By InsideHoops.com

Editor's note: This interview was recorded just before game 1 of the round 2 NBA Playoffs matchup between the Boston Celtics and New Jersey Nets. Although it's being posted after the fact, the context is still valid and the interview is plenty of fun to read.

InsideHoops.com: Talk about the Nets.

Eric Williams: Good team. Good fast break team. Like to be on the break and get easy baskets. Best point guard in the business.

InsideHoops.com: So the first thing in stopping them is what, preventing the break?

Eric Williams: Yeah. You have to stop them in transition. Can't allow them to get easy baskets. They like to get on the break, they got great athletes. And that's pretty much it. They get a lot of dunks, because they get on the break. They have a great passer in Jason Kidd.

InsideHoops.com: And as for the Celtics, what did you do to jump your level of play up from the regular season into the first round against Indiana?

Eric Williams: We just played team defense. Either you win or you go home. This was one of those situations where the guys just picked their games up, but I just started to play the all-around game.

InsideHoops.com: And going into the playoffs, did you find people were counting you out more than they did in the past, perhaps excessively?

Eric Williams: Well, yeah. We were a 6th seed. And we didn't play all that well down the stretch in the end of the season, so I can see why it was easy to count us out. But our guys know what it takes to get there. Once we got into the playoffs it was just one of those situations where it all came back to us. The guys are playing with a lot of inspiration and adrenelon. And just going out there and playing ball. I think we played with a lot of energy that helped us get over the first round.

InsideHoops.com: You guys rely on three-pointers a lot. Do you as a team go out or your way to look for them more than other teams, or is it more of a case of the defense keeping you out and forcing you to shoot them?

Eric Williams: It's pretty much ball reversal. I'm in the corner, probably like the 4th option. And 9 times out of 10 by the time I get the shot, it's going to be about 3 or 4 seconds left on the shot clock. So it's pretty much going to be a three. Our guys were moving the ball really well. We don't want to shoot the three, but we're capable of hitting the three in all positions, so that's our makeup.

InsideHoops.com: A year ago during halftime shootarounds right here in the Continental Airlines Arena during your playoff matchup against the Nets, a fan that was a row or so back under the basket that you were shooting around on was being loud and talking tone of sh*t to you, and while you were taking shots you were dishing it right back to him. Do you remember that at all?

Eric Williams: (Laughs) Yeah, I remember that.

InsideHoops.com: Would you have remembered that had I not brought it up?

Eric Williams: No, I probably wouldn't...

InsideHoops.com: Is it typical that you would notice fans going out of their way to make noise at you or your teammates?

Eric Williams: I mean, sometimes I give the fans the benefit of the doubt. Fans want to be acknowledged. They're on the front row, and they want to be acknowledged a little bit more than the rest of the other fans that's on the front row. So someone got a big mouth, and sometimes players might not say nothing, but, say the wrong thing to me and you're going to get a mouthful. I'm from here, you know. I just told him straight up, "I"m from here, man, you can easily find me, the only thing you gotta do is come to the projects, which I never saw you in your life, which you'll never come in your life, so. That was it. That was the end of that. He was just playing Big Dog, he was with his boys, probably was drunk, so I pulled the strings, I pulled his jacket.

InsideHoops.com: (Kinda laughing) And did you get a kick out of that?

Eric Williams: Yeah, definitely. Shut him up, you know. Once you shut em up... it's funny, you know. Everybody wants to be a big shot. And I'm like that type of fellow, you know what I mean? You cross the wrong line and just like that I can throw on my other coat. I try to hide the other coast, but sometimes you got to let it out sometimes, you know.

InsideHoops.com: And does that kind of thing help pump you up once the actual game is back on?

Eric Williams: Not really. No, man, I'm so used to that. I'm used to... regular confrontations used to be a part of my life back in the day, so I was used to that. That was fun to me right there. He started getting real red and stuff like that, at some of the things I was saying. I don't think he thought that some of the things would come out of my mouth would be what I said.

InsideHoops.com: Good luck in the round, Eric.


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