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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS VS CAVALIERS

May 25, 2017

Brad Stevens

Boston, Massachusetts: Postgame

Q. Brad, bottom line, did your team just go as far as it possibly could have without Isaiah and the fact that you're playing the defending champions?
BRAD STEVENS: I think as a coach, you always believe you can win the next game because you believe you can win the next possession. I thought we played a little too haphazard tonight. I didn't think it was a lack of effort at the beginning, but our offensive mistakes led to bad defense, and it just kind of snowballed on us. It's a good step forward as a season as a whole, but I leave with a little bit of a taste in your mouth -- like not playing as well here, and man, you want to play well here because there is really no place like TD Garden in Boston. When the fans at the end of the game were -- man, it's just amazing. And so, as I told our guys, we made a lot of great strides, but this pain is part of the path to what we ultimately want to be.

Q. You know every summer there's roster turnover. How difficult is that going to be with the group you had this year, considering what you guys have built, and just how things went there?
BRAD STEVENS: It's difficult every year whenever you don't have guys back. I think you share a bond. I think we had our first practice eight months ago tomorrow. We've been together pretty much for eight straight months. There's a lot of bond that's created with that, especially on a team that has some success. I appreciated everybody's accountability. I appreciated everybody's approach. I thought those things were huge in helping us all achieve together. So when you have a team like that, you're going to miss the guys that aren't back, whoever that may be. And those are great things and lessons for the guys that are to take forward with them.

Q. Just the series as a whole, looking back on it, do you feel like you'll be able to gauge what you guys are compared to the Cavs without Isaiah? And was it discouraging how it went down in those first two games, or will you look more at the fight in Games 3 and 4?
BRAD STEVENS: I'll probably be discouraged with how we played in a couple of these home games. But I do think that, again, I don't think you should have any excuses with who's available and who's not. You've just got to go and play to the best of your ability. They were great again tonight, so again, you don't want to take anything away from them. As crazy as it sounds, going into halftime, we had cut it to at least a manageable number. And then we come out, we get some tremendous looks, and Kyrie just goes nuts and ends us. That's basically what happened.

And those were really tough shots. He hit some tough ones the other night, but those at the start of the third quarter were incredible.

But hey, this is just great learning for all of us of how far we have to go.

Q. You've talked all season long about how these guys play with chips on their shoulders and backs against the wall. They always respond. Throughout this playoffs they did the same thing. How proud are you of this group?
BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, I liked coaching this group a lot. I liked being around this group a lot. I appreciate what each guy has brought to the table, however long their tenure has been. I don't think you can always say that, to go all the way down the roster and say you appreciate each guy and each guy got better, which I'm really excited about. So that's our task. We've got a long way to go. We had a great year. In some ways, we made a run at it. We made progress, but not good enough. And you know, I've said this before, if you coach in Boston, good enough is what matters.

Q. From this series, what do you want the players to take into the summer? I mean, it seemed like they were a little ways away, obviously, from elite. What do you want each individual player to take away?
BRAD STEVENS: Well, I think collectively you take away what elite looks like, because I think we saw it first hand, especially in these home games. We'll see how they match up against Golden State and how that goes. But then individually, there's room for improvement on everybody. We got some outstanding performances. We got some throughout the year, and we really had a lot of guys progress well. But they've got to keep making that progress. I think that starts with they've got to take some time to rest. But then it's a holistic commitment. It's the way you eat; it's the way you sleep; it's the way you treat your body in the offseason; it's how hard you work at the little things you need to do better. But more importantly, it's what you do best, perfecting those things.

We'll come up with a game plan for each guy, communicate that appropriately, whether they decide to stay here and work out with our coaches or go on and work out wherever. When they come back, the expectation is everybody is a little bit better. And that goes for me and the rest of the coaches, too. I don't think anybody in there is satisfied, which is a good thing.

Q. Do you feel overall besides winning a title that you guys met all of your objectives for the season?
BRAD STEVENS: I don't have any objectives other than winning the whole thing. To me, that's the only goal you shoot for because then if you don't, if you put your goals lower, then you create a ceiling for your team, and I don't think that's fair to your team. And then the second part is that just allows you to focus on what's important, and that's the day-to-day work.

The other thing that I'd say about this team is they're fully committed to getting better every day, and that's a good thing. That's hard to do. So those character traits are going to be important moving forward, that they continue to be passed on from the guys that are in that locker room.

Q. How do you balance the affinity and affection and administration you have for the guys that are currently on your team and how hard they've worked with sort of the reality of the NBA, such a talent-driven league, and those are superstars, All-Stars, on those rosters?
BRAD STEVENS: And every year you're going to lose guys. Whether the guys in our locker room are on our team next year or not, I'll have a great affinity for them. Same thing with the guys that have been here in the past. But I think we've got a good amount of people that will be back and obviously a strong core with also some exciting opportunities in the draft. I mean, it's pretty cool to think about that in three weeks you've got the No. 1 pick in the draft. It means that I've got to go straight to work tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to watching some of these prospects.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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