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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v WARRIORSJune 14, 2015David BlattOAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Game Five Q. You said yesterday you considered the NBA Finals the World Championship. With your worldly view, I wonder why you consider the NBA champion the world champion? COACH BLATT: Because it's very complementary to us right now. Q. Did you feel the same way? COACH BLATT: You ever hear that song, "Love the One You're With"? Well, this is who I'm with right now, so... Q. Is Iman okay with the groin and the shoulder and everything else? Where is Iman right now health‑wise? COACH BLATT: I think he's in pretty good health, relatively speaking. He's banged up, but there's not many guys out there that are not. To his credit, he's played through everything and he's out there battling every game. He's at every practice. And I expect the same from him going forward, because that's the kind of guy he is. Q. What can we expect from J.R. Smith tonight? Have you done anything in preparation for this game to finally get him rolling in the series? COACH BLATT: You know, shooters go through periods. They've got days and sometimes weeks when the ball always seems to find the middle of the basket, and then there's other days when the thing just doesn't go down. J.R. doesn't need to do anything different. He needs to stay confident. He needs to stay purposeful in terms of taking good shots, and he needs to know that we believe in him because we certainly do. He's a big reason that we're here, and he'll find his shot. Q. What has having your family done for you? I know they've been around for the last little bit. What's it done for you mentally? COACH BLATT: Blown up my credit card (laughing). Lot of parents in here, so they understand that, right? It's great. It's great having them here, and it's great that they all have the experience. But my family's gotten a lot bigger this year. All of Cleveland is behind us, and that's a lot of people. Fortunately we've found a lot of fans all over the United States as we've been on this journey, so it's just been great. Q. Can we go back to the switch to the small lineup by the Warriors? Are you considering any changes in your strategy in how you're going to counter that today? Do you expect them to stick with that? COACH BLATT: Probably so. Regarding our strategy, more than likely I'm not going to tell you right now. No disrespect. The thing about playing the small lineup is we've played small lineups, too, this year. Not a little bit. It's good tactic. It was effective for them last game, no question. I thought we struggled more with just shooting the ball well and doing little things like proper coverages in transition and boxouts. That might have impacted more on us in Game 4. But it's another thing to deal with in a series full of adjustments, and we'll be ready for it. Q. I think Steve Kerr delivers a message clearly that their team wants to use the strengths to the maximum; that is, utilize their deep rotation to keep shooting even though when the shots are not falling. What do you think is the biggest stress of the Cavaliers team, besides LeBron James? COACH BLATT: Well, I think that we've proven overtime how resilient we are and how capable we are of playing with different lineups and in different‑‑ under different sets of circumstances with many, many changes and the need to adjust to different things. We've played three top‑level ballgames in this series so far. Last game wasn't one of our better games. There's a lot of reasons for that.  But we've got a pretty good opponent to face also, and hopefully we can do the things that we've been doing well for quite some time now, especially considering the confidence that we've gained from knowing we can overcome almost anything. Q. LeBron said the other day that it's no difference if the series was just either team defended its home court. But, still, how hard from the mental standpoint is it to prepare the team after the blowout on the home court in the last game? COACH BLATT: Well, it wasn't as much a blowout as that word seems to‑‑ Q. Forgive my English. COACH BLATT: No, it's all right. The thing about this series, especially the opponent that we've playing, they have the capability of having a great quarter, and if you lose your way, you can get beat or you can certainly get hurt. We just have to be consistent in the things that we do and play with great energy and not lose confidence in what we're doing and recognize that every play and certainly every quarter is a big one and an important one and play the game in front of us. LeBron said it correctly. It's 2‑2. It's a three‑game series right now. Both teams learned things from the previous game or games, and both teams try to make the proper adjustments. But right now we're thinking Game 5 and Game 5 only, and we've got to go after it. Q. How is Matthew Dellavedova feeling? What is his state? And what did you guys do with him in the last 24 hours to get him ready for tonight? COACH BLATT: Well, he's had three days here to recover. Pretty much the same with all the guys. Active‑type rest, light workouts. He's feeling pretty good. Certainly more himself than he was before Game 4, and hopefully we'll benefit from that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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