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.
We had a lot of shots around the basket that didn't go in. I thought we got frustrated by not getting the calls that we thought we should have got, which leads to complaining to the officials. ... There's got to be a lot more mental toughness against a team like this.
He knows exactly how it is. It's very simple. It's five against one. We can live with that and we will. He saw enough to be able to create shots for other people.
As (the game) got worse, we started getting stronger and stronger and Antoine made big plays for us, big shots for us. That's what he's capable of doing. He's very explosive.
I would say at the end of the games if you went back and charted Jason Williams making shots in the last four minutes he's one of the best at making open shots. So you've got to have him on the court. While everybody says you've got take him off the court because it's a defensive thing, what do I do at the other end?
Strange things happen when you think things are at their worst. I thought Gary (Payton) did a great job of running the offense and making some big plays in the fourth quarter. James Posey had timely shots and two big offensive tip-outs. We had other players step up when we had to.
Anybody who's got the kind of energy to try to hoist up (nearly) 70 shots is going to score a lot of points. It's remarkable, the execution and the efficiency, but we've got a lot of guys in this league, if they took 70 shots, they'd score a lot of points.
He plays the game that we need him to play. He is just so committed defensively and offensively on missed shots and loose balls.
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.