SONICS COACH NATE MCMILLAN:

On the game:
Give Boston credit. Those guys came out hard defensively. They got after us. Doc (Rivers) did a nice job of matching our rotations, keeping smalls in there to defend what we’ve been doing all season long. He tried to keep Gary (Payton) on Luke (Ridnour) and (Tony) Allen on (Vladimir) Radmanovic and Boston earned this win. They were aggressive. They attacked our paint. We didn’t have ball movement; we only had 14 assists. So the things that we needed to do, we didn’t do tonight.

On whether the Sonics had a letdown from their Texas road trip:
We’ve got a game to play. We got looks we just didn’t knock our looks once again. And we had 18, 19 more attempts than they did. We controlled the boards, but we missed 10 free throws. A few of our guys didn’t shoot the ball well. Our guards didn’t shoot well tonight.

On the Sonics effort:
That team earned it. I thought we played hard tonight. But we ran up against a team that played better and earned the win tonight.

On the matchup problems the Celtics pose:
We knew that. They have a pretty good small unit with Gary, and (Paul) Pierce, (Ricky) Davis, and Allen playing well. Defensively, they play pretty good and offensively they have some guys that can attack you. And they did. Whenever I put Radmanovic in the game, Doc went with Allen. And whenever I came back with Luke, he went with Gary. I thought they did a good job. Our guards tonight, between Ray (Allen) and Luke were 6-for-34. Ray is not going to have 0-for-10 from the three-type shooting nights. We didn’t knock our open looks. Give the Celtics credit.

On whether the Celtics have the blueprint to beat the Sonics:
I don’t think so. All teams can’t do this. All teams can’t put those types of players out there. Allen matched up with Vlade and Rashard. Davis is an aggressive offensive player and solid defender. Pierce is an All-Star, and Gary is a Hall of Famer. Most teams can’t do that. This team has been able to defend us and attack us.

GUARD LUKE RIDNOUR:

On his poor shooting:
I just kept shooting. I’ve been hitting those shots and this was just one of those games where they don’t fall. You don’t want that to happen, it’s unfortunate but you have to step back the next day and keep working.

On the matchup with Payton:
He’s a great player. You’ve got to give him a lot of respect but he’s a tough matchup just how he posts up a lot of the time. He played well and we didn’t play well.

On the Sonics offense:
We quit moving the ball the second half. We had good looks, we just didn’t knock them down. It was just one of those games. You play 82 games, you’re going to have one of these. We just need to put this game behind us and just play harder next game.

BOSTON COACH DOC RIVERS:

On the game:
That was a great win for us. We played just great basketball. I don’t know if we’ve played any better this year. When you hold that team to 28 points in the second half, you’re playing great defense. Gary Payton was awesome tonight. I thought it was a team game and everybody contributed … I thought Ricky Davis defensively was huge against Ray Allen. He came in and took away shots. I thought we did a great job of challenging almost every single one of their threes. We made them put it back on the floor. They had a lot of times when they only had four or five seconds on the clock and that tells you good defense.

GUARD GARY PAYTON:

On the game:
We have been struggling and losing tough games so tonight we came out and played really well. We matched up with them really well. I think we attacked them back and this is the second time we played really well against them.

On the Celtics defense:
They like to shoot threes and we know that. So we switched. Sometimes teams are big with them and they don’t switch so they get wide open looks. We were able to put a hand in their faces and making them take tough shots with hands up and they were missing. We did the same thing in Boston and we were able to come up with a win and we came up with a win here.

On beating the Sonics:
We are just trying to win. It was no different. We are trying to get our team better. It’s no big deal to win in Seattle or anything like that. We are just trying to get wins. We came back tonight and beat a good team.

On being in Seattle:
That’s over with … my life goes on. I’m thinking about playing for Boston and getting Boston wins.

On being cheered by the fans:
I love the fans and they love me. I was here for 12 years and the fans have nothing to do with everything that happened two years ago. They are still great and I hope they think I’m still great. There is always love for that.

FORWARD PAUL PIERCE:

On the game:
I think it was our defense from the jump. We have been concentrating on our defense and it has been the key for us the last two games. They have a high-powered offense that shoots a lot of threes and they put a lot of pressure on you all game. You are always going to be in the game if you can get stops.

On matching up with the Sonics:
We match up well with them. They have guys that are versatile and can play a lot of positions and I think we are the same thing. We are able to match up with them and take pressure off our big guys. It just worked out for us tonight.

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