Pat Riley
Pat Riley
Patrick James "Pat" Rileyis an American professional basketball executive, and a former coach and player in the National Basketball Association. He has been the team president of the Miami Heat since 1995 and head coach in two separate tenures. Widely regarded as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time, Riley has served as the head coach of five championship teams, four with the Los Angeles Lakers and one with the Heat...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth20 March 1945
CityRome, NY
CountryUnited States of America
That was the first time I've seen Gary play like Gary in a long time.
That was a game situation. He's supposed to be on the court, but I had a hard time taking anybody off the court at that time, because we were down and then we went ahead by eight. As a coach, you're going to ride that lineup as long as you can.
That was obviously another one of those games. They (Boston Celtics) played extremely well. They were focused and they had a tremendous approach to the game. They executed in the first quarter flawlessly. They did not feel our defense and they did not feel our presence. We were waiting for them to miss and they just didn't.
That was a positive note. You could tell he was comfortable and in a good rhythm. When he is comfortable like that, he can make them.
That was a positive note. You could tell he was comfortable.
I was very conscious of (players') minutes and in the end I was very conscious of health. Today is not a good barometer to judge us.
I think people got a view of absolute greatness, back and forth. The bigger the moment, both of them stepped up even bigger and bigger.
I think probably a month ago or two months ago we wouldn't even come close to winning a game like this. We were very frustrated in the beginning with some very good defensive tactics on their part. They were just committed to fouling Shaquille (O'Neal) every single time.
It doesn't matter whether this was the first game or the seventh game (of the road trip). It was a terrible game on our part. They threw a zone at us early, and we acted like we've never seen it before.
When you play in this league, this league will bring you to your knees very quickly if you're not defending and not respecting the game and we almost got caught. Maybe we'll learn a lesson.
(The players) didn't like last night. It was embarrassing. But that's what you deal with. Once you understand what happened, you've got to get on with making those improvements.
We've got to find a better way to get him the ball deep, and that's going to be my challenge.
The only reason there's a rivalry is because the media has created two icons, very young icons. I don't think there's any kind of rivalry yet. Rivalries are born out of hate. And I don't think players today in this league have a dislike for each other anymore. There's just too much backslapping and hugging and all that stuff.
We moved the ball real well and had some guys step up and we got the win.