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 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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
We had a handle on him in the first half. But when he starts to drain 27-footers, you have to change things up.
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.
They came out, really wanted to make a statement, jumped on the team defensively. We had a lot of energy to start the game.
Our guys had tremendous energy to start the game. I hate to say it: Then the game got stopped -- whistle after whistle after whistle.
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.
We just had a hard time guarding the ball on the dribble.
We just had a great first quarter. I mean, it was just incredible. I don't think I've ever seen this team play like that.
We weren't sharp. They came out with more energy and their offense was much more crisp.
We feel very fortunate that we were able to acquire the services of a multifaceted player in Derek Anderson , whom we had interest in this summer before he signed with Houston. We feel that he will be able to play three positions for us, giving us added versatility.