This was an advertisement for how hard the teams in this league play. Increasing our toughness was one thing I thought we had to do. We knew we could score, but we had to show we could come up with that kind of game like we had other times this season.

Quite frankly, you have to go to somebody. You have to have your inside game or your outside game. And, usually, somebody's got to make plays.

And the Elvin Hayes-Jabbar game at the Astrodome, that was something I was thinking about for days.

This proves that you can't just show up in postseason play, because instead of going to practice and preparing for a game tomorrow, we have to wait a week. Next time we lose, we're going home.

That's what this game is all about, getting ourselves ready for the next three games and then head on into our league games.

Those jump shots were killers. Sheridan stepped up big-time for them and did the job. In a competitive game like this somebody has to step up and that's obviously what he did.

Those jump shots were killers. In a game like that, they were killers.

Terrific defense. They are trying to be the toughest, scrappiest team in every game they play, and it's working. You can see it on tape.