Raja Bell
Raja Bell
Raja Bellis an American retired professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association. He was twice named to the NBA All-Defensive Team in his career...
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth19 September 1976
CitySaint Croix, VI
against early easy establish guard night ourselves
We wanted to establish ourselves early and let them know we were here to play. It is easy to have a letdown the night before you go on the All-Star break, but we wanted to guard against that.
cool funny good guard hear respect somebody thinks tough
It was funny. You know, Manu's a competitor, and I do a good job, I'd like to say, on him, but he's a tough guard for me. So it's just a respect level. It's cool to hear somebody thinks you're that way, especially being the All-Star that he is, so it was flattering.
fast guard guys hard helps high last played since tempo time
That tempo was as high and fast as we've been since the last time we played them. That tempo helps us. It's hard to guard guys when they're in transition. We weren't able to do it either.
bogged guard guys hard helps tempo transition
That tempo helps us. We don't get bogged down and it's hard to guard guys when you're in transition all night.
against early easy establish good guard knew ourselves sure understood
We understood that we had to come out and establish ourselves early and make sure they knew we were here to play. It's easy to let down going into the All-Star break, but we wanted to guard against that, and we did a good job.
guard high people percentage reason shot tough
The reason we shot a high percentage is what I think is important. We were able to space. We were very unselfish, and we were out in transition. When we do that, it's tough for people to guard us.
clicking dangerous everybody firing flying lock slow
When we are clicking and we have everybody firing we are a more dangerous team. When they can lock down on one guy, we kind of slow down, but when we are flying and everyone is contributing, that is when we are at our best.
across board deal tough
When we get productivity across the board like that, we're pretty tough to deal with.
best came defense eddie locked quarters second seen team third
We are a team of spurts. Eddie really came in and got us going in the second quarter. We really locked down on defense in the third quarter. I thought that was one of the best quarters of defense I've seen this team play all year.
beat contain game hope plan whatever wound
Our game plan was to try to contain everyone else and hope that Kobe's whatever he wound up with wasn't going to be enough to beat all 12 of us.
earlier excited feeling fit game opened
I was excited that the game kind of opened up, and I was able to see where I fit in. I wasn't necessarily feeling that earlier in the week. We were really spaced, and the game kind of flowed (Saturday) night.
everybody four game involved knows seen win year
I think everybody knows who's going to show up. I think he's going to come out and be more aggressive. There's no guesswork involved with that. We've seen that four times this year and every other game he's played. So we game-planned it. We'll do what we need to do to get another win at home.
fear leave physical
It is a physical game. I am not going to say anything about that right now for fear of being fined. I'll just leave that all alone.
against game involved seen
I think he's going to come out and be more aggressive. There's no guesswork involved there. We've seen it in every other game against him this season.