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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v WARRIORS

June 3, 2016

Tyronn Lue

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. OKC caused a lot of trouble for the Warriors because of their length and speed. So would you consider using a combination of more bigs on the court instead of small lineups, and what is the key for your guys to bounce back in Game 2?
COACH LUE: Just have to see the matchups and see how the flow of the game's going. You can go into the game with a game plan, but the game dictates who you play and how you play. I thought we did some good things in Game 1, like I said before after the game.

Game 2 will be different. We've got to make a couple adjustments and do a few things better. But overall, if you have a chance to hold Steph and Klay to 20 points combined in a game like this, and outrebounding this team and also getting to the free-throw line double the times they got to the free-throw line, those are some good things that we did. So we've just got to build off of that.

Q. Tyronn, what is your view of J.R. getting only two shots when it was still a game? Was it his defense against Klay took a lot out of him? Was the ball just not finding him or what?
COACH LUE: The ball wasn't finding him I don't think. But also if we don't play fast and get the ball up the floor and play with pace, J.R. suffers the most from that. This team was switching out on pin-downs and switching 1 through 5 when they go with that small lineup. It makes it tough for J.R. to get shots. So we have to play faster and we do also have to involve J.R.

Q. This will probably evolve into a two-parter, but what did you think now that you've seen the film? What did you think of LeBron last night?
COACH LUE: I thought we tried to take advantage of some mismatches. They tried to switch smaller guys onto him, and they came right away off a live cutter. Sometimes Bogut came and he made the necessary passes. I thought we got the mismatches we wanted. He drove to the basket. And they stripped him about four or five times, getting to the basket, getting to the rim.

But overall I just told LeBron I need him to play faster. I need him to pick up the pace for us offensively, getting the ball out and just beginning to play faster.

Q. This is two Finals now that we've been talking about the Iguodala matchup with LeBron. When Iggy kind of switched onto him, I think LeBron was four or five, and then he was 5 of 16 for the rest of the game. Does LeBron have a difficult time with him, or what has been going on with that?
COACH LUE: Well, I don't think Iguodala's guarding him. I just think they're switching a lot. They're switching 1 through 5, and when LeBron gets the ball in the post, they're coming to double team. Also, when he gets the mismatch and he drives the basketball, they're all collapsing. And we've got to make open threes. They're trying to do a good job of running us off the line, making us take twos. But I wouldn't say it's an Iguodala matchup. I mean, it's the whole team.

Q. Forgive me if somebody already asked you this question, but the bench last night for you guys, from your standpoint, Channing Frye played very minimum last night. What was your approach in how bench minutes were distributed yesterday?
COACH LUE: What was my approach?

Q. Yeah, what was the rationale for your bench?
COACH LUE: We just played our bench the way we played them outside of Channing. I thought the matchup was kind of hard. When we went from Channing and LeBron in that four and five lineup, they went small. But Channing's a big part of what we do, so I have to find a way to keep him on the floor.

Q. So it's not necessarily that it's a bad matchup against the Warriors, it's just the personnel they had in at the time?
COACH LUE: Yes.

Q. Coach, you mentioned more, I guess, pace for the offense. Would that include a little bit more ball movement for this team, or did you get the ball movement you were looking for in Game 1?
COACH LUE: Pace, so we can get up the floor and get guys open shots in transition like J.R. and Kevin and Channing and those guys. But I think the floor's more open when you're able to play with pace and LeBron and Kyrie can get downhill. Ball movement, we're running our sets. When you're switching 1 through 5, it makes you stagnant. It makes you play one-on-one. So the best thing you can do is try to get the matchup you want and try to explore it.

Q. You mentioned Channing, you mentioned the double teams. Is he a way to better take advantage of the double teams and the loading up on LeBron? Is that sort of a solution to that issue?
COACH LUE: Yes, have to get more shooting out on the floor to try to keep those guys at home on the defensive end. They do a good job of having a guy guard a ball and four guys are in the paint. So Channing will give us some spacing out on the floor, and just defensively we've got to be able to make sure we have them on the right matchup.

Q. You mentioned last night how many shots you missed in the paint, and I think maybe at the rim you were not as proficient or efficient as you normally are. After watching the film, what did you see with those shots and why didn't they fall?
COACH LUE: It's funny, we showed the team that today. Just we're right there, we got into the paint. We got stripped five or six times with LeBron and Kyrie getting to the basket. We missed nine-point-blank lay-ups when no one was around. We've got to be able to finish those shots around the basket. When Bogut goes to the bench, they don't have any shot blocking. So we were able to get the shots we wanted to in the paint, and we've just got to make them.

Q. Having played in The Finals, coached in The Finals, so many people want you to change what you're doing or react to every little thing in every single game. How much of you has to resist that knowing that you got here a certain way and you have to kind of stick to how you got here?
COACH LUE: I don't see a reason for change. I think the way they play defense, they switch 1 through 5, and it makes you play one-on-one basketball. So your movement with floppy stuff coming off of pin-downs, they just switch out and try to deny those passes. And then you've got to post Kevin, you've got to post LeBron against those mismatches. So I don't see any reason for change. We've just got to convert.

Q. Before the game you were talking about we have to play our game. Looking back in Game 1, do you feel like you played your game?
COACH LUE: No, I don't think we played fast enough. I don't think we pushed the pace and were aggressive attacking in transition. I think in the third quarter you saw when we were able to get stops and get out in transition, that really opened the game up for us and we were able to go from a nine-point deficit to going up three points by playing faster and being more aggressive in transition.

Q. You mentioned earlier that you told LeBron that you need him to play faster. Can you give us an example or two of what you mean by that?
COACH LUE: I can't remember in a Playoff series. I think it was in the third quarter. I can't remember if it was Atlanta or Toronto. But when he came out in the third quarter and really just pushed the tempo on misses and makes and just being aggressive of getting the ball up the court faster and playing with more speed and more pace, and I think that opened up the game for a lot of our other guys.

When we're playing that way, we're a lot better. Like I said, we're playing against a half-court defense, they're switching 1 through 5, they make you stagnant and make you play one-on-one basketball because that's all you can get. So if we pick up the pace and play with a faster tempo offensively, I think we'll be fine.

Q. So if the intent was to play with the normal pace you've played in these Playoffs, what happened? Why didn't the pace stay where it's been?
COACH LUE: Well, I think because they shot 53%, I think, in the first half. So when they're making shots, it's hard to get out and run. But on misses and makes, we've got to get the ball in faster and try to play with more pace. When they're missing shots and they're turning the ball over and we're getting deflections, we can definitely get out and run and attack this team.

Q. Just to follow up on the isolation again. There have been times in this postseason where you said you wanted to go iso. Was last night an instance where you wanted to play isolation or did it happen too much?
COACH LUE: You have to play iso. If you're switching 1 through 5, run pick-and-rolls, they're not going to put two on the ball. They're going to switch it. If you post up, they're coming to double team. So if you run floppy actions and J.R. is coming off pin-downs or switching out, so it leads you to play one-on-one. I thought we had the matchups we wanted when smaller guys switching onto LeBron, smaller guys are switching onto Kevin. Now we have to take advantage of it, getting to our spots, getting to our spacing, and take advantage of the junked-up defense.

Q. So you didn't feel after watching the film you didn't feel like you guys played too much iso?
COACH LUE: No, I didn't think we played too much. I thought we went to the matchups we had, where they switched and they had a disadvantage. We posted the ball with LeBron and Kevin, and now we have to make them pay for when they come and double team.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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