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
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.
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.
We started to play very well at the end of the quarter and from that point on defensively we did a good job. We moved the ball real well and had other guys stepping up. I thought Antoine was really good tonight and we got the win.
We gathered ourselves really well in the third quarter and played really well.
We had a great fourth quarter defensively. We did not get into foul trouble early and made some really big defensive plays. They shot the ball extremely well tonight. We were down going into the fourth quarter and really raised the level of our defense.
We had to buckle down, and I thought in the second half, especially in winning time that period in the fourth quarter when we had to make stops, we made some tough spots.
(In the) third quarter they hit their first six or seven shots. From there, you could see their confidence rose.
I was concerned about where we'd be, as I'm sure most coaches are coming back (from the All-Star break). We have one game in 10 days, and this was it. We started to play very well at the end of the (first) quarter.
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 did a great job at the end of finally closing down and forcing some misses. The Bulls are a drive-and-kick, pick-and-roll type of team. They can stay with you if they get open shots.
I thought we did a great job at the end of finally closing down and creating some misses.
I thought we played some of the best basketball that we've played for two and a half quarters. Then we got really sloppy with turnovers. We lost the energy that we had but we closed it out.
I thought we played better as far as moving the ball. The one thing that happened the other day in New Jersey and where we get into problems is that we have a bunch of guys that love to attack and sometimes when we attack too much we don't get off the ball.
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.