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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS v CAVALIERS

May 24, 2016

Tyronn Lue

Cleveland, Ohio: Practice Day

Q. Ty, do you have to come out tomorrow with a sense of urgency?
TYRONN LUE: Yes, sir, most definitely. We've got to come out and hit first and be more aggressive and bring a physicality from the start of the game, not wait until we get down 16, 18 points to finally start playing with that aggressiveness. I think our guys are ready. We had a great film session today. We see what we need to do, and we're ready and prepared to it.

Q. They obviously have some comfort because they've been successful and they've got some rhythm and momentum now. How much more dangerous are they?
TYRONN LUE: I don't think more dangerous. I think we had the same momentum, we won two games and we went up there and they flipped the script on us, and they played well at home. We know they play great at home. Now we've got to come back and let our home crowd get behind us, but we've got to give our home crowd something to cheer for. I think the guys are ready for that, and we have to do it tomorrow.

Q. Would you say that home court has been the reason that the series has gone the way it has?
TYRONN LUE: I would say so. I mean, we had two great games at home to start out the series, and we go to Toronto and they played great. They played great at home. Now it's our chance to come back, get some home cooked meals and have a chance to play in front of our home crowd.

Q. I imagine every player is different from your experience, but what are some key signs you look for to determine whether somebody is in a shooting slump or whether the ball is just not going down, like if they're doing something wrong versus to make or miss type of thing?
TYRONN LUE: Well, it's just part of the game. If it's your shot, you have to take it, and you have to take it with confidence. Toronto in the first two games when we played at home, they made a conscious effort of just taking us off the three-point line, so we were able to get 106 paint points in those two games. Now they're clocking the paint and they're giving us open three-point shots, we've just got to knock them down.

Q. When you look at Kevin Love's struggles, are you saying that it's a physical thing, that Toronto's defense is doing --
TYRONN LUE: We just missed shots. It's part of the game. He's been playing great all Playoffs. At some point you're going to miss some shots. But that's not our main concern. We've got to be better defensively, and we're going to make shots.

Q. Have you talked to him about not playing in the fourth quarter the last two games?
TYRONN LUE: Have I talked to him? No, he understood that Chan [Channing Frye] was playing well, and I just decided to ride with Chan because he was playing so good at the time, and Kevin understands that.

Q. You guys took 82 threes the last two games; are you okay with that, or would you like to see your guys try to attack the basket more?
TYRONN LUE: I mean, that's what we're doing. We're attacking the basket and they're coming to help and we're kicking out for open threes. We post LeBron, they're coming in a double-team with Biyombo, so we're kicking out for open threes even when we penetrate. They're doing a good job of trying to clog the paint and take away our penetration. Like I said, having 106 paint points the first two games, I think they decided to do something a little different, so we've just got to take what the defense gives us.

Q. You mentioned the film session. Was there something that stood out to you as a common denominator with the two games in Toronto?
TYRONN LUE: Just taking the one-on-one challenge. I think DeRozan and Lowry really took it upon themselves to get their team back on track, and we have to take that one-on-one challenge and be better with those two guys.

Q. The spacing in the game, Toronto seemed to do that for two games on their home floor, you did it on your home floor. What do you have to do to regain that pacing that you had in those first two games?
TYRONN LUE: Well, first of all, we have to have the mindset with play with pace, and I want to push the basketball. Second of all, we have to get stops. When a team shoots 54 percent from the field like they did last night, it's hard to get on a run. But it's got to be our mindset to get out, get early baskets in transition, open up the floor, and it's better for us.

Q. How is Tristan Thompson?
TYRONN LUE: Oh, Tristan is good. Yeah, he's good. Confidence never wavers. He plays the same way every single night, and he's going to be fine.

Q. LeBron says he's felt better now than he has in years, but are you comfortable with him playing 46 minutes in these games?
TYRONN LUE: I'm comfortable playing whatever he feels good I'm comfortable with. We talk about it before the game, the night before, how his body felt, and he wanted to play more minutes because he knew it was a big game for us, and it just didn't work out.

Q. Was that when he told us he had the --
TYRONN LUE: You've got to ask him.

Q. I think LeBron took just one shot in the last five and a half minutes yesterday. Did you need him to be more aggressive?
TYRONN LUE: Well, I thought with that second unit, I thought that Delly [Matthew Dellavedova] really came in and did a good job of just running the offense and was able to get in sets. I mean, we ran one play and got every option you could possibly get out of that play, and LeBron was -- you know, he benefitted on some of those, and some of those Channing benefits. We also had LeBron at the elbow a lot. He got R.J. [Richard Jefferson] a few back-door cuts, a few lay-ups. He was involved in orchestrating a lot of what we did fourth quarter. His shot wasn't -- wasn't presented those opportunities, just his passing ability and how the team was playing him. He has to mix it up, and like you said, LeBron knows when he needs to take over the basketball game but also knows when he has to trust his teammates, also.

Q. The way Biyombo has played in this series, have you given thought to going small more often the way you did against Detroit to try to take Drummond out of the game or out of his comfort zone?
TYRONN LUE: Well, we did that last game in Game 4 by getting Channing in early in that first quarter to spread them out. We were able to get some open threes. They were normally knocked down, we just didn't make them. If we'd have made those threes, it would have been a different game.

Q. Is that something you're going to stick with moving forward? Did you like the way that you had success with it?
TYRONN LUE: I liked it a lot.

Q. Now that [Jonas] Valanciunas was active last night, will you include him in your scouting report?
TYRONN LUE: Not until he plays. We understand what he's going to do. We know he plays a big role for them, but until he gets on the floor, we don't know what he's going to do. We don't know how fresh he is, how he feels, his conditioning, or his ankle still hurts. I'm not sure.

Q. After Game 3 you said you took some blame yourself for not getting LeBron in the right spots. Do you think you did that in Game 4, and did he take advantage of that?
TYRONN LUE: Yes, I think we did. We scored 11 straight possessions with the ball in his hands, making the pass or also being able to get easy lay-ups from Delly on the back door cuts and lob plays. We did a great job of getting LeBron the basketball, just at the elbow, and we were able to manufacture points that way.

Q. In that fourth quarter when you had Channing in there, it seemed like Biyombo started to get some boards on the offensive glass. Do you think that hurts at all not having Tristan in at that point?
TYRONN LUE: Well, he's a great offensive rebounder. When we had Tristan in, he had eight offensive rebounds the game before that. It's just part of the game cycle, spreading the floor, keeping him out of the paint on the offensive end so we can get open shots and get LeBron and Kyrie into the paint, and then on the defensive end we've got to do a good job of just boxing out and keeping them off the glass.

Q. You've talked about taking what the defense gives you. Does it come to a point where you say, forget that, it's time for us to impose our will the way we did in the first two games, even after they've made some defensive changes?
TYRONN LUE: Well, I think when you penetrate and they collapse the floor, you've got to make the right play, and if the play is to kick out, the guy has got an open shot, he has to take it and he has to knock it down. I mean, we're not really coming down looking to say we want to force three-point shots. That's not what we're trying to do. I think you saw that in the first two games. We just took what the defense gave us, and now the defense is giving us three-point shots, and we've got to step up and make them.

Q. I've seen other coaches do this, but Casey last night was clapping when Kyrie was trying to take that three. Does that kind of thing belong in the NBA?
TYRONN LUE: I don't know.

Q. Have you ever done that?
TYRONN LUE: No. I haven't been coaching long enough to do it, so you never know.

Q. You see guys on the bench doing it, too. Is it kind of bush league? Should players be beyond that?
TYRONN LUE: I don't know.

Q. When it comes to Channing, I think the most minutes he's played in the postseason is 28. Is there a minute workload where you feel comfortable with him out there and he can still give you what he does in limited minutes?
TYRONN LUE: Just the flow of the game. I mean, I can't really -- it's just in the flow of the game and how the game is going will predict his minutes.

Q. Going back to Jonas, if he does play, what, if anything, changes for you guys?
TYRONN LUE: Well, we know that he's an offensive presence on the block and we know he's physical down low, another great offensive rebounder, and he just gives them a big body that they can slow the game down and post the basketball. We're prepared for it, but we haven't seen him play yet, so we've got to focus in on Biyombo and Patterson and Scola and those guys right now.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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