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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS v CAVALIERS

May 23, 2016

Dwane Casey

Toronto, Ontario: Game Four

Toronto - 105, Cleveland - 99

Q. That play that they were running over and over again, LeBron at the high post, the handoff-and-roll, did you guys find a solution for that or did they stop going to it?
DWANE CASEY: Well, we got one stop on it, which was big, but that was something they fell into. They just started running the options off of it. It's something we will figure out.

Q. Can you talk about the fourth quarter and your thought process and what you wanted to execute once they started playing a little better and took the lead?
DWANE CASEY: We wanted to get stops, and then we wanted to make sure we got good looks down at the other end, and I think we accomplished that. They fell into a play that we had trouble with. We found a way at the end of it on the last possession after a timeout to kind of talk about it, and we got a stop and they went away from it. It's something that they kind of fell into, and when you've got LeBron James as your point guard at the elbow, they executed pretty well. We finally found a solution for it at the end, but it was almost too late. But again, it was more finding them in transition. They got the three-ball going in transition, more in random play as much as anything else in the second half.

Q. You guys had 19 free throws in the second half after having zero at halftime. What did you kind of do to help that, and how important do you think that was to the ultimate result?
DWANE CASEY: We kept being aggressive. We just kept on driving to the basket and creating contact. That was something we wanted to do is make sure we attacked the paint, attacked their feet. Our guys accomplished that.

Q. Can you capsulize what this means for your team, for the city, for the history of the Raptors?
DWANE CASEY: It's one game. I know that sounds simplistic, but it's one game in a seven-game series. We're in it. Someone mentioned that we were in it just to win one game, and I disagreed with them. We're in it to compete for a championship. We're here, and again, that's why we went through the season is to try to go as far as we could. We're a step ahead in the process, of our growth process. We're not there yet. Right now we've found something. But again, I still say that we're a young, up-and-coming team that's got to stay hungry, got to stay humble, and continue to compete with poise, because again, nobody thought we were going to be here. Nobody gives us a snowball's chance in you know where to beat Cleveland, but we've just got to keep on churning, keep on working, keep on grinding to try to continue to win.

Q. There was a play in the third quarter, Kyle [Lowry] hits a big shot, you call a timeout, you sort of waved off a couple of celebrating teammates as if to say, relax, stay calm. When you talk about playing with poise, playing with composure, how crucial is --
DWANE CASEY: That's huge because I thought at the beginning of the fourth quarter, that group that went in there, we lost our composure. That group lost their composure. When we put the starters back in, they kind of regained their foothold and got back under control. I thought that was huge for us. I've always said, compete with poise, stay consistent with your emotions. Don't get too high, don't get too low. I think that's paying dividends for us now as we go through this tough series with a great Cleveland team, with one of the best players on the planet, and we've got to continue to have that composure and compete every possession with poise.

Q. Cleveland hit three of their first 23 threes and then hit eight of their next nine. During that stretch did you see anything defensively that you didn't like?
DWANE CASEY: I thought we were all over Channing Frye. I thought we were as close as you could get without fouling him, close enough to touch, and they made some tough shots. J.R. Smith came in and made some tough shots. They're tough shot makers, so I don't know what else we can do except get in the uniform with them and try to stop them that way. But they made some tough shots. That's what they do. Kyrie Irving is a tough shot maker, and then you've got one of the best passers in the world in LeBron James. They cause a lot of problems for you defensively. I think we held them in check in the first half, and they ended up shooting 47 percent for the game. We've got to figure some things out to make sure we give ourselves a little bit more of a chance to get to the three-point shooters and even closer on our close-outs and read some situations where we don't commit as much on the rolls and pick our poison.

Q. That play with 42 seconds left, did that unfold pretty much the way you envisioned it?
DWANE CASEY: With Kyle Lowry?

Q. Yeah, J.R. switched --?
DWANE CASEY: That's exactly what we wanted. We were fortunate to get the switch we wanted, and Kyle executed.

Q. Over the course of the last two-plus minutes, Kyle Lowry was able to defend or at least be guarding LeBron. Has that become a problem?
DWANE CASEY: Well, it is a problem. He had a couple switches that we didn't want, that they created, and we created some switches they I'm sure didn't want and got. That happens in a game. Mistakes happen. I think it was two possessions in a row, maybe three, we were trying -- but they set such good screens that it was a 9-1-1 situation where you have to. But again, there are situations where you almost put into where you have to screen. I think that's what they did to us, and vice versa at the other end. We were able to do that with them.

Q. How close were you to putting [Jonas Valanciunas] into the game or did it not present itself?
DWANE CASEY: I'll tell you what, right before halftime, right before Bis [Biyombo] got the third foul, that's when I thought about it. But it was such a short time, and it was a defensive possession, and he's been sitting there the whole first half. Tomorrow he'll get a good workout. Wednesday morning he'll get a good workout and hopefully get that ankle good and strong and give him another couple of days to go. But it was close. I thought just the game was so intense, for him to go in there not loose, coming back from a turned ankle, it would have been tough for him to get in the flow of the game in crucial situations.

Hopefully we can ramp him back up and get him going for Wednesday.

Q. DeMar [DeRozan] had a big game in Game 3. LeBron said he wanted to guard him tonight. How big was DeMar's 32 points again tonight with LeBron guarding him?
DWANE CASEY: I don't know if LeBron guarded him the whole night. I think a lot of possessions he did, but I think they got switched off in transition. We had some cross-matches where DeMar had different people guarding him in those situations. Luckily DeMar had it going in that stretch, because they were scoring on us and we were scoring on them. It was kind of tit-for-tat. Again, they had some cross-matches that they got caught with, and DeMar had an opportunity to score, and he was big for us. He and Kyle both really stepped up tonight.

Q. How important was Bismack tonight? I know he didn't have the monster night that he did previous --
DWANE CASEY: He was huge. One, he's creating situations where they're committing two or three people, at least two, to box him out, and that created some alleys for us to go -- I know Pat [Patterson] there at the end got a big offensive rebound because they're so worried about Bis, which they should be, because he's such a great offensive rebounder. He creates some offensive rebounding alleys for other people, and that's why we have to gang rebound and not depend on him to get all the rebounds.

That's what Bis creates. He's one of our best screeners. He didn't make his free throws, but he's been making his free throws -- and he does, he works on them incessantly. Again, he's huge for us, just his spirit, his toughness, but also, too, it's going to be great to get JV back now when they double-team and blitz us. JV is a good ball handler, great passer there in the middle of the floor. So we'll invite the double teams there in the middle of the floor with Jonas coming back.

Q. Just wondering, what has the crowd and being back on home court meant for this team, and when was the last time you heard it this loud here?
DWANE CASEY: It's been great. They just pushed us through so many situations, just the adrenaline going. I know how loud Cleveland is and how loud other arenas are, and ours is a couple of decibels higher. I always thought Portland was one of the loudest places in the league, and in the old Utah when they had the old motorcycle in there, but ours is just as loud without the motorcycle and the noise pumped in.

Q. Now you have to leave the comfort zone behind and go to Cleveland where regular season, the first two games of this series, you've had three double-digit losses. What has to change? What has to be different for this success to continue in the next game?
DWANE CASEY: We've got to meet the same intensity level, the same focus that we've had. We can't have as many droughts. We've got to play through some of the droughts that we had. Even though they were double-digit losses, I thought there were portions of the game where the game changed and we let it slip away, like small three- or four-minute segments. We've got to cut those down and make sure we keep our poise in those segments of the game and not let them get away.

We've got to match their scoring in those segments and not let them go on those big runs. But again, timeout, but we've still got to score, and that's where we struggled in those segments of the game. That's going to be our goal to go in with that and go in with the confidence that, hey, we've won two games.

Q. Was it just a matter of execution on home court that made the difference, or did you figure something out after games 1 and 2?
DWANE CASEY: Well, we figured out a little bit. I think just understanding where we could get shots, how we could get stops, I thought we protected the paint better. We figured out ways to try to protect the paint. This team is a great scoring team, and so I think that you've got to have a balance of what you want to take away, and you've got to pick your poison. We had a better balance, more than just taking one thing away or two things away. I think we got a balance of what we were going to work with. I thought that was huge on the defensive end. Offensively we had a good balance between attacking the paint and also were making shots. It's a make-or-miss league, and I think our home rims are good to us. Now we've got to find those on the road.

Q. Just two things. Why is Kyle able to thrive when his back is against the wall after scoring 18 in the first two games? And with Bis, how comfortable are you with him guarding the perimeter? He did it late and did it very successfully.
DWANE CASEY: Well, one, [Kyrie] Irving tattooed him once there at the end. He didn't get close enough. But Bis is one of our best athletes. He's always teasing about chasing lions and everything in the Congo. I've got to go over there this summer and see that. But he's got great feet, and his length, he's longer than you think, so that allows him to guard perimeter guys pretty well. That's why we don't mind switching with him.

And Kyle, he's a little pit bull. I mean, you question him, that's when he rises to the occasion. I've seen it so many times. Throughout the playoffs everybody second-guessed him, and he's always bounced back. He's done that his whole life, through college, through high school, through the first few years of the NBA, and that's what made him the All-Star he is.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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