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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS v HAWKSMay 21, 2015Paul MillsapATLANTA, GEORGIA: Practice Day PAUL MILLSAP: It looked worse than what it was. I'm happy for him it wasn't as serious as it was. Q. Would you be surprised if he's able to rebound and get out there tomorrow night? PAUL MILLSAP: I don't know. Surprised maybe, I don't know. I don't know how he's feeling right now, but knowing DeMarre, he wants to be out there. He wants to get out there and compete. Q. What did his spirits seem like when you were talking to him? PAUL MILLSAP: It's good. It's good. He sounded like DeMarre. He seemed like himself. Yeah, he seemed like himself. I think mentally he seems a lot better. Q. When DeMarre was out, you picked up LeBron, and it went pretty well. He missed his first five. Would you want that assignment if DeMarre couldn't go tomorrow night? Would you want to come up to start the game? PAUL MILLSAP: I wouldn't mind, but we've got to be smart about it. They've got Mozgov and Tristan Thompson in the game, more than likely not. Probably put a body on Tristan Thompson. Maybe if they go to a small lineup, but we'll play it by ear and see what happens. Q. How much does it hurt you defensively? Obviously, you lost Thabo late in the year, and potentially not having DeMarre in there tomorrow night? PAUL MILLSAP: Yeah, we'd be without our two best wing defenders. It will be tough, but something we've done all year is we've adjusted. We have complete confidence in Kent to go out there and guard anybody. We have confidence in our team defense to help. So if he doesn't play, we've got to move on. If he does, it will be great. Q. Paul, the challenges of guarding LeBron, you've not really seen him lowering his shoulder as much as he used to, but he does stick that arm out there and kind of makes a hole. PAUL MILLSAP: The strong‑arm, yeah. Q. How difficult does it make it? And the fact that it really doesn't get called. PAUL MILLSAP: Yeah. He's tough to guard. He's a tough guard. He's gifted physically, speed. It's just tough to‑‑ if he gets you on his hip, it's tough to recover. So I think the main thing is trying to stay in front of him, force him to run you over or do something or pass the ball. Q. Speaking of calls and offense‑‑ PAUL MILLSAP: Let's not speak of calls. Q. Or non‑calls. PAUL MILLSAP: Let's not speak of that. Q. Was it frustrating early? PAUL MILLSAP: It always is. Q. What's the challenge if you have to guard LeBron for an extended period of time as far as not getting into foul trouble? PAUL MILLSAP: Not getting into foul trouble, that's a challenge for me. Physically, I feel good. I feel like I can get out there and move my feet and guard him as best I could if it comes down to it. But that's what we've got a team for. We've got a team so one guy doesn't have to carry the whole burden. Q. Do you give him space or not give him space? PAUL MILLSAP: You know, you just make it a basketball play. You give him a space, he takes up the space. He's coming with a full head of steam. It's tough. If you get up on him and pressure him, he goes by you. So it's making the proper basketball play. Just being in the moment and see what happens. Q. You've always seen LeBron go down with these painful injuries where he's rolling in pain on the court, rolling his ankle. It happened in Chicago and again last night. When you see that, what goes through your mind about whether he's going to make it back on the floor? PAUL MILLSAP: What goes through my mind is he would make a good actor. I don't know. No, he's a tough guy, man. He's always‑‑ he gets hurt, and he's come back in the game. He fights through it. So I don't think nothing about it. Q. You lost the first game of the series‑‑ PAUL MILLSAP:  That was a tough cookie. Q. So you're saying he's not a good actor? PAUL MILLSAP: Not the greatest. Q. You lost the first game of the series against Washington, came back, and won four of the next five. Does this seem more daunting, though, trying to come back this series against this team? PAUL MILLSAP: No, it seems like any other. It seems like the last‑‑ like the Wizards game, we lost the first game, came in, made adjustments. We feel like we can make adjustments that's going to help us and help us get over the edge. Not daunting, though. Q. Paul, thinking about the first half, do they have anyone who can guard Jeff? PAUL MILLSAP: I doubt it. Jeff is tough. He gets going, he's tough to stop, especially when he's aggressive and he's attacking. I don't know anybody that can. Q. One of the things that DeMarre brought was energy. How did you like the energy that Baze brought? PAUL MILLSAP: Baze, every time he gets on the floor, the energy level goes up. That's what we asked him. That's what we need from him. We need guys, especially coming off the bench, being the energy guy. The possibility of starting, he's still got to be that energy guy. He's still got to be the guy out there running around with his head cut off, making plays for us and doing the things that he do. Q. What were the one or two points of emphasis from the film session today? PAUL MILLSAP: Be better. Q. Technically, how would you do that? PAUL MILLSAP: Technically, I don't have enough time to explain it all. Q. So it was a lot? PAUL MILLSAP: I mean, we can be better. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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