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
The worst thing that can happen is that this thing goes to seven games and maybe we'll have him absolutely healthy. But we're planning on trying to go up to Chicago and closing this thing out.
I am totally indifferent to what other people think. There are always going to be people trying to take you apart. But I do know if we are 0-6 against the top teams, there is room for improvement.
We kept trying to call his number. We had him handle the ball a lot and he was either getting to the line or getting some hoops.
It's difficult, but you deal with it. Family is part of your life. And so, I did what I had to do in New York. ... The last four days was about a family crisis. Now it's about Chicago, moving on and trying to get this job done here.
We're going to go at it (Wednesday) without trying anything new. I think if we ever get to that point where we play them down the road we'll probably have a few other things that they haven't seen.
When we are in the penalty, you have to go to him as much as you can. We kept trying to call his number.
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.
There's a real heaviness to our team and I feel it. I'm trying to lighten it up. Because there are so many distractions and so many things going on, it's heavy and it wears on guys. We don't want this. We want to win. We are winning, but we're not winning at the rate people want us to win.
I think the mitigating factor for us was trying to find a way to overcome the free throw shooting.
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.
It's not about long, enduring practices. It's about practicing on the right things. That's got to be our objective as we're trying to still close out the season.
I haven't listened to any of it. I'm totally indifferent to what other people think because that's not my responsibility, because there's always going to be people out there trying to take you apart even when you're good and when you have your night.
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.
We just had a hard time guarding the ball on the dribble.