Shane Battier And The Rockets Set For Playoffs
April 16, 2009 – 6:45 am by Michael Bean
The 2008-2009 regular season has come to a close for the Houston Rockets. They’ll head into the stacked Western Conference playoffs as the #5 seed and will travel to Portland to take on the Blazers in a very intriguing 1st Round match-up. One of the storylines you’ll be hearing plenty of in the coming week(s) is Shane Battier going about his business quietly on defense, doing the little things necessary to help his team win. The former Duke star, who’s been getting much more media attention since Michael Lewis’ piece in the New York Times Magazine on the hidden value of Battier and the new metrics being deployed by the Rockets front office, joined Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio to talk about the NBA playoffs set to kick off this weekend.
On whether he thinks his Rockets are one of the teams out West that actually match up well with the front-running, top-seeded Lakers:
“Well, we feel we are a very good defensive team, and we feel we can be in any game based on our defense alone. And when we’re making shots, we’re really, really tough. We have the tendency to go through dry spells on offense when we’re missing a lot of shots, not getting good shots, can’t get Yao the ball. And that’s sort of been our weakness the entire year. But we know we’re going to play good defense every night, and if we’re making shots, we can be tough for anybody.
On what problems Yao Ming creates for other teams as one of the few true centers in the game today:
“Well, he’s an unbelievable player. I don’t think there’s another player like him in the NBA just for the fact that he’s so big but he’s so skilled. And when he catches the ball with a foot in the painted area, he becomes one of the most lethal players in the NBA. And our challenge is to try to get him the ball where he can score inside the paint…But Yao’s an unbelievable worker. He’s a great franchise player because he takes joy in teammates’ success and he’s one of the great guys in the NBA.”
On the challenge of going up against the league’s best players, particularly Kobe, LeBron and D-Wade:
“It’s a lot of fun but it’s also a big headache. Those guys are so good. When you’re out there it’s an unbelievable challenge for me trying to figure out how to stop these guys. And often times, I’m on the wrong end of the a 40 point game but it’s great to know that you made them work. And when you have a Budweiser after the game, you realize you went against the best and you did what you could do and you try to influence them and if you get a win, then that Budweiser tastes great.”
Listen here to Battier with Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio (interview begins at 18:00 mark)
Tags: Colin Cowherd, ESPN Radio, Houston Rockets, Michael Lewis, NBA interviews, NBA Playoffs, Shhane Battier, sports interviews, Western Conference playoffs
