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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS vs CELTICS

May 17, 2018

Jaylen Brown

Cleveland, Ohio: Practice Day

Q. There's a lot of talk just in the national media right now that you guys have not been able to get it done much on the road during the postseason. What's your reaction to that, and why do you think you guys can get it done on the road?
JAYLEN BROWN: My reaction is I can't wait for Game 3, and I'll just leave it at that.

Q. How confident are you guys going on the road?
JAYLEN BROWN: I think we're pretty confident, just as confident as we were at home. There's a difference definitely between being on the road and at home, just the energy disparity. At home the energy is for you, away it's against you. But if you do what you're supposed to do and you are who you are, it'll show, home or away.

Q. That being said, you've won games on the road during the regular season, you've won some in the postseason. With as good as you guys have played, how do you get your game to travel?
JAYLEN BROWN: I think confidence. I think focus level, mentality, all of the above. I think we've gotten better as the Playoffs have went on. We didn't get a road against game Milwaukee, but we got one against a good team in Philly, and we just needed to see one go in. Sometimes you've got to see one go in, and you feel better about yourself. So we're going into Cleveland feeling good.

Q. You guys had the third most road wins in the entire league during the regular season. What was it that led to that success for you guys?
JAYLEN BROWN: That's who we are. It wasn't Monday or Tuesday or Tuesday through Friday. Every day we brought our hard hat defensively. Every game of the season we tried to keep that same level of consistency, and I think that's why we led the regular season in away victories.

Q. How has Terry [Rozier] stepped up into his role, increased minutes and everything?
JAYLEN BROWN: He's done a great job. Next man up, Terry stepped in, and he's evolving. Undoubtedly, he came in with a killer-like confidence, and he's shown that he can play with anybody in this league.

Q. LeBron was having a big first quarter the other day. How much did it give you and the team confidence that you were able to match him shot for shot and propel you guys the rest of the game?
JAYLEN BROWN: Yeah, we tried to match his play. He came out, and sometimes you can get discouraged when you see that level of greatness. But as long as we just keep fighting and throwing punches, in the end, we were still on top, so it was good.

Q. Is there anything the coaches did to kind of help in that way, like what they said as that first quarter was going on or anything Brad [Stevens] did in particular that just kind of got you through weathering that storm as he described it?
JAYLEN BROWN: Brad said stay the course. Brad told us to keep being aggressive, but some of that stuff you can't measure being out there, like seeing that, LeBron playing at his ultimate form, know what I mean, the amount of threes he was hitting and the way he was doing it. It's hard to coach for that. But we stepped up, some players really stepped up, and as we got activated, we did really good.

Q. How do you describe playing for Brad?
JAYLEN BROWN: It's amazing. I mean, he's a great coach. He brings -- his preparation level is very high every game. You can see his focus level, he knows the game. His staff knows the game. When it comes to ATOs and drawing plays up, we feel like he puts everybody in the right position to score and to be successful. We've got a bunch of young guys that don't have egos, and we just want to win and play hard and have fun. He can do whatever he wants.

Q. Is it a point of emphasis for you to start the game strong?
JAYLEN BROWN: An emphasis from --

Q. For you to get out strong offensively?
JAYLEN BROWN: For me or --

Q. Either or.
JAYLEN BROWN: I think I've just been playing ball. I don't think it's been a point of emphasis for me to come out hot. I just think just my aggression, just trying to hit first rather than getting hit first. I think this coaching staff definitely has relayed that message. We can't come out and get punched in the mouth. I definitely want to be one of the players and spark our team to come out and just take the fight to them.

Q. At the other end of the court you seem to be applying more pressure deep into the perimeter, like three feet beyond the three-point line, then you did all season. What's driving that?
JAYLEN BROWN: Confidence, I think. The more experience you go through and the more time you spend on the floor and the more situations you see, the more confident I've gotten. I'm a pretty confident guy, but I feel like during this postseason my confidence has reached a new ceiling, and it's just going up and up as we speak. I don't really feel like there's nothing I can't do on the floor, just a matter of doing it.

Q. Is it good to have this much of a layoff before Game 3?
JAYLEN BROWN: I mean, it could be, or it might not be. We'll see Game 3.

Q. How much of a challenge is it when the Celtics have such a balanced scoring attack? How difficult is it for teams to defend you guys?
JAYLEN BROWN: It's tough. We play team ball. We've got a lot of guys who can really fill it up, and when we all are clicking on all cylinders, it's really, really hard for us to be beat.

Q. You talked about LeBron's greatness. I know you respect his greatness, but it doesn't seem like you ever get discouraged. You would never be a person that would get discouraged by that type of match-up personally.
JAYLEN BROWN: Why should I? The stage is set for all of us to do something spectacular. LeBron has been to The Finals [seven] straight times. He's a great player. But we want to win, and we want to be the team that does win it and gets to The Finals. We've got a bunch of young guys trying to make names for themselves in this league. Why not come out and play hard? Everybody says we're playing with house money anyway, so why not come out with the energy level that we need and try to do something special.

Q. How do you keep your wits about you late in the game, 20,000 people cheering? How do you not get stressed out?
JAYLEN BROWN: Just breathe, man. Just take every breath, relax, separate what's real and what's not, come out and do what you got to do, let the chips fall where they may.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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