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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS vs CELTICS

May 17, 2018

Tyronn Lue

Cleveland, Ohio: Practice Day

Q. I didn't see LeBron; is he here?
TYRONN LUE: Yeah, he's here.

Q. How's the neck?
TYRONN LUE: He said he's okay.

Q. Was he able to do things today?
TYRONN LUE: He did everything.

Q. He did practice and everything?
TYRONN LUE: Yeah.

Q. How do you expect things to be different now that you're home than in those first two games?
TYRONN LUE: Well, we've got to make it be different. Just because we're home, it doesn't mean that we're going to play well. We've got to come out and just take the game. I thought we did a good job of in that first half in Game 2, let it get away from us in the third quarter. We've got to put a full 48-minute game together, which I know we can. Our fans will probably be ready to go, and we'll be ready to go, also.

Q. What did you mean the other night when you said the Celtics were gooning the game up?
TYRONN LUE: Physicality. Nothing bad. I like it. But physicality, hard fouls, into our body, into our airspace, and they're just playing tough. It's not a bad thing to goon it up. Like taking hard fouls and being physical, they're playing playoff basketball. That's all I meant by it, nothing bad.

Q. What's it going to take for you guys to match that?
TYRONN LUE: Match it. Be physical -- just being physical. Don't let them run as freely. But I thought we did it for spurts, but we've got to do it for a full 48 minutes.

Q. Is there any lesson you learned from Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals where Houston didn't do anything drastically different from Game 1 to Game 2, just played better?
TYRONN LUE: Exactly, yeah, and we've got to do the same thing, which I know we can. I'm confident that we can. These three days we really get a chance to do some different things and try to incorporate some things and do things better.

Q. You'd obviously rather be up 2-0. Because you have guys here who have been down 2-0 before and 3-1 before, is there some comfort in that?
TYRONN LUE: Never comfort, but I mean --

Q. That may be the wrong word.
TYRONN LUE: We know what it takes. They won two games on their home floor. They've been playing well all Playoffs, they're 9-0 on their floor. We understand that, but now we've got to come home and take care of our business on our home floor. We're ready to do that.

Q. When you watched film, was there a common thread that you did not do well in both games?
TYRONN LUE: I think in Game 2, we started off the first half playing the right way. Had a couple turnovers down the stretch of the half that we didn't really want. Then we took some bad stuff. I thought we rushed shots and we got down six or seven, and we started playing like we were behind 25. I mean, six, seven-point game in the Playoffs is nothing, and we've just got to take better shots going down the stretch.

Q. Tristan was really critical of your defense in the second half. Was it as bad as he made it sound?
TYRONN LUE: I mean, they shot 43 percent from the field, which we like, 34 percent, 35 from three, so I just thought they got a lot of points off our turnovers. We've got to take care of the basketball. Make them play against our half-court defense, and our half-court defense was pretty good.

Q. LeBron was so important against Indiana and was so good in that series. What is it that he's not doing in this series or he's not able to do in this series that he was in the previous one?
TYRONN LUE: Just need him to play with more pace. I think miss or make, get the ball fast, get in to our double drags, flow in transition, and he'll be fine. Sometimes attacking the switches when they're trying to switch bigger guys on to him, being aggressive attacking the basket. He'll be fine.

Q. This is an unusual amount of time between games. Do you look at that where they're going to let this fester for three days, or is this a good break?
TYRONN LUE: It's a good break. I think it's a good break for us to take advantage of, showing the things on tape that we need to get better at and the things we need to take away. There's just a lot of things like communication-wise. We had like seven, eight, nine breakdowns where we just didn't communicate. We showed that today, just take away those easy baskets, things we can avoid, and those guys saw that, and then incorporate a couple other things.

Q. Can you talk about some of the guys that came off the bench for you the other night and how they performed?
TYRONN LUE: I thought Larry [Nance Jr.] did a good job in his minutes he played. [Kyle] Korver came off the bench, gave us a good spark I thought early on in that first half with his movement and his shot-making ability, so we'll see.

Q. Is there anything you as a coaching staff can do to change the course of the series?
TYRONN LUE: Put our guys in position to be more aggressive. I think we have chances to do that, but we've got to just attack more. I think they're good at guarding the perimeter, but when you catch it on double teams or swing-swing, catch it and go, put it on the floor, being aggressive, attacking. We've got to do a better job of that.

Q. The beginning of the second quarter and I think again in the fourth quarter you didn't have Kevin or LeBron on the floor? What's the thought process there?
TYRONN LUE: Well, the second quarter I thought that group did a good job. They increased the lead actually, but in the fourth quarter I wanted to start Bron, but he said he needed a rest, so it kind of messed our rotation up a little bit. I wanted him to play him that first two or three minutes of that fourth quarter, get Kevin back, give him a rest, but he said he needed a rest, so that's what it was.

Q. What about JR [Smith]? what do you have to do to get him going?
TYRONN LUE: JR [has to] take his open shots, I think be aggressive. When he catches it, drive and attack and take his shot. He's not really getting a lot of rhythm shots. I think they're doing a good job of getting to him. I think in transition they're getting to him. We've just got to find ways just to keep him getting shots and being aggressive.

Q. LeBron said the other night he needed a break, and knowing how much burden he carries, and how much intensity he has to spend for you guys, is that going to cause you to stagger Kevin and LeBron moving forward?
TYRONN LUE: Well, we usually try to stagger them, but the game kind of got away from us a little bit. They kind of caught a groove towards the end of that third quarter. Hopefully we could have rode it out and then tried to bring Bron back to start the fourth quarter, but he said he needed a break.

Q. Kind of along those lines, the first quarter obviously can dictate the lineup to start the second. Was the plan all along to start those guys in the second or did something happen in the first quarter where they both had to sit to start the second?
TYRONN LUE: I'm not going to tell you that. Something happened a little bit. But we'll be better at it next time.

Q. The plan was for LeBron or Kevin to be on the floor?
TYRONN LUE: Yes, sir.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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