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 it was the first time Shaquille, in a couple of weeks, really has been running to the rim. We have to get back to that game.
If we had come back with the same team as last year, it would have been a disaster. We didn't have the firepower to sustain what we needed in this conference. Last year was a honeymoon year. A couple players had career years. I didn't believe we had the core of players like the core we have now. We have a lot more versatility now.
Shaq had an off night. In the beginning of the game he had a couple of turnovers (because of) strips, but obviously he could play a lot better than he did today.
We've got a couple of good games with this lineup. But what this lineup has yet to really prove to me is they haven't brought a whole lot of energy at the beginning of the game. I think that's a mental thing more than anything else.
That's one of the better, more complete games that we've played in a long time. It's the first time that Shaq, in a couple of weeks, has been running to the rim and we got him early in transition and that's what it was. We have to get back to that game.
It's a good bounce-back game. We needed to get out of our system what happened the last couple of games.
We were trying to survive. The game got to that point. We had a 20-point lead, they cut it to five. We made a couple of plays and we got out of here.
Antoine is capable of having an outrageous night. I was going to sub for him but I just wanted to get him one more possession. We allowed Antoine to bring it up a couple of times. He hit a three and I kept him in the game.
Our guys have to stop talking about being what they think they are and they've got to do it. I think we've done it a little bit over the last couple of weeks, but enough is enough now.
Late in the fourth quarter, everyone hit a critical shot. Tony Parker hit one, Bowen hit a couple and Brent Barry had the one which pretty much was the nail in the coffin.
He's had a very consistent year, with the exception of the last couple of weeks, and I think he's getting worn down a little bit. He's got a little bit of an injury, so we're trying to work through that, but it is what it is, because he has to play now with Jason out.
He did things that I haven't seen in a couple of years.
He was absolutely great. He did things I haven't seen him do for a couple of years. He's got a lot of energy and he's taking two or three people to the rim. He's picking people apart.
We just had a hard time guarding the ball on the dribble.