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 just stepped up to the challenge. I didn't ever think they were going to miss, and we couldn't hit anything, but we knew it was a matter of time. We're never out of a game, no matter what the score. You can't measure our pride. We just had to chase them off the 3-point line and start hitting some shots.
We changed up our scheme a little bit defensively and made them take tougher shots. Once we made our adjustments and changed our scheme a little bit at halftime, we started hitting some shots as well, and our defense picked our offense up, too.
We got beat at some of our own things. Energy, aggressiveness, hitting the boards, they beat us at all of that.
I'm sure they get up to play us. Anytime you have the best team in the league coming into your building, you know that's the case.
I'm sure he was probably a little frustrated. When you're a good team, you expect to win, and when you don't, you do something you might not be prone to doing.
I knew it would be tough. I didn't know it would be this tough. I didn't know they would struggle this bad with the players that they have ... I don't know how it's going to work out this year, but they're going to be all right. They've just got to be patient.
I knew it was going to be tough. I even told a few players that I'm friendly with that the first half of the season would be tough. Just getting to know what (Larry) likes, getting used to how he coaches. But I didn't know it was going to be this tough. I didn't know they'd struggle this bad with the players they have. They've got some great talent on that team.
I like games like this much better than the ones we win by 10, 15 or 20 points. I don't like playing games like that.
I like Flip because Flip is an offensive-minded coach,
The bench was big, no doubt about it. All those guys played great tonight. We're going to need that from them in the playoffs.
That fueled our fire more than anything. That made us come back in training camp in great shape with one goal, and that was to get home-court advantage.
That guy, he's playing great. He's back to his old self again. I'm sure you all could see that. I'm happy for him, I'm happy that he's on my team, too. I just hope he stays playing with that same confidence coming down the stretch into the playoffs.
That is something that you play for, to be recognized as one of the best. I've felt like I've played like that for a couple of years now and it's nice to finally get that validation.
They keep you off-balance, and they are very disciplined. They are just a well-coached team.