Rafer Alston
Rafer Alston
Rafer Jamel Alstonis an American retired professional basketball player. He played for six NBA teams throughout his career...
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth24 July 1976
CityNew York City, NY
bit clock game left played three time tough ways won
That was a tough one to lose. That's a game that should have been won in regulation. We were up three with a little bit of time on the clock and we had so many ways we could have played that. We're left pondering what could have been.
ball continuing create double game giving keeping letting played shots sticking team turn
It comes down to sticking with our game plan, not getting away from the things we know we need to ? that's continuing to find Yao, and keeping our turnovers down. When we turn the ball over and we're not getting the ball to Yao, letting him create shots for us as they double team and if they don't double, letting him score, we're just giving away the game. We were right there. We should have played the game the same way we did in the (first) half.
ball drawing knock open passing shots
We're going to go to Yao and go to Yao and go to Yao. We have to knock down open shots when Yao is drawing double-teams and triple-teams and he's passing the ball out. We have to find a way to knock down open shots for him.
basketball great guy hard jolly leave loves matter playing regret time unlike
Regret? ... I just regret getting into situations. Because it's unlike me. I'm a guy who just loves to leave it on the floor, have a jolly old time playing basketball ... that's the great thing that everyone understands about me I'm going to play hard no matter what.
collapse
I thought he was going to collapse out there.
arenas game last loud rocking
That's the way it is in some arenas. Some are as loud as can be. They're rocking and rolling. You have your Arco Arena, then you have your Atlanta. That's the way some arenas are. As players, we have to go out and play the game and do the things we need to do. That should be the last thing on our minds, if we have 18,000 or 8,000.
effect instead start uphill
You just got to start with a win. That way the snowball effect can start going uphill instead of downhill.
bulk call came count full guys minutes nature playing season whatever whenever
You can call it disappointing or frustrating, whatever you call it, but no one understands the nature of not having your guys, especially the guys you count on to play the bulk of the minutes and take the bulk of the shots. Whenever one came back, the other went out. We never had a full season playing with the nucleus we envisioned.
dominating good shots
We were able to get good shots. When you have two dominating All-Stars out there (Yao and McGrady), those shots will fall.
envision hit night
You always envision a night like that, where you come out and hit on all cylinders.
basketball consistent deal group guys hard injuries period playing starting
We had more consistent injuries than we had consistent basketball plays. We could never get that consistent feel of a starting lineup, playing with a set group of guys for a long period of time. That's hard to deal with.
games playoff regardless
We had injuries, yes, but there were a lot of games we still should have won. Regardless of anything and everything that happened, we should have been a playoff team.
good shots
We had good shots down the stretch. We just didn't make them.
care compete division handed title trying win
To know that you're getting your behinds handed to you in your own division, that's problematic when you're trying to compete for a title. On this team, you think in title terms. If you want to win a title, you have to take care of your division as well.