NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 12, 2005

Richard Hamilton

RICHARD HAMILTON: One thing we tried to do tonight, if they shoot threes, we're in good shape, but they just hit them. I think sometimes we could have contested a little bit better and a lot times Coach just wants us to go out there and stay in front of them. If they shoot outside jumpers, we can deal with it.

RICHARD HAMILTON: When the other team gets up early in the game, we get up early in the game, and there's times we try hard to push back and we spend a lot of energy coming back and every time is going to make another run. They made another run. The thing about us, we can't allow us to get down early, because like I said, it's just both -- after that, it's both teams making a run through the rest of the game.

RICHARD HAMILTON: I mean, you know, they did a great job of shooting the ball tonight. Guys hit shots, they hit three-pointers like you said, they hit wide open baskets. For us, we've just got to figure a way. Both teams are defensive-minded teams, sometimes you've just got to drive the basketball and try to make plays for each other.

RICHARD HAMILTON: I think we allowed them to get to the seams of everything. I think the one thing that we have to do is try to take what we want to do away. Even though some guys on the team are not shooters, we've still got to pressure them. We can't just allow them to sit out there and just do what they want to do. Once we try to do that, I think we'll be all right.

RICHARD HAMILTON: I mean, you know, with us, we just got to figure out just to go out and play basketball. I mean, we felt though the whistling didn't go our way on some plays and things like that, but we should have learned from the Miami series and the Indiana series and everything like that. It's tough, man. We just have to go ahead and continue to play hard and just play our game.

RICHARD HAMILTON: We played him well, the two games they played, he's been playing great. He's been making plays for his teammates. He's been getting to the free throw line and things like that. I think the one thing we probably have to do is to keep pressure on him. A lot of teams feel as though they want to make him into a shooter or things like that, but we just can't allow him to stand out there to make plays, to dribble the ball in the defensive lanes and try to get into the seams and things like that. I think we've just got to pressure him.