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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v MAGIC

May 18, 2010

Dwight Howard

ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Game Two

Boston Celtics 95
Orlando Magic 92

Q. Dwight, Paul Pierce actually tweeted on his Twitter page, "anybody got a broom?" Your thoughts on that?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Am I supposed to comment on that?

Q. Any comment on that?
DWIGHT HOWARD: No. They only won two games. I mean, they can write what they want. But you know we're going to stay humble and stay focused. Pride comes before a fall, just know that.

Q. What exactly happened there at the end with J.J. and everything?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think he was just trying to call time-out to one of the refs, but the ref really couldn't see him. He was behind J.J. J.J. was trying to turn and motion to him. I think he couldn't really see J.J.
But Coach says as soon as we got the rebound to call a time-out. So, you know, when you're playing in a big game like this, it's the little things that get you wins. Boston, they did all the little things to get the win tonight.

Q. First time all season you guys have lost consecutive home games. Is it shocking you got better in every situation but couldn't get over that hump?
DWIGHT HOWARD: You know what, it's not shocking. We just have to come back and win the first game up in Boston. That's the only thing on our minds. My thing is putting this game out of our head and just keep telling my teammates to believe. Believe we're going to win. Just because we're down 2-0 doesn't mean the series is over with. We just have to regroup. I think we played a lot harder than we did in the first game. We saw a lot of positives in what we need to do to beat this team. I think it was just some of those cold spells where the ball didn't move, stuck in one person's hand. You know, when we got the lead and when we came back tonight it's because we moved the ball. But we have to continue to do that the whole game.

Q. You obviously had a very strong offensive game tonight. You talked earlier about having more energy and effort. Was it as simple as that, Dwight, or were there other things going on?
DWIGHT HOWARD: It is. It is. I think when I'm playing with a lot of energy, just being myself and having fun, I think I play better. I know this is a very big series, but, you know, that doesn't mean I can't be myself on the floor.
I think the first game I wasn't myself. I missed shots and I got frustrated, kind of took me out the game. If I missed some shots tonight or got some fouls, I just tried to move on.

Q. You guys won there last spring Game 7. You won there twice this season. Is that something you can kind of fall back on? You know you can win there?
DWIGHT HOWARD: That was the regular season; this is the playoffs. We know we can win, but we just have to put it together 48 minutes against a good Boston team. This series is not over. I won't stop believing that. I won't let my teammates stop believing that. We're going to keep fighting. We're going to do it.

Q. What do you say to Rashard? He's not been shooting well in this series. How do you keep him up and into the game?
DWIGHT HOWARD: Just keep playing. The ball will go in the basket for him. We can't dwell on what happened, you know, in these first two games and keep our heads down. You know, we have to keep our heads up and stay focused. So what if Rashard didn't have a good first two games. Just make Game 3 a better game. And after the game, he was very -- he was ready for Game 3. He said a lot of good things in the locker room. He's ready to go. I'm pretty sure he's not worried about this game tonight.
It's a tough loss, you're playing for the Eastern Conference Finals and you go down at home. You know, like I said, I won't stop believing. I won't let my teammates stop believing.

Q. Dwight, Stan said that he wasn't happy with the shot selection. Do you agree with that? And is it more Boston's defense or is it on you guys? Or what is it?
DWIGHT HOWARD: I think the biggest thing when you're playing against a good team like Boston, good defensive team, is you have to be patient. You can't rush shots. The times we moved the ball, got good screens, we scored. That's what we have to do. We did take some bad shots. Everybody did. But, you know, we can't just rely on the offensive end. We got to do a better job defensively.
Everybody has to come back and rebound. That was the big thing. They got a lot of offensive rebounds, long rebounds. So we just have to take care of the ball and get some rebounds.

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