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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS VS CAVALIERS

May 25, 2017

Brad Stevens

Boston, Massachusetts: Pregame

Q. Brad, I was wondering if you sense with Isaiah out if Avery has become more of a leader, and what kind of leader is Avery?
BRAD STEVENS: Avery has been like a lot of our guys. I think the number one quality of leadership is setting an example and being authentic. I guess that's two qualities, but I think he's great at both of those things. He works really hard. He prepares the right way. And you know, Avery is not a very loud guy. But a lot like Horford when he speaks, his words carry a lot of weight. And he's had a great postseason and season all the way around. I can't say that I've noticed any difference in his leadership. I'd say that's just been a pretty consistent thing all the way throughout the year.

Q. Ty Lue is talking a lot about the adjustments you guys have made without Isaiah. How much of a challenge has that been with you to sort of recreate things on the fly?
BRAD STEVENS: Well, obviously you play a lot of minutes throughout the course of the year without him on the floor, so these are not things that are complete overhauls. These are just things that you really have to emphasize. Playing through the post more. You have to emphasize playing through our bigs and the seams more. You have to emphasize more cutting and movement than pick-and-roll probably.

I thought them putting LeBron on Smart and switching those pick-and-rolls took some of our movement away. We did a really good job in the first half even with that, so we'll have to be a little bit more crisp throughout the full 48 minutes. But they make it tough. It's hard to get a good shot every time down the floor, so we have to make sure we play to our strengths. Without IT on the floor, a lot of our strengths are playing through movement and post cuts.

Q. What's Jaylen's situation?
BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, so Jaylen went through our shootaround and winced a little bit here and there, but told me that he's good to go. Unless he goes through shooting and just comes back and says no, then right now he's good to go.

Q. And Amir?
BRAD STEVENS: Amir is fine. He's ready to go. It turned out he could have played the last game. But one day off of that thing, I was pretty hesitant to put him in.

Q. After the game you guys talked about the defensive problems. I was just wondering, given that Kyrie and LeBron had such great games, what were you seeing that might be an adjustment?
BRAD STEVENS: The fact of the matter is those guys are problems. We've got to show as much help as we can on both of those guys when they're in isolation. We've got to do a great job in our pick-and-roll coverages on both of those guys, and we guard them both differently by plan. That's easier said than done because of the threat of the other guys around them. Again, when that weak side is Thompson kind of roving the dunker- to-the-block area, below the block on the baseline, and Korver and Love are spotted up, it's easier said than done.

Q. When they go to that switching defense like they did in the second half --
BRAD STEVENS: They did it the whole game. I thought they did it most of the game. But yeah, go ahead.

Q. Are you telling your guys, IT is not there to -- hey, no matter what your matchup is you've got to crack these guys off the dribble, you've got to get the balls to the paint?
BRAD STEVENS: I don't think necessarily crack them off the dribble, depending on the matchup. I think that certainly in some matchups, yes. But we've got to attack the paint via the roll, the drive and the post-up, and I think that that's what's on our board. That's what we're talking about.

We did a great job in the first half of slipping some of those screens, which are hard to switch, as you know, and getting to the rim. That created some possessions where we were able to kick out. We were more purposeful getting the ball into the paint via the pass and the post in the third quarter, fourth quarter of Game 3 and the first half Game 4; not as good in the second half. When we're turning the ball over like we did in the third and fourth quarter the other night, that's a bad sign.

Q. Have you had any interaction with Isaiah over the last couple days? Do you have any update on his hip situation?
BRAD STEVENS: He's on his way in right now. He'll be here, obviously, and I have talked to him a couple times via phone maybe and a lot via text. I don't have an update. It sounds to me like the course of action right now is, like a lot of other injuries prior to deciding on a course of action, is to let the inflammation calm down a little bit.

Q. Have you talked to him at all about kind of what you guys were able to do out in Cleveland and give him some advice or thoughts?
BRAD STEVENS: He's been really good about being encouraging via text and everything else. But, no, I haven't talked to him about necessarily adjustments or anything like that.

Q. Just got to ask, same starting lineup tonight or any changes?
BRAD STEVENS: Same.

Q. You guys have been in a lot of big games over the course of the season. Just tonight the approach, what you feel from your guys as you start tonight?
BRAD STEVENS: You know, like before, I thought when we got in the film session yesterday, we were still stinging a little bit from the night before. When we got on the court today, we were just like we'd been before every other game. These guys are good about turning around, figuring out what we can do a little bit better. I think the other night, as we go back and look at how we could play better throughout a full 48, it's playing more purposeful offense all the way through, as we've talked about. And then doing our best to stymie those runs and providing the right amount of help, which again is a quandary they put you in.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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