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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v WARRIORSJune 10, 2015Iman ShumpertCLEVELAND, OHIO: Practice Day Q. How much of that was trying to show him different looks versus Matthew Dellavedova? IMAN SHUMPERT: I mean, Delly is tired, but everybody's entitled to a rest. When I left my locker room to get my shoulder worked on, that was pretty much my rest. Delly, J.R., Mike Miller, those guys all just came in and defended. When I came back, Delly needed a blow, and that was my job. Q. How are you dealing with the fatigue? I mean, you mentioned the rotation is shorter. You guys were playing 30, 40, some guys even 50 minutes a game. IMAN SHUMPERT: This is what you do conditioning at the beginning of the year for. However many minutes you have to play, you have to play, and you have to play as hard as you can until you go into a stage of just complete exhaustion. Then you ask for a sub. Next guy comes in and does his job and you're ready to go. I think we've done a great job just pushing until exhaustion. Q. You and your shoulder going to be good to go for Thursday? IMAN SHUMPERT: Yeah, I'll be all right. Q. Given the injury situation you guys have (indiscernible)? IMAN SHUMPERT: I mean, it would take a lot for me not to play. It's going to take a lot of people to tell me not to go. It's going to take some structural damage for me to do that. If I'm able to push through it, I'll push through it. Q. (Indiscernible) why is your transition defense‑‑ I mean, teams have not been able to keep up with it. Why have you guys been able to do it? IMAN SHUMPERT: One, I think we've done a great job with floor balance. You have to make sure you're disciplined enough to take good shots. A bad shot could lead to a very good shot for them in transition extremely fast. I think we've done a great job with our shot selection as well as using the whole shot clock. We haven't come down and taken those quick shots. We have at times throughout the playoffs taken those quick shots. We understand that this team is a team that turns bad decisions and bad shots, turnovers into points really fast. Right now we're just trying to focus on moving the ball, making sure we use the shot clock and keep the floor in balance, so when they do come (indiscernible). Q. When you use the shot clock like that, do you think it makes them impatient on the other end? IMAN SHUMPERT: I hope it does. Q. There have been so many iterations of the Cavs this year. Now that you're two games away from winning it all, is there one single identity that this team has right now? IMAN SHUMPERT: We hang our hat on the defensive end. We make plenty of mistakes like any other team. But we refuse to let somebody play harder. I think that's what makes this team good. We don't do it perfect every time. There are plenty of times we fail on the coverage, but you can always see a guy making the extra effort. You can always look to your left or your right and know that that guy's putting everything out there for the team. Q. (Indiscernible)? IMAN SHUMPERT: We can be tired after the season. When we've got a job to do, we've got a goal in mind. Right now that's just to focus on Game 4. Q. What is the benefit, you've had three games in almost two weeks to prepare for these guys as opposed to facing them an isolated game here or there in the regular season. What is the benefit of being able to lock in? IMAN SHUMPERT: I guess just to block everything out. There is no better way to focus than know you only have to worry about one team for a whole series.  Our staff, the coaching staff has done an incredible job preparing us for stress, weaknesses, different plays they're going to throw at us. I think everybody's done a great job doing their homework and being prepared. They give us a big book at the start of the series. I think our guys have done a great job reading through that, knowing percentages and knowing (indiscernible). Q. How much have you adjusted to their adjustments and been sort of a moving target defensively as much as they want to change things up to get Steph free? IMAN SHUMPERT: I mean, at the end of the day, basketball is a simple game. There is only so much they can throw at you, whether it be a quick hitter. That's only worth one bucket if you get that. At the end of the day it's going to come down to ball screens. Sitting down, guarding a guy one‑on‑one. Hand off, split action. We've really seen it all. That's going through playing each team in the NBA throughout the year. So at this point it's all about just sitting down, taking the one‑on‑one challenge and communication on ball screens. Q. What's it mean to have a guy like Delly having this much success? IMAN SHUMPERT: Oh, man, just to see a guy, he's the definition of hard work, and it's paying off. Delly works extremely hard. He dives on loose balls even in practice, same way he dives on a loose ball out here is the same way he dives on it in practice. For Kyrie to go down and for him to step right in and give the team exactly what it needs, it leaves us with (indiscernible). FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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