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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS v CAVALIERSMay 26, 2016Dwane CaseyToronto, Ontario: Practice Day Q. Did you have any conversation with DeMarre [Carroll] and Cory [Joseph]? I know you heard about it last night in the press conference. Was it something you thought you needed to address? DWANE CASEY: To me that wasn't the story for last night. Again, guys have different ways of letting off steam. I think he had two security employees with him, casino employees. They weren't drinking. You know, every team I've ever been with in the NBA hasn't had a curfew. Guys will go out, gambling is not illegal. They were at work the next morning early, so you know, other guys were in their room up all night watching videos and playing video games. Again, that's not a concern of mine. We tell the guys be professional, get your rest. It was a late game. They had all the next day to get their rest. Different guys have different ways of letting off steam, and they're grown men. They were there legally. It wasn't like they were drinking, partying at a club. You know, that was not my concern about -- my concern was getting our butt kicked with 19 turnovers and 21 rebounds, and them being at a casino right across the street or wherever it was had nothing to do with it. Q. What can you do, like they were blitzing Kyle [Lowry] and DeMar [DeRozan] so badly. What do you do to get the other guys -- DWANE CASEY: Spacing. We handled it the game here. They were doing the same thing. They were blitzing. We did a good job of handling it. For whatever reason, our timing was off. Our spacing was off. And when we did execute it and got a wide-open shot, some of the shots we didn't make, but we got wide open looks with two passes out of the double-team. You know, we got good looks, and we got to continue to do that. We've got to be disciplined. As soon as we see two bodies on the ball, get rid of it, passing it quicker is something we've got to do a better job of. It's nothing we haven't seen throughout the Playoffs, whether it was Miami with this group or even Indiana. So again, being alert for it, the timing of the passes, spacing, all those things is what we have done a good job of, and we've got to do a better job of tomorrow night. Q. I think some of those shots off the second pass were pretty open looks for DeMarre from three and he's really struggling from back there. Can you move other people around or is that the shot he's going to get? DWANE CASEY: No, the way they're rotating off of him, he's going to be the guy that's open. Possibly, possibly Cory, may be the guy that may be open, whoever that next guy is at the three-putt line. They're very random as far as who they come off of and rotate from, but they do it at a such a speed, and that's one of the best jobs they've done as far as rotating with force, with speed, and [LeBron] James is being like a free safety over there on the weak side. He's just taking off. But again, you can beat them with the pass. You can beat them with the pass, and we've got to be disciplined to do that. Q. That shot is not going to be like Patrick [Patterson] or Terrence Ross? DWANE CASEY: No, they're picking their poison. They understand what they're doing. Again, if we make one more pass or attack and make one more pass, we could possibly get that shot. But again, we've got to be disciplined to look for that. But again, the guys wide open, nobody near you, those are the shots we've got to make and knock them down. Q. Beyond the X's and O's, what at this point can you do to help these guys stay in it mentally? DWANE CASEY: Well, again, we've been here before. If you watched all of our series, we've been here before, and unfortunately in the Miami series we've been here, the Indiana series we've been here with our backs against the wall, and unfortunately and fortunately we bounced back in those situations. We're here at home. We've played well here at home. We are playing against one of the best teams in the NBA right now, and you know, our guys take solace from being at home, understanding we've been here before, and we can bounce back, and I have faith we will bounce back. Q. Do you have those conversations? DWANE CASEY: We just had it a while ago with the team in the team meeting. Q. Do you think the collectively immaturity or where you are in the process has held these guys back from taking advantage? DWANE CASEY: I don't know if it's held us back. I think this is new territory for our team, where we are, Conference Finals. We are ahead of a process right now. Nobody except for Cory, I think, has been to the Conference Finals as far as a player is concerned, and so that's new territory for us. But again, there's nothing new about competing, playing hard, hitting people, getting on the floor for loose balls, all the fundamentals that it takes place with force on the offensive end that you've done before can take -- can overcome the moment. But again, it is a new stage for us, and it's a great step for us. It's a great moment for us to learn from, to grow from, and a lot of teams have been here. I know we played Miami and had the three all-pro guys, [Chris] Bosh and [Dwyane] Wade and James. They were kind of in the same -- that was their first time together in that moment, and it was a big moment for them, and they grew from it, and that's what we've got to do, we've got to grow from this, and it starts tomorrow night. Q. Based on the creating better looks and shots that you were just talking about, how much can be expected realistically from [Jonas] Valanciunas tomorrow night helping with them? DWANE CASEY: We'll see. Again, getting the ball in the post will be a calming effect for us to throw it in. They're double teaming him, too, in the low post. They've got guys coming at him, so he's got to be able to make it out of the double-team as the guards do. We looked at that today. So again, he can quarterback out of the low post as well as score out of the low post, and it gives us a third option. Q. The most shots DeMar has taken in any game this year have been the two elimination games. Does that have to be the formula again tomorrow night? DWANE CASEY: Well, again, they've got to be quality shots. That's part of our issue. DeMar can be a quarterback at some times, and that's one of our issues as far as him kicking out of the double teams in a timely fashion before he gets clamped because they're just not going to let him get quality shots. They're a good defensive team, too, so they're going to send guys at him. But again, that's why he's got to beat them with the pass as well as his shot. He's got to take his scoring opportunities, but again, at the same time when they send the second defender to him, he's got to make a timely pass and on-target pass. Q. The 30 points last night off turnovers, how many turnovers were -- DWANE CASEY: That's a good question. I don't know exactly how many were live. I know they had 20 points off turnovers in the first half, 30 all together. We did a little bit better job in the second half. But again, a lot of those were live ball, and that's what they thrive off of. They thrive off of you getting a live ball turnover and then off to the races going down to the other end. That's why a lot of our defensive roles start with our offense, taking care of the ball, making solid passes in those situations. Q. When you looked at the film, was it bad passes out of the double, bad passes -- DWANE CASEY: It wasn't just all out of a double. Some of it was just handling the basketball, passing and catching, DHOs. Stuff that you say, whoa, where did that come from. I think we said in our last series, it was some uncharacteristic stuff. Again, like Doug [Smith] asked, well, I don't know if it's the moment. I know our guys are better than that. Their defense was good but it wasn't that good as far as some of the turnovers we had. We saved the ball one time under their basket, which we talk about that all the time, if you have to, throw it all the way to the other end. So some things that we can control that we can do a better job of, and I'm sure we will. Q. It was just announced Kyle Lowry made Third-Team All-NBA. Can you describe what that means? DWANE CASEY: That means a lot. We harp on the negatives of our program. We have a lot of positives going, a lot of growth. Over the years I think if someone had asked would Kyle Lowry be an all-pro player three years ago, four years ago when he came here, you would have said you're on something. So he's done a great job of being kind of the head of the snake here in Toronto. The motor, again, we're in the process of growing our program to be like the teams that are in the money every year, and that's what we're growing to. It doesn't happen overnight, and he's been a big part of that process. Q. Over the course of the Playoffs he's been probably asked about momentum and whether something will carry over dozens and dozens of times and it seems like the answer is always no. Are you surprised at how little carries over? DWANE CASEY: It does -- not in a seven-game series. You have too many good teams. You're talking about probably everybody -- they even put us down as other. So you're talking about one of the top teams in the league. There's nobody that's going to let you have momentum. I mean, you may have it for a little bit, but when you do have it, you've got to take advantage of it. We had it in the game here at home. I thought the game there we got off to a decent start, but then they got the momentum, they got a couple of live ball turnovers and kind of got them going. But again, when you get momentum in a game, you'd better take advantage of it because there's no -- it's not necessarily true that it's going to hold over to the next game. Q. Has there been a point in the Playoffs where maybe you thought because you had something figured out you were really surprised it didn't come the next game? DWANE CASEY: Well, the blitzes. I thought we had done a better job against the blitzes, and lo and behold they turned up the level a little bit of physicality or whatever their rotations were crisper, they clamped it harder. We held on it a little bit too long, and it got us. So there's different things that I thought -- Kevin Love getting going hurt us, and the third wheel to get going. You can do some things against LeBron James, you can do some things against Kyrie Irving to slow them down a little bit, but when you've got that third guy in there that you've got to possibly double-team, you're running all over the place. So we've got to do a better individual job on him and not let him get going. Q. The officiating got eclipsed because of the nature of that game yesterday. Are you concerned at all about the quality of how it's played out and what it's going to mean? DWANE CASEY: I've got two children that's got to go to college, and I'm not going to donate money from their college fund. Q. This Playoffs has seen as many games decided by five points as decided by 25 points, 17 of each. Why do you think there have been as many blowout games in the Playoffs where you're seeing top-tier teams competing -- DWANE CASEY: It's amazing. Again, we all are talking like this is crucial, this game is important, and I'm sure Golden State was saying the same thing, OKC was saying the same thing. It's a phenomenon. I don't know if it's, okay, we've got another one, but I think human nature when it comes down to your back is against the wall, you see the best come out of teams, and that's the psychology of being resilient. I think it's very important in a seven-game series. Again, you've got to take care of home and try to steal one on the road, and I think everybody goes into these seven-game series with that mentality. Q. How are teams able to get such wide margins? DWANE CASEY: That's -- again, you know, you get on -- like I said, in those games you do get momentum in a game, but again, it doesn't mean that you're going to get it the next game. You've seen it throughout the series, you've seen it with us. We get spanked, we got spanked by Miami and we bounced right back. The first two games up there we bounced back. I don't know if it carries over. I know it doesn't carry over to the next game, but I think it just snowballs as the game goes on. Guys mentally check out -- not check out but relax a little bit, and it snowballs. Q. Watching these games, you see a lot of players obviously that are dinged up, they get hurt. Given the amount of games that you're playing in such a short span, how would you characterize sort of the -- how near 100 percent all these teams are at this stage? DWANE CASEY: There's a lot of folks that are dinged up. We've got some guys that are dinged up. They've got some guys that are dinged up. But like I said, at this time of year that's no excuse. We all are tired. We've played every other day. But that's no excuse for this time of year. That's the price you pay for being one of the top four teams or in the final four. As you say, there's nobody that's 100 percent right now, but again, that's when the cream comes to the top. You play through it. You fight through it. Jonas, he's going to tell you he's 100 percent, but he's not the way he was in Game 3 with Miami. But right now there's nobody that's -- and I'm sure they have guys, too, that have some nicks and bumps. But this is the time of year you have to play through it. Q. I know you expect Cleveland to come in with a sense of urgency and prepare to win the game tomorrow night, but based on the outcome of tonight's game, maybe that could drive them even more to want to close out and make sure that they're on par with getting rest? DWANE CASEY: I could care less what they want to do. It's about the Toronto Raptors for me. It's about our approach, our mental approach, our physical approach, our intensity of the way we come out tomorrow night here at home. Q. When Kyle and DeMar get blitzed like that, now is Jonas more on them or on the other three guys on the court? DWANE CASEY: It's a five-man job. It's a five-man job. They have to be tied on a string, on a rope. If one guy falls asleep or doesn't get to what he wants to do, it kind of messes up everything. We've got to have a guy pulling behind, we've got to have the center, the big guy, to flash in, and what we call short roll, show his hands, be big, and come and meet the pass. There's a couple passes with our big guy that they stood there instead of coming and meeting it. So all these fundamentals that you've got to go through, and they're intensified. They're magnified right now. You're not in the right spot where a team has scouted you and they've got you -- understand what you're trying to do. If you make a mistake and don't get to your right spot -- and again, that comes from alertness. We did that in our game before last night, and that's what is surprising, that you can go from one game to the next and not execute. But then that's what the Playoffs are about. Q. Going into the postseason, you play more and more games. The fact they've played six less games, is there anything you can do to combat that? DWANE CASEY: No, again, we've both played every other day. We played two series, and that's on us, we went seven games and seven games. We had an opportunity to close out, to get rest. They did their job by closing out, sweeping two series, and we didn't. We had to battle longer. So that's on us. But we've played every other day just like they have. I don't think fatigue has anything to do with it whatsoever right now. Again, it's about us being in new territory, how bad do we want it, us understanding the moment, seizing the moment, making sure we take care of home, but home is not going to take care of you, you've got to take care of home with your intensity, your focus, attention to detail, because everybody is playing hard, but it's your attention to detail and doing the little things to make sure you execute against a very talented team. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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