Pat Riley Ball Quotations

We have to guard the ball a lot better. And he's got to go to the rim a little more with his blocks.

Shaq is very active and motivated right now. There's a lot that's been written of his philosophy for the regular season. He really wants it, and he really wants the ball too.

He's grabbing the ball strongly. He's catching the ball in traffic now. It's positioning. It's conditioning. It's getting your head under the rim.

He needs to dominate. We know it, he knows it. And it isn't a question of whether or not the ball is coming to him, he's got to go get it. It's getting to the point where it's got to be 10, 12, 14, 15 every night. When Shaq goes after the basketball then he's going to get those 15 rebounds.

We've got to stop the penetration, that's key. We've got to keep our bodies in front of the ball better.

He's got to do it. I was very disappointed... Those are the things that he has to dominate if he's going to be fronted and backed and we can't get him the ball all the time. He has to use his size and keep his head under the rim.

He's got to be more diligent. He's got to find a way to get over and contest the ball without fouling.

He was running at full speed. Anyone else that would have caught the ball would have ended up in the first row.

I was always wondering, when the ball was going that way ... why (Crawford) wasn't looking down the floor. I'll leave that to you. ... It's just a very unfortunate thing for us right now.

I thought we played the best quarter of the series, quite frankly. We kept it very simple and the ball moved to open shooters and we made the shots that we had to make.

I think we're beginning to learn more about individual performances by perimeter players who have the ability to do what he does... We have to do something different at times to take the ball out of his hands, force him into areas it's not as easy for him to get done what he gets done.

We played at a real high level again. Tremendous amount of energy, spirit and ball movement, but we didn't finish. That disturbs me and it should disturb our players after working so hard and playing so well.

We pounded that ball down in the paint.

We started to play very well at the end of the quarter and from that point on defensively we did a good job. We moved the ball real well and had other guys stepping up. I thought Antoine was really good tonight and we got the win.

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.

We've got to find a better way to get him the ball deep, and that's going to be my challenge.

We moved the ball real well and had some guys step up and we got the win.

We had a great fourth quarter defensively. We did not get into foul trouble early and made some really big defensive plays. They shot the ball extremely well tonight. We were down going into the fourth quarter and really raised the level of our defense.

We just had a hard time guarding the ball on the dribble.

They are a perimeter team that shoots the ball well, that if you're not covering and taking away their air space then someone's going to get you somewhere.

They shoot the ball extremely well. All of a sudden you're staying home, and now they're going to the basket. So they present a lot of problems.

Derek (Anderson) made some big plays coming down the stretch and then we got the miracle. I don't know how the ball ended up in Alonzo's hands, but it ended up in his hands and he dunked it.

It was a barn burner, two teams that just shot the ball well. Both teams were very aggressive.

It's time for this team to be what I think they can be, what they think they can be what they're capable of being. There is no reason why we can't, if we focus defensively, share the ball and run and attack, that we can't take it to another level at this stage of the season.

Their defense was fresh, energized, committed. They knew where we were going to go with the ball and they took it away.