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 had control, but we missed a couple shots, they made a couple, a couple of calls didn't go our way and they got back in it. They won it with a good shot from Paul Pierce. Tough shot.
It's crazy. We had good looks and just couldn't knock them down, and then at the end, when I tried to miss the free throw, because we didn't have any time-outs and I knew we'd have to go full-court, I end up making it. It was crazy.
It was really an ugly game. We missed so many lay-ups. But when you're a good team, you win ugly games.
We're going to miss Larry Brown, but so many times it was just about Larry. It was always, 'Larry did this, Larry did that,' with the result that I don't think the players got enough credit.
I just didn't want to let him run free, ... He's a tough cover. Every time he puts that ball, he's got a chance to make that shot. He missed some shots. It was good D, but he missed some shots.
The intensity of the game was unbelievable. Every possession was huge. It was a playoff game. I miss that. I can't wait to get back to that.
I'm very, very excited for this opportunity to kind of resurface in the community and the arena that I miss playing in and that I loved so much when I was there.
I'm just mad I missed those two free throws. We had a letdown against Cleveland, and we needed to turn that around. We couldn't let it continue.
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 want to get another win. We let one slip away down there, and we want to get it back.
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.
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 just had a tough shooting night. We got all the shots that we wanted, but they just didn't go down.
We felt we had a chance to win this series, but nobody else felt that. We knew we were the only ones who believed in us.