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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS vs CELTICS

May 18, 2018

Kyle Korver

Cleveland, Ohio: Practice Day

Q. What are they doing defensively to make it so difficult to get good looks?
KYLE KORVER: You know, I think they just have a lot of versatile pieces. They're doing a lot of switching. They're loading up on LeBron but they're not double teaming, so like everything is -- it appears kind of open, but there's nothing that's wide open for us. They're playing really hard. They're only giving us one chance. They're just playing really solid, and we've just been too up and down.

Q. How do you combat that?
KYLE KORVER: We just have to be more consistent with our energy. I think the biggest thing is we can't get frustrated when things don't go the way we want them to. It's been a challenge for us all year. We've got to stay positive. I think being at home will help, having the home crowd behind us. We have great fans, and they're going to come out tomorrow.

Q. With as much as you know about shooting, when a guy like JR is struggling to hit from the outside, do you offer any words or advice or do you just kind of let him work through it himself?
KYLE KORVER: Yeah, I mean, he's had a couple good looks, but we've got to help him get some better looks. We've got to get him something to kind of get him going. Sometimes you've just got to see the ball go through the basket. I think he tried to be a little more aggressive in Game 2 but just didn't get great shots for the most part. I think we've shot a lot today, he shot the ball really well. I expect him to have a good game tomorrow.

Q. You said not getting frustrated has been a challenge for you guys this year. Why do you think that is, and was there a moment in the series when you noticed it?
KYLE KORVER: In this series or the season?

Q. This year specifically.
KYLE KORVER: No, I think the standard is just really high here. The bar is set really high, going to The Finals a bunch of years in a row. When things don't go the way you want them to, it's like, man, why didn't that work. This year there's been a lot of turnover. We haven't had the time as a unit that we probably would have liked, so there's going to be some mistakes out there, but we've just got to learn -- not learn, we know how to. We have to be focused on just playing through them, staying positive, next play, next shot. Just try to put together runs.

Q. How different is the quality of shot in this series versus the Toronto series?
KYLE KORVER: Yeah, I think we're not getting -- to this point, I think we had better shots in the Toronto series, but that's what happens when you advance in the Playoffs. I mean, like we're not expecting that we can run the play right and everybody will get open shots. That's not the way it works anymore. There's four teams left for a reason. We've just got to be ready for the shots that we get and know that they're not -- that they might not all be wide open ones, but we've got to start making some.

Q. Is there anything that you can do to get more open shots?
KYLE KORVER: Yeah, I think there's definitely one of our things we talked about the most is just pace. We're playing slow, and very rarely in the Playoffs is your first action going to be open. Know what I mean? You run a play, you run a set, and very rarely is that shot going to be wide open for somebody. So you've got to keep on passing the ball. You've got to keep on moving. You've got to keep setting screens. You've got to take the ball out of bounds faster. You've got to run up the court faster. We've got to make them make mistakes because if we play slow, they're just too good. So I think that will help with us getting better shots, help us make more shots, and help us play with more energy.

Q. You said the other night that you thought the first half was a blueprint for how you had to play. Is what you just said, is that it?
KYLE KORVER: Yeah, second half we got frustrated and we just slowed down. I mean, we were walking the ball up the court. They were into us. We weren't getting to our spots. We didn't get many -- we didn't take many good shots in the second half. Credit them for that, but there's a lot of things we can do better.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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