Chauncey Billups

Chauncey Billups
Chauncey Ray Billupsis an American retired professional basketball player who played 17 seasons in the National Basketball Association. A star at the University of Colorado, he was selected third overall in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. A five-time NBA All-Star and a three-time All-NBA selection, Billups played for the Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, and Los Angeles Clippers during his NBA career. He won the NBA Finals MVP in 2004...
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth25 September 1976
CityDenver, CO
We talked about it in the locker room before the game, that this was the game we needed. We felt they hadn't been tested in this postseason, they hadn't played against a team like us that plays defense, believes in itself and tries to control the tempo of the game. Yesterday was a good game to show them that.
We just wanted to go out there and protect our home court. We knew they played a tough game last night, so we wanted to jump on them early and take care of business.
The second game is usually the game you can steal most of the time. In any series, really. We know that. We're aware of that. We've lost that second game a few times. We have to come out knowing that and doing the right things.
We're a family. You know we were going to come to his aid. But we weren't really surprised by that. Ever since that first little incident, every game we play they play a little extra hard and foul a little extra hard. Hey, it's part of the game.
We came into this game very focused, trying to get back on the right track. We knew we let one get away last night and it wasn't our best (performance).
We came into this game really focused on what we needed to do, making some adjustments. That team just fought. They just fought. You have to give them a lot of credit, but come fourth quarter . . . we just had to grind it out.
Winning 63 games is unbelievable. Of course, I've never been in a situation like that, so it feels great. I've been on the other end, winning 23 or 25 games. It's unbelievable to feel that way, to feel like you're going to win every time you step out there - and most nights, you do.
We haven't done nothing. We worked hard to get home-court advantage and we took care to keep it. We just held serve. We took care of business at home. They say a series doesn't start until somebody wins a game on the road. Hopefully we can start this series on Saturday.
With the tough game we had last night and traveling as well, this team was waiting on us.
We take nothing from this. We're lucky that we've got a game tomorrow so we don't have to sit too long on it. It'll give us a chance to start a new streak at home.
You know what I mean, just waiting to collide. There were some struggles in my first couple of months. There were definitely some struggles with Coach Brown. But we both sacrificed a lot. We came to a happy medium and it's been a perfect marriage ever since then. My game has definitely grown playing for Coach Brown. I think I look at the game in a different light. I understand that I can dominate a game now without having to score as much as I usually do on most nights.
If we had won a game like that, shooting as poorly as we did, that would have been one of the more impressive wins of the season.
To have those nerves to make those plays at the end of a game isn't something you really can be taught. It's instinct I think.
Both teams wanted to win this game in the worst way. It was kind of an ugly game, but the intensity was there. This was a playoff game. It really was.