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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v WARRIORS

June 2, 2016

Tyronn Lue

Oakland, California: Game One

Q. Did you learn anything from last year's Finals being an assistant coach of the team? And this time a different way as a coach. Did you learn anything from the last Finals that you can apply to this series now with the Golden State Warriors?
COACH LUE: Well, this year we're a different team. I think having Kyrie and Kevin back with the additions of Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson, we're a totally different team. So defensively we're going to do some different things. Last year to this year, it's totally different.

Q. I'm just wondering, Delly had a lot of success with Steph last year in The Finals in containing him. How much of a role do you think he'll have in this series, considering Kyrie's back?
COACH LUE: Well, everyone's going to have a role trying to guard Curry. He's a tough player, and we know he makes this team go. So going to have an opportunity to guard him, as far as blitzes and doing different things, different rotations. It won't be just Delly and Kyrie. Everybody has to be locked in and focused on Steph.

Q. Coach, you've talked a lot about pace. It's been a big part of what you've tried to do. Tell me about what kind of pace you want and what you're looking for against the Warriors who also play with a lot of pace.
COACH LUE: Well, we're going to play our game. We want to get out early in transition, push the pace, try to get easy baskets. With LeBron and Kyrie driving to the basket and kicking off open threes that we have. But we don't want to play in a hurry. We want to make sure we're taking good shots. And if we don't have early offense and early transition, backing the ball up and running some offense.

Q. LeBron spoke about the notion that this is not guaranteed for a group, even though you have the second highest payroll in NBA history, and you led the East throughout the regular season. Did you have to stress that as a group? Was there any element of overconfidence at any point? Can you reflect on that now that you guys actually did make The Finals?
COACH LUE: You said no guarantee as far as what?

Q. (No Microphone)?
COACH LUE: Oh, well, you know, it was funny because people were talking about having been through adversity, and, I mean, we've been through adversity all season, and I thought our guys did a great job of just coming together and understanding we have one common goal to start the season, and throughout that we had a lot of bumps in the road and a lot of things that happened.

But this team's prepared for this. I think they're eager for it. Kevin and Kyrie not being a part of The Finals last year, and they're excited and anxious. So now that we're here, we're ready to perform.

Q. Ty, do you on the eve of Game 1 or today, do you stay hyper focused on what you have to do Xs and O's-wise when you talk to your guys? Or do you take a step back and talk about the gravity of the moment and that sort of thing?
COACH LUE: I think you talk about X's and O's, I think of playing the right way. I think we want to push the pace, but also be able to take good shots when we're doing that. We don't want to play fast and just jack up bad shots.

So on the defensive end, we've just got to stay aware. I think our awareness is very important and very key for this series of just being aware of where Steph and Klay are at all times because they move on the offensive rebounds. They move on loose balls. So you always constantly got to be aware of where they're at on the floor. So a big key for this series is awareness.

Q. How comfortable are you to get into a running game with Golden State? You've been talking about playing faster since you took over, but that's sort of their area of expertise, I guess.
COACH LUE: Well, we're not going to shy away from what we do. I mean, we made it this far by playing the way we play. As I said before, we want to -- on missed shots and chances that we have an opportunity to get out and run, we want to get out and run and get easy baskets. We know they're a great half court defensive team. So we want to push the ball and get out early, ease in transition baskets. If we don't have it early in transition, we have to pull out and run offense, and get into our sets. So we understand we want to come up and jack up threes all game, but we want to play our game and take our shots when we have them. If not, we have to run offense.

Q. Coach, I imagine you're getting calls probably everywhere. Is there a call by somebody who stood out to you in advance of this game or a coach that you played for or worked with?
COACH LUE: Yeah, Doc called me yesterday and we had a talk. It was a good talk. Just Doc being Doc. He's always been there, like I always said. Him and Jerry West have really been there to support me anytime I needed advice or want to talk about anything. So it was just great getting his phone call. We had a good talk.

Q. Are you surprised at the level of the (No Microphone)? Is this the team you envisioned when you took over as the head coach?
COACH LUE: Yeah, playing the right way. Having a defensive mindset. Sharing the basketball. Hitting open guys, and we're finally to that point. I think it's fun playing that way, and our team enjoys it.

Q. Coach Kerr said he prefers not to have long layoffs between series. Do you find it to be an advantage that you guys were able to get through the East pretty quickly and they had to come off a really emotional and physical series with the Thunder?
COACH LUE: I tell you, it was funny talking to our coaching staff yesterday, I said I was glad we lost two games against Toronto. Only giving us four or five days off was really good for us because I couldn't get them to do anything. They were so anxious and ready to play. I said if we would have swept, they would have been off 10, 11 days and it would have been hard to try to get these guys to do the same defensive drills over and over again, to continue to condition every day with our strength coach, with D. Mill (Derek Millender) and Alex (Moore). I was glad we were able to take care of them in six and play two extra games to kind of prolong the series so we wouldn't have to sweep and then be off 10 or 11 days.

Q. How do you keep the guys focused in a situation against the Warriors in which they can make those runs and destroy a lead in a short amount of time? From a coaching standpoint, how do you keep guys focused and buying into the process and not losing their cool?
COACH LUE: We've just got to stay poised. We know they're going to make runs. They're the best offensive team in the NBA. They have two deadly shooters. And we know they're going to make shots and going to make runs.

We've just got to stay with it. Our team knows that. We just can't hang our heads when they do make a run. We have to come down, with good offense, and try to get a basket to stop the bleeding.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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