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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: JAZZ v SPURSMay 26, 2007Carlos BoozerDeron WilliamsSALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: Game Three Q. Guys in that third quarter, everybody seemed to sort of click. What happened? What changed? What did you guys do differently? CARLOS BOOZER: We were aggressive. We attacked. Everybody came out ready. You know, in general, our bench did a great job as well. Me and D. Will, we said if we attack and be aggressive, good things would happen for the team and that's what happened. Q. You guys are undefeated here in the playoffs. Can you both explain -- just define or explain why you are so much better here. DERON WILLIAMS: I think we have a lot of confidence at home. We are a good team during the season, for the most part at home. We have that crowd behind us. It definitely gives us a lot of confidence. Guys, in general, tend to play better at home. So, I mean, I think that's just been key for us. Q. You guys talked all week long about keeping the Spurs out of the paint. How did you think you did with that this evening? CARLOS BOOZER: We did good. I think Mehmet did a great job on Timmy. Timmy had eight turnovers. That was a big key. Obviously foul trouble helped us. That helped us a great deal. I don't know what the points in the paint have been, but we did a much better job closing it off and either making them shoot free-throws or kick it out to three-point shooters. It worked for us tonight. They didn't make as many as they missed, so that was good for us. Q. Deron, how do you think you did flattening Tony out tonight as oppose to the first two games? DERON WILLIAMS: He is going to get in the paint, there is no doubt about it. It is tough coming off the screen and roll. I have to try to get back in front of him. It is a tough task, task of anybody. That's what you got to do if you want to beat this team. I tried to do my best tonight. I think I did a little bit better tonight than I have in the past. He still got to kick out to three-point shooters. Like Booze said, they weren't knocking them down as much. He got to the hole with ease and I have got to do a better job of staying in front of him. Q. How much does this win just change your morale, change your confidence in the series? DERON WILLIAMS: It gives us a lot of confidence, you know. We just needed one game, just one game to get our confidence back. One game of playing great basketball for 48 minutes. I think we did that tonight. We went out and executed well, defended well for a full 48 minutes. Not 28 minutes, 32 minutes, for the full 48, and that's why we won. Q. Deron, do you think these playoffs for people who haven't been able to see you play a lot in youth, that you have shown people that you have really developed as one of the elite guards in this league? DERON WILLIAMS: I am having fun right now. That's the main part. My team is winning and I'm just trying to do whatever I can, whether it is scoring, passing the ball, defending. I am trying to help my team win. That's the most important thing, you know. A lot of people haven't seen us play all year, you know. We didn't have that many games on TV. So for them to see us play now and see that we are a real team, we're young, we should be around for a couple years. CARLOS BOOZER: As his teammate, he is one of the elite point guards in the league. I think he has proved that all season. He has been able in the second year to step it up even more in the playoffs. Yeah (laughter). Yeah. Q. I hope that people here would like you to carry the legacy of Stockton/Malone. What do you think of this, both of you? DERON WILLIAMS: There is always going to be comparisons because point guard, power forward and coming in here a few years after those guys. You can't compare us to those guys. We are 22 and 25 years old, just starting our career. Those guys are legends, two of the best players that ever played the game. We got a long way to go. We just want to be Deron and Booze. That's our main thing. Q. Deron, they assigned Bruce Bowen to you, their defensive stopper through the game. Was that a challenge to you at all, that they stuck their best defender? DERON WILLIAMS: He has been on me. Game 1 and Game 2 he started on me. He played on me a little bit when match-ups allowed him to do. I heard he wanted to be on me more. I definitely -- I like that challenge. He is one of the best defenders in the league. I like the physical play, you know. I don't shy away from it, so it is definitely challenging and fun to go up against him. Q. You talked about Games 1 and 2, the focus was on the Spurs and what they were taking you guys out of. What things -- improved defense in the paint, what are the things that maybe you guys took them out of tonight, specifically? CARLOS BOOZER: Some of those things we want to keep to ourselves, but we try to do a better job on the pick-and-roll and tried to do a better job of points in the paint, like we talked about earlier. If they beat us with threes, they beat us with threes. We'd rather give up a three than give up a layup. Other than that, we keep everything else to ourselves. Q. Deron, you mentioned liking the physical play against them. Because of your strength, do you think you are better suited to match up with the Spurs than maybe a lot of other guards in this league? DERON WILLIAMS: Yeah, there is a lot of strong forwards in the league. But like I said, I like the physical contact. I like when Bruce grabs me, holds me because I know where he is at and I can make a move off of that. So like I said, it doesn't bother me. I look forward to it. I like contact, get to the hole. Try to use my strength to draw fouls. Q. Guys, when Jerry Sloan talks about your desire and you need to play with more desire and it is time to step up and I think he made mention of nobody's mom being there tonight. Do you listen to that and does that fire you up to get you to play better? CARLOS BOOZER: I think some of us already play with passion all the time. We have a team where if we have everybody on the same page, we can be very good. That's what he meant when said that. I was talking to somebody earlier in the week, if we have everybody reading the same book at the same time, we would be a very good team. If we have a couple players on page 23 and some players on page 18, we will be a step behind. I think that's what Jerry meant. If we get everybody to play with intensity and passion and realize that each game is crucial, like this was a huge game, Monday will be a huge game and so on and so forth, play with a little bit of desperation, so to speak, we will have a good chance. We can lay it all out there and live with the outcome. End of FastScripts |
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