Q&A With Rockets Forward Shane Battier

**duncan228** · 04-10-2009

Q&A with Rockets forward Shane Battier
By Sean Deveney - SportingNews

As the season winds down, one team trying to make a push into the Western Conference's upper seeds is Houston. The Rockets have overcome a slow start and the loss of Tracy McGrady to put themselves in position for homecourt advantage in the postseason's first round. Sportingnews.com's Sean Deveney got Shane Battier on the phone to talk about gearing up for the playoffs.

SN: There's still a lot to be resolved for you guys in the last days of the season—your seeding, your opponent. What are you hoping to accomplish down the stretch?

Battier: The big thing is we have put ourselves into position to have homecourt advantage in the playoffs, which is huge for us. We have to hold onto that. And we want to get into the playoffs with momentum. We want to be playing at our best, at a high level when the playoffs start, so that's our focus. We've played well lately, but we can get better. So, it's just getting ramped up.

SN: Are you looking at getting the third seed, maybe No. 2? Do you have goals as a team like that?

Battier: In the West, it almost doesn't matter. You want to have homecourt, of course, but look at who you could have—Portland or New Orleans or Utah. Any way it shakes out, you're playing a very good team.

SN: The Rockets, as a franchise, have not been out of the first round of the playoffs since 1997. Is this the year?

Battier: We hope. We're excited about our chances. But, then, we were excited about our chances before, but it didn't work out. We've been close, but we have not gotten over the hump. We feel if we can get out of the first round, there is a chance we can get on a roll, and go deep into the playoffs. But it's not going to be easy. It's not like the East, where you can look at the first-round matchups and pretty much pick the winners right away.

SN: What did you think about Manu Ginobili's injury?

Battier: Obviously, the first reaction is, you feel bad. You never want to see a player go down, especially a guy like Manu who is so important to his team and who is fun to watch and has so much fun playing the game. That definitely hurts them. But, look, it is the NBA. No one sends condolence cards, no one sends out get-well e-mails. We've had more than our share of injuries, and I can tell you, I haven't gotten any comforting calls or flowers from other players.

SN: You guys had a bunch of injuries to start the year. That really seemed to hold the team back.

Battier: In the first third of the year, our situation was so fluid. Tracy [McGrady] was out. Then Ron [Artest] was out. Then Yao [Ming] was out. We just had no iden y as a team, because we were not able to piece together a lineup consistently. We lost a lot of games that, in retrospect, we should have won. We'd be in a better position now if we had. It's only really been since the first of the year, when we had sort of a break in the schedule, that we were able to play with consistency.

SN: Tracy shut it down for the year, and, surprisingly, you guys started playing better. The simple explanation is, you're a better team without him.

Battier: I don't believe that's true. First, Tracy was playing hurt, so he wasn't really himself out there. And I think what happened is, when Tracy finally went down, we had a talent deficit. Maybe we—the other players around Tracy—relied too much on Tracy's talent to bail us out. But when Tracy went down, we started to realize we had to overcome that talent deficit. We started playing harder, playing more together. We took it up a few notches. You can't say that's Tracy's fault.

SN: Those of us in the media take a lot of heat from fans for not knowing what we're doing when it comes to voting for the league awards. But I was looking, and, as good as you are defensively, you've only made the All-Defensive team—which is voted on by coaches—once, last year. That was a surprise to me, that you haven't been on it more.

Battier: My first two years in the league, I understood, because I was young and still learning. But after my third year in the league, I thought I had been playing pretty good defense and I still didn't make it. I was disappointed, but I said to myself, "You know what, if I let this bother me every year, I am going to set myself up for a lot of disappointment." So, I put it behind me and I honestly have not worried about it since. It would be great if it happens, but I think what happens is, if there are a few more stories in the paper about your defense, if there are more talking heads mentioning it on TV, your chances go up.

SN: To me, the lesson is, the media aren't so bad at picking awards.

Battier: No, you guys do a pretty good job at it.