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April 21 • Practice Report April 19 • Brown, Coleman, McKie and Snow quotes April 18 • Practice Report • Brown, Iverson, Thomas and Van Horn quotes |
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Practice Quotes - April 21
“I think it’s obvious, Allen is not going to go 21-32 every night, even though I think he is capable of having big nights, as we have come to expect. We just need people to be threats. I think you’ve got to sometimes through the ball inside. Understanding that, D.C. has been out and been hurt, he’s got a bad hand, Keith’s been out. Hopefully, playing against Washington and playing last night will make them more comfortable when we play Wednesday.” Keith Van Horn’s contribution to the team “I have heard Allen mention it a lot of times. People ask him what Keith Van Horn would have to do to help him. I think, without realizing it, Keith helps everybody. You have got to honor him, even if he didn’t catch the ball, at least someone is guarding him. We have had it the other way, where nobody was guarding some of our guys. I think just the fact that he puts himself in the position to shoot the ball makes it better for everybody. The thing that I think hurts is when you run a play for him and he’s open, and he’s giving it up. That’s when you’ve got to say, ‘whoa, that’s yours.’ It’s nice being unselfish and everything, but a shot for Keith and a shot for somebody else, I’m going to take Keith.” his impressions of Allen Iverson’s 55-point output “For me, I’m sitting here watching this little kid go off, and I put myself in the other players’ shoes. They are all probably sitting there saying, ‘I hope he shoots.’ He’s making them all and making unbelievable plays. I think we all got just standing around and just watching. That truly was one of the great performances you will ever see. When you consider the size of him, the importance of the game for us, and the last time we played him, he was 2-11 in the second half. That could have been a situation where everybody was just standing around and watching him and trying to get him the ball. Trying to get him in a position to shoot the ball.” How he thought the 76ers defense played in Game One “On a scale of one-to-ten, that was about a seven. If you can get that kind of a performance every night, you are going to be all right. I don’t think we rebounded the ball as well as we need to. That was something we talked about a lot prior to the game. There were some things that we tried to emphasize that we didn’t do as well as we needed to. Overall, I thought it was pretty darn good.” On the players who played in their first playoff game in Philadelphia “I was kind of surprised, but some of our guys looked like they were a little nervous. Some of them told me they were. Hopefully, that will take care of itself. The crowd was great. We haven’t had this kind of atmosphere in a long time. Michael (Jordan)’s last game, obviously, was kind of incredible to be there. Last night’s crowd was the best we’ve had all year, by far. It was something that I think enabled us to win the game, to be honest. But some guys hadn’t been in the playoffs before, and especially here.” On what he expects from the Hornets in Game Two “We looked at the film. Obviously, you try to figure out what they are going to do. I would think the tendency for them is to try to take the ball out of Allen’s hands. Everybody else is going to be open. I think we are all aware of that. We are trying to show people what opportunities could present themselves so they are inclined to get themselves open and be a threat. Then we tried to figure out some things that maybe we can help Allen understand what they might do. I think about this game as a similar situation to when we played Indiana. Allen had a great first game and they came out and tried to take some things away from him. He gave it up early and made people threats. I think that helped him later on. I would anticipate he will be aware of that.”
“I think it was a big-game performance from a big-game player. I was in awe of the performance, but at the same time, that is something that he brings to the table. It never ceases to amaze what goes on around here. He played great and put us on his back last night and pretty much set the tone and carried us. Everybody else fed off his energy and his emotion.” On whether the Sixers can continue winning with most of the scoring coming from one player “This is something we have been talking about for years. We want to win games. However we do it, is how we do it. It’s too late in the season to be concerned with that at this point. Given the way he was shooting the ball and the way things were going for him, you want to put the ball in his hands. Everything he was putting up was going in. We did a great job of trying to look for him, put the ball in his hands and have him create for us.” On whether the 76ers will look to score underneath more in Game Two “The way the game was going, the way Allen was shooting the ball, we wanted to get the ball into his hands. That’s the way the game went. Maybe Wednesday night we will want to try establish our big guys a little earlier. Get their hands on the ball and get those guys some touches. I don’t think, being a big guy, you want to be banging all game long and getting rebounds and running up and down the floor and not touching the ball. We want to try to make an effort to get those guys involved because they do a good job for us under the basket as far as rebounding, defending and helping out when guys like myself are down there with bigger guys.” On the reactions of the players making their first career playoff appearance “We got excited in the back before we even came out onto the floor. We were back there jumping around, having fun and talking. Saying, ‘look guys, this is it. This is everything we’ve worked for all year long. Let’s go out here and take care of our home-court.’ As soon as those guys came out there and felt the energy of the crowd, immediately it was like, ‘wow, I guess this is what you were all talking about - playoff basketball.’ The fans make you aware of how important playoffs are.” On the lack of offensive production from Hornets guards Baron Davis and David Wesley “I think they were in foul trouble most of the game. It was kind of tough. I think, from watching the film, Baron looked like he was a little banged up. We’ll see what happens Wednesday night. I’m quite sure they are going to try to get those guys a little more involved, also.”
“I always think it’s important for me to produce offensively. Obviously, when you have a guy as hot as that, that’s probably as hot as I’ve ever seen any player in all my years of playing basketball. Obviously, we are going to look to go to him. But come Wednesday night, Allen is probably going to be scoring, but I doubt he’s going to score another 55. Myself and the rest of the front line need to contribute a little bit more than we did last night.” On taking only eight shots on Sunday night “I think, when you have a guy as hot as Allen was last night, it might be enough like it was. Realistically, I’m going to need to take more shots, and I’m going to need to make more shots. I think, after coming back from the injury, hopefully I got my game out of me. I’m coming back a little rusty, but I expect a lot more out of myself come Wednesday. Throughout the rest of the series, I’m probably going to be taking a lot more shots than that.” On where he stands in the rehabilitation process “My legs feel really good. I feel like my wind is good. I’ve tried to keep up on my conditioning and that really helped. It just comes down to getting my timing and getting my rhythm back. Before I came back and played in this game, I really hadn’t practiced. My first couple of practices were prior to the game on Sunday. Now, I got the opportunity to get one or two more in and hopefully I am going to be feeling a lot better in terms of my timing and my rhythm and my flow, especially on the offensive end come Wednesday night.” On the crowd at the First Union Center “That energy from the crowd was incredible. I haven’t seen that much energy from the crowd since I was a senior in college. It’s a great atmosphere. Our fans have been great all year long and have supported us all year long. Obviously, they took it to a whole other level last night.” On his impressions of Allen Iverson’s play in Game One “It didn’t hit me that he had that many points until he hit that three on Stacey Augmon coming off of the screen I set for him at the top of the key. All of a sudden I looked up and I saw how many points he had, and I was like, ‘man.’ I didn’t realize he had that many. Last night, he did such a great job of getting the ball within the flow of the offense. He wasn’t always having to create for himself like he often does. He got a lot of shots in the flow. I think that just opened it up for him and made it easier for him. Then it opened everything else, in terms of his drives, his pull-up jumper. At one point, I looked up at the scoreboard, and I was shocked.” On the differences he saw in Allen Iverson’s game Sunday night compared to the rest of the season “I think Allen last night came out of the offense, which I haven’t really seen all night long. He was just coming off shooting. A lot of times, Allen catches the ball and takes one or two dribbles before he goes up for a jumper. Last night, he just came out shooting the ball. I really haven’t seen that throughout most of the year. I think his game is more one or two dribbles and a pull-up. Last night, he was coming right off, catching and shooting and it was going in. I think that opened it up for him.” |
