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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS v CAVALIERSMay 22, 2016Dwane CaseyToronto, Ontario: Practice Day Q. Bis [Biyombo] was just saying on the floor, I don't want to have any friends. Do you think that he and the team have gotten under the Cavs' skin a little bit in a good way from your standpoint in terms of the physicality? DWANE CASEY: Well, I don't know if it's getting under the Cavs' skin. I think it's just about competing. I think that's the number one thing is our compete level is higher. We expect our compete level to be higher tomorrow night. I thought that was the difference in the game. It was a similar game plan. We adjusted a few things, not a lot. But the number one thing we adjusted was our compete level. Whether it wins friends or influences people, it doesn't matter. The compete level has to be there no matter who you play in the playoffs, whether it was Miami, Indiana or whatever. You're not out there to make friends. You can be friends in the summertime. Q. DeMar [DeRozan] was saying he hated Bis when they used to play against each other and Bis said he sort of knew that. You've been around some great shot blockers, rim protectors. There aren't too many of them, if they're doing their job right, who are probably well liked by the opponent. Is that sort of validation to know that you're getting under a guy's skin a little bit? DWANE CASEY: Two of the biggest competitors I've ever coached was Gary Payton and Kevin Garnett. Those two guys did not like anybody on the opposing jerseys, and that's the way it should be. You don't have to be dirty, you don't have to be belligerent; just your compete level has to be there. They know you're not out there to have fun and laugh and smile. That's part of the game. That's part of it. You're not disrespecting anybody. You're not being a bad person, but you're out there to compete. You're out there to do your job. For that 48 minutes, there's one thing in mind and one thing only, and that's the way it should be. Q. You mentioned compete level. When in the lead-up to the game or once the ball goes up in the air do you know if your team has the proper level? DWANE CASEY: That's an age-old question. Do you look at your players and look in their eyes and see if they're ready to play? I don't think there's a coach in this league or in any league that can look at their players and see if they're ready to play. Only time you know if they're ready to play is once that ball goes up. You can make all the Knute Rockne speeches you want to and all that stuff, but again, at this time of year, it's about one thing and it's about competing. If you've got to talk about, is your team ready or are they ready to compete, if you've got to talk about that at this time of year, we're in the wrong business -- or they're in the wrong business, whoever it is. Because if you're not ready to play hard and compete during the playoffs and in the Conference Finals -- the word as far as being ready to compete, just our force level, our playing-with-force-level was higher. I don't think our guys were not trying in the first two games, but just the readiness, the level of force that they played with on both ends of the floor was higher. Q. Bismack has gotten a lot of attention, justifiably, from his play recently. Where do you see him along the maturation process, and do you see he has a lot more to give? DWANE CASEY: No question. Bismack, his free-throw percentage has increased every year. He's still a young man in this league. He's a young man, so his ceiling is not there yet. His jump shot, I know his jump hooks in the paint, all those things are things that are evolving. Two years ago he wouldn't have even thought about a jump hook in the paint, or his free-throw percentage was so down, they'd probably be doing the Hack-a-Bismack with him. But now his free throw level is up, his confidence level at the free-throw line is up. I think in the last series somebody tried it and he knocked down two free throws. Those are the things, the areas he can improve on. But his role, his alley, is his energy level, his defensive presence, and his rebounding and shot blocking. Q. He actually had seven screen assists they call them last night. What's the biggest difference between an effective screener and an ineffective screener? DWANE CASEY: One that sets a legal screen. One that can time it up with his teammate coming off of it, whether it's a pin-down or a pick-and-roll. His timing is really good. He's not there moving at the last second. He sets good, hard, physical screens at the right time. So I think that sets the screeners apart, a guy that just has a rhythm of when to set screens, the angle where he sets screens. He understands whether a guy is going under or not and sets it on the low side. He does a good job of reading all those situations. Q. How important were those last night when you looked at the film, both his ability to set screens and your guards' ability to time it right, as you say? DWANE CASEY: I think it's really important. I think especially when it's a physical-type game where the opposing team is into the guard or into the pin-down of the guy receiving the screen. I think it's really important, the timing, where you don't set illegal screens or the defense doesn't hurry you up, and it gives him an opportunity to get his body on the defender. He does a good job of that, and his basketball IQ is very high in those situations. Q. And then that obviously helps you sort of pick the right defender to go at, right? When you can force the initial guy into the screen, right? DWANE CASEY: It's a dance. You've got to have a dance partner, is what I call it. The guy that's receiving the screen has got to be able to dance with the guy guarding him. They're doing a lot of top-blocking, so you've still got to be able to dance with him to take him to the screen and/or create the separation, one of the two. If you're a point guard and you're trying to come off on the pick-and-roll, your ability to get separation from the defender is just as important as that screen. So now with the defense heightened and them understanding exactly what you're doing, it's even more important. Q. Did [Jonas] Valanciunas do anything today, and what's his status? DWANE CASEY: He was on the court today, and we'll see where he is tomorrow. Q. Being on the court, did that change from anything he's been able to do? DWANE CASEY: No, no. Q. When you guys signed Bis late in the summer to a $3 million contract, did you envision this kind of impact? DWANE CASEY: I envisioned him bringing the defensive energy, because like DeMar [said], I mean, he was a nightmare in Charlotte for us on the boards, blocking shots, just being a nuisance, a guy hitting you. You just have some guys that accidentally bump into you and just hurt you, and that's Bismack. Not trying to be dirty, but it's just how he plays. It always seemed like he played well against us. So no, it's what I envisioned. I didn't envision a 26-rebound night like he's had, and 25 like he had against Indiana. But I envisioned him having an impactful role on our team, especially with the second unit behind Jonas. Q. You shook your head a little bit last night when you were asked about Bis and the finger wagging. When it comes to that stuff and him being a nuisance, from your perspective as a coach, do you sort of think about how the other team responds and whether there's a motivating factor in their response? DWANE CASEY: No, I don't think so. It goes back to motivational factor. If that motivates you, you're already behind the 8-ball. If it takes that to get you to play hard. No, I think that's just who he is. I remember when [Dikembe] Mutombo did it. When he did it, I don't think it motivated other players to play harder. When Bismack does it, as long as he backs it up, continues to rebound, continues to block shots and protect the rim, and as long as he doesn't get a technical, I don't mind that. It's a new NBA. It's a new day. He can do it all he wants to, as long as he backs it up. What you don't want to do is a guy to not be able to back it up and he's out there having a big rebounding night once a month. That's not him. Q. You were pretty passionate last night about the officiating. Do you think they'll hear your message, and two -- DWANE CASEY: I'm not trying to get anybody -- it's over with. I said what I had to say last night. I'm not trying to send a message. It was a comment about the game last night, and it's over with. Q. Did you hear from the league at all? DWANE CASEY: I'm not going to comment on anything on the officiating. Q. Yesterday people were talking about suspecting flopping by LeBron. LeBron did have a little history of flopping and being fined by the league because of flopping ... DWANE CASEY: He got fined by the league? Q. Yeah, before he did. Not this one, before. So [inaudible] to avoid those obvious gestures -- DWANE CASEY: No, LeBron is doing nothing different. He's playing basketball. I don't look at him as being a flopper or anything like that. We don't even talk about that. The key is keeping him in front of you and guarding a great player. That's the only thing that you're trying to worry about with LeBron. Q. You gave him a little bit more space last night and he was able to use that to throw his sort of darts around the floor. But were guys maybe staying at home a little bit better as far as when he made those passes, those shots were a little bit more contested? DWANE CASEY: I'll tell you what, he's one of the hardest players to play. If you're up on him, he's going to go by you. If you back off of him, he's going to make a good decision. So we have to mix up how we want to play him, whether it's up on him or back or sending help or not sending help. There's not one way you can play a great player like he is. We're trying just to do the best we can to make sure we mix it up, give him different looks, because if you give him the same look every time down the floor, like I said at the beginning of the series, he's one of the smartest players that I've ever coached against. If you give him the same look, he's going to pick you apart or he'll smell it out. Q. They didn't use LeBron to guard DeMar [DeRozan] much, half a dozen times. Do you expect to see more of that tomorrow night? DWANE CASEY: Well, again, he's a smart player. He does more than you think he does. He'll mix up the plays of who he's guarding, how he's guarding. Again, it's hard to tell. Whoever the problem is, you're going to see him on him because he's one of the best defenders. I anticipate him being on a little bit of everybody tomorrow night, whether it's [DeMarre] Carroll, DeMar. He's even guarded Kyle [Lowry] on certain possessions. That's why we have to be smart in how we call out our plays because he's a step ahead of you and he'll smell it out and try to get on that person. I see him guarding everyone tomorrow night. Q. Does it also take him away from being that free safety who sort of roams anywhere he wants to go? DWANE CASEY: Well, again, he's that. That goes back to his basketball IQ. Him playing on the ball, off the ball, he knows where the pass is going before it's made. That's why we have to be smart and probably do some things to counter that, to backcut his stunts, to make sure we cut his guy out of there to make sure when he turns around he's not there, when he goes back, he's not there anymore. That's one thing that we've got to be able to do is make sure we take his stunt away once he does do that because he's, again, very good at doing that. Q. What do you think your team showed in Game 3? What do you think it proved to people, not just the Cavs? DWANE CASEY: Again, I don't think we tried to prove anything. I think we just took our compete level to what we did for 82 games. I don't think the first two games -- it wasn't us. I know Cleveland played great basketball. They played at a high level. I'm not saying we didn't come out and play hard. I don't think our intensity, our playing with force, the level that you've got to play with in the Conference Finals, was there. And again, that's a growing experience for us. It's the first time we've been there. They had been there before, and they knew the level of play that you had to play at. They knew when to put their foot down. They took advantage of those windows to get the score up, and we didn't understand the moment. I thought last night we did a better job of not having those lapses or having long lapses. Teams are going to make runs in this league, but I thought our attention to detail and our focus, the guys that were in there, the combinations we had in there, did a better job of cutting the length of those lapses down. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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