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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS v CAVALIERS

May 18, 2016

Tyronn Lue

Cleveland, Ohio: Practice Day

Q. What do you remember about the Lakers going 15-1 in the playoffs in 2001?
TYRONN LUE: We won a championship. That was the biggest thing, just we had a great group of guys. We had Kobe, Shaq who led the way. We had great role players, too. Every night was a star in their role, whatever that role was, they just did it to the best of your ability. At the start of the season, we started off 11-0, and playing the first game in The Finals, I think we had 12 days off, and they just came in that first game, and they were just running and moving so fast that we couldn't keep up. In the second half we kind of caught up with the game and kind of figured them out, and we went to overtime and lost our first game.

And then after that we were good.

Q. You guys chose not to send the tape to review the play. LeBron [James] was kind of half-joking but also lamenting the fact that he gets hit in the head, it's a common foul. What's it like for you as a coach to process that? It seems like it keeps happening.
TYRONN LUE: We're just talking about guys playing aggressive, being physical, playing the right way, continuing to attack. But we don't want to flop and flit all around. Nowadays to get a flagrant foul, you've got to fall down and grab your head and roll on the ground. LeBron [James] being so strong, guys bounce off of him, so he's not going to hit the ground as hard as other guys do. But still, a lot of times it's still a flagrant foul. If someone else gets hit, they're falling on the ground, grabbing their head, taking 30, 40 seconds to get up, and that just automatically triggered the referees to go to the scorer's table and review it and come up with a flagrant foul. I don't know.

Q. J.R. [Smith] talked about how Kyrie [Irving] was an underrated defender. Would you agree with that?
TYRONN LUE: Kyrie has very long arms. He's quick, has good hands, and he's been taking the defensive challenge throughout these playoffs. A lot of tough point guards, a lot of tough matchups, and every night he has to step up and be very prepared to play defense, and that's what he's been doing.

Q. Can you go into a little more detail what you were saying yesterday about the change and putting LeBron at the start of the second quarter, with the second unit, and how much thought went into that decision?
TYRONN LUE: Well, it's just something our coaching staff had talked about before the playoffs started, letting LeBron play with that second unit. LeBron and Delly [Matthew Dellavedova], they have a great chemistry on the floor together, and I just thought it would be better for the second unit to get more shots and spread the ball out, spread the floor, and it's something we decided going into the Detroit series, and it worked out, so we stayed with it.

Q. Is it something you found watching tape of other teams or talking to -- something that you've seen in the past years?
TYRONN LUE: Well, we knew how important coming into the playoffs, how important closing quarters are, so we wanted to keep two of our big three on the floor at all times, so that would get LeBron out early. We got a chance to keep Kyrie and Kevin [Love] on the floor together, and then let LeBron start in the second quarter with the second unit.

Q. How did [Iman] Shumpert come through that knee tweak last night?
TYRONN LUE: Great. It looked bad on tape. I watched it a few times. But he's great, moving around, no pain, no problems.

Q. Getting a lot in the fourth quarter off certainly helps with legs, but conditioning-wise, do you think they handled the time off better this time, and was it a concern for you coming into the series?
TYRONN LUE: I thought we were great conditioning-wise. I thought the biggest thing for us, we turned the ball over more than we wanted to. I think we had 16 turnovers before the turnover at the end of the game when we didn't take a shot. But 16 turnovers is a little too much for us. If we can get around 10, that would be great. I just thought for the most part, we weren't as rested as I thought we would be, and the guys just did a great job maximizing their time and their days off with what we were trying to execute and keeping their conditioning and building what we were trying to build. So they did a great job with executing that game plan.

Q. Some of the guys said last night (inaudible), we can be even better. It was the most lopsided win in postseason team history. How much better can you be?
TYRONN LUE: We can be better defensively, but I think starting the first and third quarters, we've got to be better. You know, got down 7-0 at the start of the game, and then in the third quarter they went on a quick 6-0 run to start the third quarter. I think taking care of the basketball I think in the first stretch of the first quarter, we had two turnovers that led to easy baskets for those guys, and then also the third quarter just starting slow, being stagnant coming out and moving slow. So we've got to be better at that.

But overall I think we did a great job defensively. I think we did a great job offensively. But we can still get better.

Q. How important is coaching in the playoffs compared to coaching in the regular season?
TYRONN LUE: Well, in the playoffs I think you get a chance to focus on one team. I think you have three or four days to prep and prepare for this team so you kind of know what they're going to do all the timeouts, what they're going to do late game. You just kind of prepare for that. During the regular season, games are so quick. You're playing a lot of different teams, a lot of different styles, so you just can't adjust on the fly like you want to.

Q. How do you manage a locker room from series to series as opposed to just random games in the regular season?
TYRONN LUE: Well, I just think we've got to continue to do a great job of locking in what we're going to do defensively, what we want to do offensively. I think the guys have done a great job of doing that, and we've just got to continue to build on it, continue to get better each practice and each game.

Q. Has anything caught you by surprise being a head coach here in your third series in the playoffs, or are you just totally comfortable with it?
TYRONN LUE: I feel comfortable.

Q. Is there any sort of adjustment at this point that you're still making?
TYRONN LUE: The main thing, like the team, like I said, we've got to continue to get better each practice, each game, we have to do the same and just try to be one step ahead. Make sure I'm organized, make sure I'm prepared, try to stay one step ahead of our opponent, and that's what I've been trying to do this whole playoff season. I'll try to continue to keep doing that, and hopefully it continues to work out.

Q. What's been the most challenging aspect for you of moving from a league assistant to the head coach?
TYRONN LUE: I think the most challenging is just trying to implement what I wanted to put in, what I wanted to get done offensively and defensively with not a lot of practice time. Taking over 41 games into the season, there wasn't a lot of practice time. It was kind of hard. I think the guys did a great job of continuing to pick it up, continuing to get better each and every day, and like I say, the last month or month and a half of the season just really took off and started playing and becoming who we wanted to be as a team.

Q. Your record to start the playoffs is kind of like I think best since Pat Riley. What goes through your mind when you hear your name in the same sentence with him?
TYRONN LUE: That's not even close to Pat Riley. The team is playing unbelievable. You know, I have a great team, and we're playing good basketball right now. It's got nothing to do with me.

Q. As the lead started to grow, it seems like the game started to get more physical down the line. Do you think they were trying to get in your guys' heads down there?
TYRONN LUE: Well, I mean, we want to be physical, also, and we know playing against Toronto, they have a physical presence. Kyle Lowry is physical. [DeMar] DeRozan is a post player, he's physical. DeMarre Carroll is physical, James Johnson, [Bismack] Biyombo. They have a physical team, so we know in order to beat this team, we have to have a physical presence, and that's what we're going to do, and that's what we want to bring and have as a mindset going into the game, too.

Q. Were you okay with the level of physicality?
TYRONN LUE: Yeah, I'm fine with it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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