	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS v CAVALIERS

May 25, 2016

Dwane Casey

Cleveland, Ohio: Game Five

Cleveland 116, Toronto 78

Q. What has happened to you in this building during this series, and can you fix it?
DWANE CASEY: They kicked our butts. That's the bottom line. You get outrebounded by 21, 19 turnovers, the physicality, we didn't meet that standard tonight. For whatever reason we haven't met it here in this building. That's the bottom line. That's the ballgame. That's been all three games.

Q. What do you take out of this particular game that you can go back and say, look, guys, we can fix this yet again?
DWANE CASEY: Well, one thing about it, it's 3-2. It was embarrassing tonight the way we played, but it's one game. Lord knows, we didn't come out with the same focus and physicality to meet what Cleveland was doing, but again, this series is not over. We go back to Toronto. It's 3-2. The positives out of it -- we beat them at our place twice. We've got to come out with a totally different sense of urgency -- what we had talked about this morning in shootaround and all day today. We knew they were going to come out like a freight train. They did, and we didn't meet that level of physicality on either end of the floor. When you turn the ball over 19 times and get outrebounded, which has been one of our strong points, by 21, you got outworked.

Q. This is the sixth straight time that the Cavaliers have held their opponent to under 100 points on their home floor. What do they do differently in this building than what you saw defensively with Games 3 and 4?
DWANE CASEY: They were locked in. They were locked in from the start to the finish. The force that they play with is different here, and we didn't meet it. I don't know what else to say. They're a different team here. We had an opportunity tonight to come in and do something special, and we didn't get it done.

Q. Looking at the stats, DeMar [DeRozan], 2 of 8, Kyle [Lowry], 5 of 12. What did they do specifically against those two guys who torched them last game for 67 and they held them to 27 tonight?
DWANE CASEY: I thought the level of playing with force on the offensive end wasn't there. Again, that's the first statement I made. We did not play with force. They took us out of everything we wanted to do, just physically pushed us around and took what they wanted. That was the bottom line. If we intend to win in this building, we've got to come in with that mentality, the same mentality we played with in Toronto.

Q. When Kevin Love unveils his entire arsenal, not just camping behind the three-point line, how difficult is it to match up, to slow him down, and what kind of effect does he have when he's rolling?
DWANE CASEY: Oh, he's a force. He's an offensive force down low. Again, we've done a good job on him the entire series. He gets it going, and we've got to meet his force with our force and do a better job of one-on-one defense with him in the low post and not just, like you said, look at him out on the three-point line. He has a game down in the low post, and we didn't get a stop.

Q. You talked about the hustle, the rebounding. Obviously one of the big changes you made today was give Jonas [Valanciunas] more time and swap in. Do you think any of that had anything to do with the change in rebounding compared to Games 3 and 4?
DWANE CASEY: No. That was why we put him in there, because we were getting our butts kicked. I think the first eight out of 11 points were all by offensive rebound, and there was a reason we went to that in the first half a little bit.

Q. What's the mindset of the team knowing no matter what transpires they're coming back here for Game 7?
DWANE CASEY: It's one game. As much as it hurts, it's tough, we know we did not play nowhere near with the force that we need to to play here in this game. Like you said, we've got to figure that out at the level we've got to get to in this building. Again, it's one game. It's still 3-2, and yes, they spanked us here, but also we won two games in Toronto, and we go away with that confidence.

Q. Is it more X's and O's or is it more psychological that you're concerned with?
DWANE CASEY: It's the same thing: We beat them in Toronto with force, togetherness, playing through contact, everything, all the above, and we didn't do that tonight. I don't know what other answers you want. At this time of year it's not X's and O's. It's about playing with force, playing smart, playing together. It's nothing they were doing other than playing at a higher clip, a quicker clip on both ends of the floor, and we didn't meet that. And it wasn't a lack of hustle. I wouldn't say that. It's just our reaction, our attention to detail, just wasn't there tonight.

Q. You said a number of times that it was just one game, and it was, and you guys beat the Cavs twice. LeBron has won at least one playoff road game in the last 24 series. I guess with that context, how great is the challenge that's in front of you?
DWANE CASEY: Well, any playoff game when you're in the Conference Finals is a challenge, whether you play here, in Toronto, on Mars or wherever it is. It's a challenge, and especially when you're playing against one of the best players in the league. So it's a challenge. I don't think we took it lightly tonight. I don't know if we were ready for the train that was about to come down the tracks on us tonight. But again, it's one game. As bad as we played in every area on offense and defense, it's one game. We've got to make some corrections in our approach and our physicality and a few X-and-O adjustments. But it's not all about X's and O's right now; it's about the mental and physical toughness that you've got to have in these games.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297