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
Derek (Anderson) made some big plays coming down the stretch and then we got the miracle. I don't know how the ball ended up in Alonzo's hands, but it ended up in his hands and he dunked it.
They made the jumpers and put the game away. Everyone contributed. Everyone hit a critical shot.
They played an absolutely great game. They did what they had to do defensively. It didn't help us that Shaquille got in foul trouble. Any time he gets in foul trouble and has to sit down, it sets us and him back.
They got great individual play from him. And now they're finding the spirit and camaraderie to play together.
They do remember really getting embarrassed and humiliated in that game. It wasn't much fun. They were having fun because the game was so easy.
You don't want to bring that up. We've had a lot of disappointment here. They've taken off a number of layers of skin, but they've since healed.
It's a good bounce-back game. We needed to get out of our system what happened the last couple of games.
It's an ongoing battle. It's becoming more and more and more difficult to do it. There's so much talent, so much ball-handling ability. There's so many things that officials allow perimeter players to get away with that it's difficult to guard the ball.
It's almost a crossroads for me right now, to find the competitive warriors and the competitiveness of those guys will transcend the talent and reputation. I'm going to try to find the guys who are going to try to play the hardest and best in support of our two great players.
It probably could have ended up being a quadruple overtime. Just what we needed.
For four years it was really something. We went through our down years and rebuilt, and New York is going through its now.
First of all, I wouldn't believe a word that Damon Jones said. I love Damon. Damon is one of the all-time characters.
It's not easy. We need him on the court. I don't know how we're going to get around that. Two of his first three fouls were offensive.
It's that kind of attitude when we talk about getting better. How do we get better? We get better in the mind. We have a veteran team, they know how to do it. We stay disciplined with our defense and our principles and we make this kind of covenant with each other that we're going to defend.