Carlos Boozer Interview
InsideHoops.com NewsWire | May 26, 2007
In Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals the Utah Jazz, playing at home, exploded all over the San Antonio Spurs for a 109-83 win. The Spurs still lead the series 2-1. Jazz forward Carlos Boozer continued his great play, putting up 27 points and 12 rebounds. Here's what Boozer said after the game:
Q. In that third quarter, everybody seemed to sort of click. What happened? What changed? What did you guys do differently?
CARLOS BOOZER: We were aggressive. We attacked. Everybody came out ready. You know, in general, our bench did a great job as well. Me and D. Will, we said if we attack and be aggressive, good things would happen for the team and that's what happened.
Q. You guys talked all week long about keeping the Spurs out of the paint. How did you think you did with that this evening?
CARLOS BOOZER: We did good. I think Mehmet did a great job on Timmy. Timmy had eight turnovers. That was a big key. Obviously foul trouble helped us. That helped us a great deal. I don't know what the points in the paint have been, but we did a much better job closing it off and either making them shoot free-throws or kick it out to three-point shooters. It worked for us tonight. They didn't make as many as they missed, so that was good for us.
Q. (On Deron Williams and his quick development)
CARLOS BOOZER: As his teammate, he is one of the elite point guards in the league. I think he has proved that all season. He has been able in the second year to step it up even more in the playoffs. Yeah (laughter). Yeah.
Q. You talked about Games 1 and 2, the focus was on the Spurs and what they were taking you guys out of. What things -- improved defense in the paint, what are the things that maybe you guys took them out of tonight, specifically?
CARLOS BOOZER: Some of those things we want to keep to ourselves, but we try to do a better job on the pick-and-roll and tried to do a better job of points in the paint, like we talked about earlier. If they beat us with threes, they beat us with threes. We'd rather give up a three than give up a layup. Other than that, we keep everything else to ourselves.
Q. Guys, when Jerry Sloan talks about your desire and you need to play with more desire and it is time to step up and I think he made mention of nobody's mom being there tonight. Do you listen to that and does that fire you up to get you to play better?
CARLOS BOOZER: I think some of us already play with passion all the time. We have a team where if we have everybody on the same page, we can be very good. That's what he meant when said that. I was talking to somebody earlier in the week, if we have everybody reading the same book at the same time, we would be a very good team. If we have a couple players on page 23 and some players on page 18, we will be a step behind. I think that's what Jerry meant. If we get everybody to play with intensity and passion and realize that each game is crucial, like this was a huge game, Monday will be a huge game and so on and so forth, play with a little bit of desperation, so to speak, we will have a good chance. We can lay it all out there and live with the outcome.
|