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
We were a minute and a half away from the Finals -- big deal, ... It's about winning a championship.
We're going to go at it (Wednesday) without trying anything new. I think if we ever get to that point where we play them down the road we'll probably have a few other things that they haven't seen.
When we are in the penalty, you have to go to him as much as you can. We kept trying to call his number.
We know he's a big-time tumbler. He goes hard to the basket. He hits the floor a lot. If he could play he'd be out there.
There are universal truths of defensive basketball. If a guy is open, guard him. Don't leave him standing in the corner or out on the three-point line.
He's got to do it. I was very disappointed... Those are the things that he has to dominate if he's going to be fronted and backed and we can't get him the ball all the time. He has to use his size and keep his head under the rim.
He's got to be more diligent. He's got to find a way to get over and contest the ball without fouling.
I was always wondering, when the ball was going that way ... why (Crawford) wasn't looking down the floor. I'll leave that to you. ... It's just a very unfortunate thing for us right now.
I thought we played the best quarter of the series, quite frankly. We kept it very simple and the ball moved to open shooters and we made the shots that we had to make.
I think we're beginning to learn more about individual performances by perimeter players who have the ability to do what he does... We have to do something different at times to take the ball out of his hands, force him into areas it's not as easy for him to get done what he gets done.
He was running at full speed. Anyone else that would have caught the ball would have ended up in the first row.
Derek (Anderson) made some big plays coming down the stretch and then we got the miracle. I don't know how the ball ended up in Alonzo's hands, but it ended up in his hands and he dunked it.
It was a barn burner, two teams that just shot the ball well. Both teams were very aggressive.
It's time for this team to be what I think they can be, what they think they can be what they're capable of being. There is no reason why we can't, if we focus defensively, share the ball and run and attack, that we can't take it to another level at this stage of the season.