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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS VS CAVALIERS

May 23, 2017

Brad Stevens

Boston, Massachusetts: Postgame

Cavaliers - 112, Celtics - 99

Q. How do you explain the difference in the halves, getting outscored by 23 in the second half of this one?
BRAD STEVENS: Kyrie Irving and LeBron James would be the two answers. They were unbelievable. Irving was incredible at the end of the third, and then obviously LeBron had all those baskets in the fourth. I thought that we played, you know, as well as we've played maybe the entire Playoffs in the first half. We were really good defensively. Offensively I thought we moved and cut and played together, and then for whatever reason, all those things became a little bit more difficult. But that's what great teams do. They make it really hard on you.

As we all know, a 10-point lead at halftime is nothing, especially against those guys. But they deserve a lot of credit. Those two guys were incredible.

Q. Did you feel like it was a missed opportunity at all when you have LeBron on the bench in an unusual situation for seven minutes and you didn't extend the lead, and what did Kyrie do --
BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, David Aldridge asked me that on the way back out on the court. They still have two All-Stars out on the court. With the best player in the world they go to unreal, but they're still a pretty darned good team when those guys are out there. Irving, again, end of the second and end of the third did some pretty incredible things with the ball. We had really good athletes, quick guys that make things tough on people guarding him, and he was able to raise up and make a lot of tough shots. He was able to get by us and make tough shots in the paint. Again, sometimes I think that -- I'll go look at it and see all the things that we did wrong, but I think it's more of a tip-your-hat kind of thing with those two guys tonight.

Q. What are the positives maybe or the takeaways you're going to take back to Boston? You come here, 1-1, and you're going home?
BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, I mean, I think at the end of the day, we put together a lot of good basketball here. We didn't put enough of it together tonight to win the game. As they were scoring and they were making all those incredible plays, I thought we had -- I mean, what did we have, three turnovers at halftime, we had nine in the second half? That's a killer for us. We can't turn the ball over that much because it leads to points.

But again, I thought we played as well as we've played in the first on that end of the floor, certainly in the last couple of games, and we know that we have a small margin, but we know that if we play the next play the right way, we've got a chance to win that possession. You know, you just try to add those up to win the game, and again, I thought our guys did a lot of good things. I'll go back and look again, and we'll be -- we'll figure out what we need to get better at.

Q. You attributed to Irving and LeBron hitting shots, but when Irving gets in that kind of zone, is there something you can do? One-on-one he's wearing everybody out.
BRAD STEVENS: Well, I thought we could have done a better job of helping on the paint touch, like being over and showing ourselves a little bit. But you've got Korver standing over there for a lot of that. You've got Love standing out there, you've got the different shooters, J.R. Smith and obviously LeBron. So yeah, there's choices. I'm not sure there's right choices because they expose you any which way you go. But when he gets going like that -- the ones that we'll have to go back and look at are the ones he got at the rim because those are the ones that we got to be able to get to the threat of the rim attack quicker.

Q. Last game you caught them in a momentum shift and you rode it and made the plays down the stretch. Tonight did it almost show more about your guys because the Cavaliers knew what was coming and you guys were still able to do what you do?
BRAD STEVENS: We played really well in the first half. I thought when they came out of the gates in the third quarter we obviously knew that we were going to have to weather that storm, and I thought initially we did. But you know, we were going to have to play both halves equally well. They were really good, and again, when you have Irving doing what he's doing, obviously, again, we'll go back and look at what we can do different, but yeah, I mean, I thought we got a good shot from them and played pretty well for most of the game. But that stings when you can't pull those out.

Q. I just wanted to ask you, you're tipping the cap to them, obviously, but they shot better than 70 percent in the second half. Is that just all them? It was that kind of night for them?
BRAD STEVENS: No, I think, like I said, the ones that I'm most concerned about are the ones at the rim. I just didn't think we reacted to the rim threat enough, both -- I remember vividly a LeBron going down the middle and dunking. Irving had multiple when he got to the rim, and we were either late or didn't provide enough resistance for him to miss. And then there were a couple where we did and he made it.

But you know, again, we'll go back and we'll look at it. Figure out which ones we can do better.

Q. How is Jae feeling right now and that strained thigh?
BRAD STEVENS: Jae Crowder?

Q. Yeah.
BRAD STEVENS: He has not said anything to me about it. I mean, I thought he played -- obviously he shot the heck out of it in the first, and it's a hard night when you've got to guard that guy all night.

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