Pat Riley Gets Quotations

He'd average 20 points a game if he was put in that role every night and I'll be damned if I'm not going to try to put him in that role - now. You forget a little bit about how good he can be if he gets good opportunities.

He was at the rim all night. Once he gets in the open court, you can forget it.

He had 19 at the half and I ran one play for him. He just gets it.

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.

Every time we see this team, and we'll see it again this week, the zone, while it doesn't bother us, it gets us out of sync. We did not play with much energy in the first four of five minutes of the game and then once we started to play with energy and got down the floor quicker things began to open up for us.

Once he gets into the open court, forget it.

Any time he gets in foul trouble and sits down, that sets him back and sets us back. You have to try to keep him on the floor for normal minutes. But when he gets that third and fourth foul, we get out of rhythm.

They played an absolutely great game. They did what they had to do defensively. It didn't help us that Shaquille got in foul trouble. Any time he gets in foul trouble and has to sit down, it sets us and him back.

If he's put in that role every single night, he'd average 20 points per game. You sort of forget a little bit how good he can be when he gets a number of good opportunities.