoffs go along, each game becomes bigger. But for me and Paul, obviously to be in game five against the Eastern Conference Champions makes it the biggest game for us in our career. And we were just prepared, man. We both arrived at the arena, you know, we didn’t call each other, we arrived at the arena at the same time, we went and worked out, we got our workout in. We was just very prepared and focused on this game. We felt like we let one slip away in game four, not taking anything away from Philly, but we wanted to come out and show the world that we can play at this level, man. We felt like we worked hard to have home court advantage and we needed to take advantage of it. So we started learning as we go along, obviously we’ve got one day to enjoy this but this is a big step for us in our career. And we’re just looking forward to the challenge of going to the second round now. We got our work cut out for us, with no time really for preparation. We got our work cut out.”

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“That was the Eastern Conference Champions over there. We just got it going tonight. Offensively we haven’t been playing very good, but so wasn’t Philly’s offense. It was just about time we started clicking. Paul was unbelievable tonight. The guys off the bench were unbelievable. We just had an all around good closeout win. I just give praise to my teammates.”

“It’s going to be a tough series. They’ve got a coach of the year candidate, they’ve got all-stars, they’ve got a defensive player of the year and another player who played late on the defensive team. They’ve got a sixth man. But we’ve got the sixth man too. We’ve got guys who can play defense too and we’ve got guys who can score too. So it’s going to be a great series.”

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