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In the Western conference finals of the 2006 NBA Playoffs the Phoenix Suns beat the Dallas Mavericks in Game 4 to tie the series 2-2. Here's what Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said to the media the next day:

Q.On Raja Bell:

COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: He’s just a great leader and a great player. We think he’s a great three-point shooter. He’s expanded his game and he has every since coming into the league. And now he’s been put into a situation where his character has been revealed for everyone and more so. You know, if you’re never in those situations, it’s hard to say you have it in you. We thought he did and he’s proven that he has more than anybody ever imagined.

Q. On Leandro Barbosa:

COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: Like I’ve said before, I was surprised when Leandro didn’t play well the first two games. Whether he can play better in Game 5 you never know because that’s a pretty unbelievable performance [in Game 4] for a 23-year-old kid the first time at this level. We’ll have to wait and see but I would be pretty surprised if he didn’t, but that doesn’t mean he will.

Q. On Avery Johnson and Mike Dunleavy commenting on how tough a matchup Barbosa is:

COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: When you’re the fastest guy in the league, it’s difficult for anybody. And he’s one of the best three-point shooters. He comes at you in a blur and it is tough. If we can get the floor spread enough to where you’re out there naked with LB, it’s going to be tough for anybody.

Q. On all the negative talk in the media before Game 4:

COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: I probably created it. I said we didn’t have the energy and I don’t think we explained it enough. There’s no one in there who took the night off because it’s not important. Maybe the heaviness of the game, even the crowd, we were afraid to get into the balance, afraid to mess up. I think that led to a little bit of a low-energy game, not that they took the night off. I think it’s sometimes misconstrued a little bit. This time of year nobody has a lack of effort, it’s just a lack of the right persona or aura to go into a game and try to win it instead of trying not to lose it. We can’t play like that because we play one way. We’re one-dimensional, and that’s because Amaré is out. We’ve done pretty well with that one dimension and we know who we are. We don’t have a problem knowing who we are or how we have to do it. We just have to do it.

Q. On Boris Diaw:

COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: He’s been great. You see something new everyday. He was aggressive and fantastic. He made some mistakes early, little shots here and there, but overall he turned it on big. I thought he did a good job picking his spots and the whole team did. We were too aggressive in Game 3 instead of just letting the plays happen like we did last night.

Q. On the reputation of his team’s style:

COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: I think we have a confidence that if we are on our A-game that nobody can beat us. I really believe that. You know it’s funny. You can talk about other teams being really good defensively, but when they play against us we score 110 points. Everybody says, ‘well that’s because you’re so good offensively’. Well, that counts. We don’t think any good defensive team can stop us and if they can’t stop us we’re winning. We have that confidence. Now, whether that’s completely true—that’s our thinking. I understand the flip-side of it.

Q. On how championship teams impose their defensive will:

COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: Well, we will impose our will, it’s just on the other side of the floor. There are two ends of the floor and we’re doing it on the other end. We think we can play good enough defense. We can play better defense against you than you can play against us because of our offense—if that makes sense. Now that’s what we think and that’s the mentality that we can win with.

Q. On playing Game 5 like an elimination game?

COACH MIKE D'ANTONI: We’ve talked about it because this is a little bit bigger than us being able to say ‘we don’t need to win this’. This is getting us into something that these guys have never experience before and that’s the finals. This is a big step coming up here for anybody—for them and us. And we’re going to use that. T his is a Game 7 for us, not a Game 5. This is a Game 7 and we’re going in with that mentality and this is the one we want. Now, if you don’t get it, you have Game 6 and you keep going on. But we prepare mentally like this is for all the marbles.