	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SUNS v MAVERICKS

May 30, 2006

Mike D'Antoni

PHOENIX, ARIZONA: Game Four

COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: Well, I guess we're not done yet. You know, there was a lot of talk last couple days. We swallowed a lot. But that's the second time in a row we had 41% shooting and that's the key.
Our defense is terrific, and we sputtered a little the first half offensively, we blew the lead in the half like we did in Game 3. But guys kept plugging away and obviously did a great job.
Q. Mike, can you tell us about Raja?
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: He's okay, he powered up that one and he felt a little twinge or something, but I kept asking -- I've only asked him 185 times, are you okay, are you okay? He said he is, so I gotta trust him.
Q. Big boost to have him out there?
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: You know, you see what he means to us all year. Again, I told you guys before, nature has a way of healing warriors a lot quicker. And the guy's, whatever we needed all year, he's done it spiritually, physically, talent-wise, whatever. And he just stepped up again.
And, again, one more guy we needed and it also allows us to play really small and helps Leandro. We saw it where Leandro is taking -- now we spread the floor a lot more. Leandro's speed comes into play. It's just a ripple effect down. He can guard Josh Howard a little bit. And it's just things he brings to the game that we tried and almost overcame, just couldn't overcome it.
Q. Inspirational obviously?
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: Yeah, and it just shows. You know, the most important thing for him is to play in the Conference Finals, and get what he got. He came up to me before the game and he goes: If I'm messing up, get me out. I don't want to be a detriment to the team. So hook me as soon as you want to. And that wasn't the case. It just shows you what type of guy he is. He just wants to win.
Q. When did you know with him that he was going to play for sure?
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: Well, he kept saying the whole time he was going to play. Now, the training staff and doctors, they were cautious and really didn't think he should play and they want to be real cautious, and, you know, I did get a call last night or heard from his agent that, you know, if we don't want him to play we might have to shoot him. (Laughter). So it was like, do we kill the guy or let him play? So we kind of needed him.
You know what, at that point -- my thinking is, if he goes out and messes up, if he goes out and gets hurt again and we lose and it's a disaster, I think it's more important the character that he shows and to go into the foxhole with him no matter what happens.
And that's -- to me that's what sports are all about. He's a team guy. He's been a team guy. He's never asked for anything. He just plays hard every night.
And, you know, to be able to coach a guy like that is precious.
Q. Mike, you touched on this before, but can you talk about playing Raja, Steve and LB on the floor at the same time and how much it affected LB?
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: It just opens everything up. And that's been a great lineup for us all year. We're not able to do that -- and, like I said, not having Raja is a trickle-down effect. It really affects LB's speed and being able to open the floor up another 30 minutes from a guy who can rest guys a little bit more. Everybody takes two or three more minutes off. And it's just a lot of positive things beside the -- that he's a good player. He's a tough player. He guards well. Besides all that, it helps the other guys also in rotations and floor spacing.
Q. Mike, it seemed like everything you said you were going to do you're doing. Nowitzki is out of the game. You're shooting 60%. Your guys are not being run off shots. You're spreading the court more. So now you're up five points again at half time?
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: I know. It was a bummer, wasn't it? (Laughter). But if you look at it, we went in and, you know -- you never know what's going to change the second half. We missed four foul shots. Normally we don't do that. Normally a very good foul shooting team. Really missed some layups that really cost us.
Then we turned the ball right at the end of the half like we did last time, fouled real quick. That was a four-point swing. Instead of being up 10-14 because we're shooting so well, which we should have been, now it's five again. I'm thinking, here goes the nightmare again, here it goes again. But they came out more resilient, settled down a bit and made some shots, and LB just went crazy.
Q. He did obviously, but could you elaborate on that in the sense that the second half of the last two games was where they seemed to wear down and that would be that sort of oh-oh thing that you might be facing, what was different about their attitudes this half?
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: More backs against the wall, against the wall more, determination more. Getting through it, because, again, I just don't think we're tired. A lot of time it's the pressure of the game that -- when you've got the weight of the world on you, sometimes you don't go as fast, and I think they just adjusted to us. It's a big game, big deal, we'll play it.
A lot of times it takes us our backs against the wall to be able to figure that out. You never know psychologically what it means, but I know we're not tired and I know these guys will run. And I know one day from now or two days from now we're ready to roll. And it's going to be a heck of a fight for those guys, and we're not going anywhere. And they're going to have to beat us. If they shoot 41%, they're not beating us. So it's up to them.
Q. Mike, it was only a few minutes, four or five minutes, but you got Kurt in the game at the end. Do you see a point in the next three that he could be a factor?
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: I don't know. I wish I could tell you.
Q. What did you think of the four minutes he was in?
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: I just have to look -- you know, he was breathing pretty heavily out there. You know, I just think that -- and it's really not whether he can play well or not, it's just we need the speed to beat this team. We have to spread the floor, and we have to run. And he might play, fouls or whatever, we could use him, but that isn't -- we're not going to change the way we're playing. And we're going -- especially this team.
Now, if it's another series, again, I've said it before, he would play because we need him for something. It's different, and I have to make that decision. I love Kurt. I mean, he's given us -- do I owe it to him? Probably I do. But I owe it to everybody that I gotta play the best guys in this moment right now. I can't worry about feelings or people on me. I can't do it. And do I hate it, yeah, I hate it.
Kurt has been unbelievably professional. Been at every practice, on crutches halfway across the East Coast, done everything as a professional and he deserves to play. But everybody deserves to win. And I think that's just the best way to go. I might be wrong, hey, you know?
Q. Mike, can you kind of expand on LB getting hot tonight?
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: Well, you know, I knew it was going to happen. The guy's good. You know, surprised me it didn't already happen two or three straight games. This guy is a great shooter. I think Raja coming back helped him and settled him, but also spread the floor out, hit a couple shots, started getting his confidence up.
I don't think it's like, oh, my gosh, that's unbelievable. He's done this a lot. And probably more surprised he didn't do it in the other games than I'm surprised tonight. This is LB. He's this good.
Q. Did he play a smart (inaudible) shot selection?
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: I believe because the floor is spread and it's easier to get the shot, I think he understands that. Before, you know, without Raja, I'm sure he's saying, I gotta play hard, I gotta go hard now. You get Raja in there, he's sitting on the bench, saying, yeah, everything is going good, I'm okay, I don't have to do everything. Psychologically it's better that Raja is back.
Q. Can you talk about your defense on Dirk tonight? When a player has been at that level for so long to have a game like this, just what it does to a team?
COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: Well, you know, he's 3 for 13. I thought we did a really good job. I'm not going out on that. I'm not crazy. This guy, Dirk's really good, so he might have had an off night. Just like the other night, we didn't have a crisis identity, we just played bad. He might have just had an off game. Nothing we did. He had an off game. He'll be back. You know that.
But I have to give our guys some credit, like I did Dallas. We did what we were supposed to do. Tim Thomas did a heck of a job. Shawn Marion did a heck of a job. We doubled when we needed to and we were active as heck.
So give us credit, but players like him, that's on him. And he just had one off night. What's this, about first time in 40 nights? It does happen. Thank you.

End of FastScripts...

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297