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 hope that tonight is kind of the start of an attitude that we'll take here at home, especially at home, where we're not going to have close games or we're going to make sure that we're going to win a lot of games here at home. Because the road is treacherous.
They came out, really wanted to make a statement, jumped on the team defensively. We had a lot of energy to start the game.
We had a handle on him in the first half. But when he starts to drain 27-footers, you have to change things up.
We wanted Damon. We felt this was the best place for him. What they wanted, we were unwilling to do. We traded for a starting point guard. How much are you willing to pay a backup?
The worst thing that can happen is that if you let your mind go for seven days. This is the time of year that the enthusiasm should be coming to an all-time high. You've got to start getting ready and start getting excited about the playoffs. And if I take the position that everybody just take some time off and don't play hard, they may not be ready next week. It's a fine line.
Teams are going to start getting nastier, more competitive and they want it, and they're going to get ready for playoffs. And when they happens you just have to walk away from it and you have to play at a higher level.
Our depth today stepped up. Different guys have to play different roles because three key players are out. We are starting to feel more comfortable.
When is it going to start? That's the question I posed to them tonight. When are we going to start beating quality teams? It's time to put up or shut up. That's how I look at it.
Our guys had tremendous energy to start the game. I hate to say it: Then the game got stopped -- whistle after whistle after whistle.
We had our down period and we rebuilt. Now, New York is going through their down period. But they've got a lot of talent. They've got a lot of assets. They can start dealing their chips. Because anytime that you don't think that a big-money guy can be traded, it always happens.
I'm sure that everybody will say that I'm just up here trying to complain, but I don't see how he could ever get to the basket. I don't care if he's 340 pounds. They get locked into such a defensive position that they just hold him. ... Impeding his progress. But he's got to find a way to get around that.
I'm tired of hearing it. Tired of hearing about how, well, we keep shooting ourselves in the foot or we're not doing this or we're not doing that. Somewhere, you've got to take responsibility for who you think you are.
I'm really tired of talking about it. I hate to do it, but there's a huge double standard here. He turns in, it's a foul on him. And they're pushing and shoving on him all the time.
The bigger the moment, both of them stepped up even bigger. Sometimes, it's absolutely beyond description. I haven't seen players do that in a long, long time.