Notes from TNT’s Coverage of the NBA Playoffs
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Game 1: Boston Celtics (87) @ Miami Heat (97); The Heat win the series 4-1
Game 2: Memphis Grizzlies (72) @ Oklahoma City Thunder (99); The Thunder lead the series 3-2
TNT’s coverage of the 2011 NBA Playoffs continues on Sunday, May 15 at 8 p.m. (ET) featuring the Atlanta Hawks @ Chicago Bulls (Game 7 – if necessary), 8:00 p.m.
CLIP OF THE DAY
(click on link below to watch)
Barkley on youth beating experience in the Playoffs
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Game 1: Boston Celtics (87) @ Miami Heat (97); The Heat win the series 4-1
Announcers: Kevin Harlan (play-by-play), Reggie Miller (analyst) with Craig Sager, reporting.
Miller on whether he would prefer to defend or score: “People always ask me, what would you like more? To be a great defender or to be a prolific scorer? Give me offense any day.”
Miller on Celtics forward Glen Davis needing to be more aggressive on offense: “When Eric Spoelstra and the Heat go to a small lineup with LeBron James at the four-position and James Jones. Glen “Big Baby” Davis has to be aggressive offensive because most of the time, you’re going to have James Jones on you. He’s been very timid offensively for the Celtics.”
TNT’s Craig Sager interviewed Celtics head coach Doc Rivers following the first quarter:
Celtics head coach Doc Rivers on the Celtics getting older as a team: “I sit back and hear all of the Lakers stuff. [People say] they’re too old…if they’re too old, what are we? There’s a lot of basketball to play, hopefully this year and in the future as well.”
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Halftime
Announcers: Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kevin McHale and Kenny Smith
Smith on teams needing leadership when down in a playoff series: “When you’re down 3-1 and I’ve been blessed to come back, you need someone in that Game 5 to say, ‘I’m establishing this game, we’re not on vacation and we’re here to play.’”
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Spoelstra on if the Heat will be able to close out the game: “They’ve come a long ways…stay tuned.”
TNT’s Craig Sager interviewed Heat forward LeBron James following the game
James on winning Game 5: “First of all, I want to give a lot of thanks to the Boston Celtics. Coach Rivers, that coaching staff and those players…they make you fight for everything. You can never take your foot off the gas or take a second off with that team. A lot of respect to that team.”
James on using the Celtics blueprint with the Heat: They are a great team. I’ve got the utmost respect for that team. They are the reason why the three of us got together. What they did and the blueprint that they had in ’08 when they all came together. It’s a great team win and we’ll get ready for our next opponent.”
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Game 2: Memphis Grizzlies (72) @ Oklahoma City Thunder (99); The Thunder lead the series 3-2
Announcers: Dick Stockton (play-by-play), Mike Fratello (analyst) with Marty Snider reporting
Fratello on Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley: “I really like Mike Conley. I like his pace and tempo. He understands when to go fast and he understands when to slow it down. He’s excellent with the pick-and-roll.”
Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook on responding to criticism: “My teammates have my back and the whole organization is behind me. I play for more than myself. That’s what drives me, not all of that other stuff.”
Fratello on Thunder reserve Nick Collison: “You have to like what Nick Collison does when he comes on the floor. He doesn’t try to do too much. He does what he knows he can do well. He stays solid that way and doesn’t worry about putting numbers up.”
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Halftime
Johnson, Barkley, McHale and Smith
McHale on the Grizzlies needing to go inside more often on offense: “When you’re on the road, you have to punch that ball inside and get to the line. You have to score when you’re down there. You have to demand that they double-team you. Z-Bo (Zach Randolph) and Marc Gasol have to take their time and go in there patiently. Make the double-team come, if it doesn’t come, they have to attack and score in the paint. When the Grizzlies are playing well, those two big horses are controlling the paint and they aren’t doing that right now.”
Smith on great players getting other players involved: “Sometimes a great player has to get other guys baskets because you can always get [baskets].”
Barkley on the Heat celebrating after eliminating the Celtics: “[The Heat] were celebrating like they won the Larry O’Brien Trophy. They didn’t realize this is the second round.”
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Fratello on the Thunder’s style of play: “When you break down the Thunder’s numbers during the season, you can see how they got so many of their points. They were number one in the league in steals and number one in points in the paint. Those things aren’t happening in tonight’s game.”
Fratello on Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins spending the start of his huddle in silence after the team got off to a slow start: “Sometimes as a coach, you sit there. Saying nothing is better than saying something you’ll feel sorry for later because you are so angry with the performance and you’re not happy with the effort given.”
Fratello on the Atlanta Hawks/Chicago Bulls series: “Atlanta has fought [Chicago] much harder than anyone expected, especially the way Atlanta ended the regular season. Atlanta has enough confidence and if they get a big game out of Josh Smith, they feel they can beat them again and even up the series.”
TNT’s Marty Snider interviewed Thunder forward Kevin Durant following the game
Durant on the Thunder winning Game 5: “We played great defense and everyone was in-tune and locked-in. We got rebounds and that was a group effort.”
Durant on the Thunder’s bench: “We need them and they know that. They came out very aggressive tonight.”
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Inside the NBA
Johnson, Barkley, McHale and Smith
Barkley on the mindset of the Memphis Grizzlies going into Game 6: “We wonder what kind of emotion Memphis is going to come out and play with [in Game 6]. They were flat from the beginning [in Game 5]. The game was over quickly.”
Barkley on the Memphis Grizzlies showing a lack of energy in Game 5: “It tells you that Memphis is a young team and psychologically that triple overtime [in Game 4] had a huge effect on them. They came out with no energy and that’s not the team we’ve seen so far in the Playoffs. It’s going to be up to Coach Lionel Hollins to get their energy back up…. These two teams probably have the two best crowds in the NBA and that really helped the home team out.”
McHale’s predictions for Game 6 of the Memphis Grizzlies vs. Oklahoma City Thunder series: “For me, Oklahoma City did a little too much celebrating in the final minutes. Lionel Hollins is going to show [the team] that tape and the Memphis Grizzlies will win Game 6 back home at the Mailbox [FedEx Forum]. They’re coming out and putting it on them.”
McHale on Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers returning to coach another season: I’m glad to hear that Doc Rivers is coming back. He’s the coach for that team.”
Smith on how the Celtics could edit their team to improve for the next season: “It would have been a seven-game series if Rondo would have played, so why would you blow up a team that could get to the seventh? I think they’re older, but I think that you take what the Big Three [Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett] did when they first came there, add guys who are young and athletic – they had Leon Powe, Tony Allen and a young Kendrick Perkins – around those guys, which made them more athletic when you put them with Rondo. All of a sudden, you have a mixture of experience and youth… And all of a sudden the Boston Celtics are looking at what they are always, a championship opportunity.”
Barkley on youth in the Playoffs: “One thing has been proven in these Playoffs – it’s about the young guys.”
Barkley on the NBA: “The NBA is like dog years.”
Barkley on Shaquille O’Neal: “Shaquille O’Neal is the most unbelievable force… that I have ever seen in my lifetime. First of all, when you see him in person, he’s the biggest person in the world. When he was young some of the things he could do were just flat out scary.”
Smith on the impact of Shaquille O’Neal: “He is the most dominant player in our lifetime.”
Barkley on playing against Shaquille O’Neal: “I played in the NBA for 16 years and Shaquille O’Neal was the only guy [who made me say] ‘Man, that’s a big dude.’”
Johnson on the legacy of Shaquille O’Neal: “He just flat out gets it too. He gives the effort every night and the entertainment value. Knowing that he was the face of the NBA for a long while and didn’t shrink from that, embraced it and was just a wonderful spokesman for the game and a wonderful face to put on the NBA game for a lot of years.”
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