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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS v HAWKSMay 26, 2015Mike BudenholzerCLEVELAND, OHIO: Game Four Atlanta Hawks - 88 COACH BUDENHOLZER: I would just like to start by congratulating Cleveland and Coach Blatt. They obviously played well. They deserved to win. Just congratulations to them and their entire organization. Proud of our group. In the playoffs you learn and grow a lot, including in a night like tonight. It's not something anybody wants, but I think we've always talked about learning and growing each day, each experience, and I think throughout the playoffs we've done that. We'll learn from tonight, and we'll learn from this series, and we'll be better going forward. That's it. Q. Coach, you guys shot 5‑for‑32 on threes tonight. You've had trouble shooting threes all series long. Was it just that you guys were cold‑‑ you guys missed a lot of open shots during this game and other games‑‑ or was it something Cleveland was doing that was causing you trouble on those threes? COACH BUDENHOLZER: Same answer as probably all year. I think it's a little bit of both. I think Cleveland's defense was good the entire series. And I think we had some open looks that we would take again that we need to make to give ourselves and our offense‑‑ to free some things up if we make some threes. Q. How successful was the season? COACH BUDENHOLZER: Yeah, I knew that question was coming. I think‑‑ well, just after a night like tonight and going through the playoffs, I think in the locker room we just kind of talked about the playoffs, and we talked about our experiences in the playoffs. And with a ton of respect to you and all, I would like to talk to our team about their season tomorrow or the next day, whenever it's appropriate, for our team to hear from me my thoughts on our season. After a night like tonight, you kind of just focus on tonight. You focus on the playoffs and the growth and the experience. Tomorrow we'll reflect on the season with the team, and we'll reflect on the season with everybody out here tonight or whoever's still interested. Obviously, it was a great season. Q. Mike, outside of obviously the mounting injuries after the first couple of games, is there anything in particular that sort of alarmed you about the dropoff in your team's play and why it might have happened? Or was it just a matter of the moment of being in the Conference Finals? COACH BUDENHOLZER: I don't think it was the moment of being in the Conference Finals. I think things get more difficult. We had some opportunities, particularly Game 3, even with several injuries, and different things happening in Game 3, and we weren't able to get that game. I think we need to shoot the ball well to be a team that opens up other things. I don't think we shot particularly well in this series. They shot it extremely well. Give them credit for making shots. I think defensively we've got to be better. We can't just rely on shooting shots. Obviously, we weren't good enough. We didn't get it done in the Eastern Conference Finals, but I don't think it was the moment per se. They were just better than us in the series. Q. Teams you've been associated with dating back almost a decade now have faced LeBron James in the postseason. From your perspective, anything that stands out about his development over that time and where he stands in the game today? COACH BUDENHOLZER: I think his confidence has gone to another level. Having watched and prepared‑‑ watching how he orchestrates and, I think, has a great command for where he wants his teammates and what's important in the moment and the confidence that he has in himself to make the right play, whether it's making a shot, making the pass. As a leader, he's grown. His confidence has grown. He's a great individual player. Q. When they jump on you that quickly right from the start, considering all that was at stake, can you put your finger on kind of why they were able to do that, especially early? COACH BUDENHOLZER: I thought we had two or three turnovers early that they turned into quick, easy transition baskets and put us on our heels, kind of out of the gate. Obviously, Kyrie Irving, I think, made his first couple of shots; got into the paint. I thought they justscored. Obviously, in transition it's easier. They scored a couple of easy ones. They scored some easy ones in the half‑court, and we weren't able to match it. We were playing from a hole right from the beginning. Q. Understanding you obviously haven't had a lot of time to process the series and everything, is it too early to ask you about what you think this team needs to jump to the next level? COACH BUDENHOLZER: Yeah, I think we'll‑‑ I guess I would start with we're very‑‑ this team has done a lot, and we have a lot of confidence in this team. We'll look to improve and look to get better, but bringing back this team would excite us, excite me. It's a hell of a group. But I think any time you can find opportunities to get better, that's all of our challenges, and exactly what that means, I don't think tonight is appropriate. But I will say that this is a hell of a group, and to bring them back would be a huge priority. Q. Coach, is there one thing that stands out as you were looking back at film over the first three games and that you saw out there tonight that really made the difference? Was it the rebounding? Was it just as simple as they had LeBron? Anything you could point to? COACH BUDENHOLZER: I think the three‑point shooting has been pretty consistent for four games now. The offensive rebounding was a big part of the equation. Tonight‑‑ I don't know. It's hard to say tonight how much offensive rebounding impacted the game. And LeBron James is a great individual player. He's the leader of that group and he sets a lot of things up for them, and they play well off of him. I think they're playing well defensively. I think there's a reason they're going to advance. They're a very good team. They're playing very well right now. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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