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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS vs CELTICS

May 20, 2018

Al Horford

Cleveland, Ohio: Practice Day

Q. The fact that you had four shots, was that a function of just the offense being a little out of sync or were they doing something defensively, or was it a combination of the two?
AL HORFORD: I mean, I just think that we were a little out of sync. I think that tomorrow we'll be better in making sure that we have better ball movement. I'm not worried about that. I know I'll be able to get more shots tomorrow.

Q. Brad [Stevens] was quick to point out how prideful he feels this group is. Is this obviously not an ideal way to get a wake-up call?
AL HORFORD: I mean, I think it's good. It's good for our group. We've been -- all season I feel like we've been learning. We've been put in different positions. And now we're in a position that we need to bounce back, and tomorrow we have a good opportunity.

Q. When you look at some of the shots, the threes, the back door plays, did you guys get disconnected defensively?
AL HORFORD: Yeah, well, credit to them. I feel like they just played much better. We did a very poor job communicating, and that's something that we feel like we addressed today, and I feel like we'll be better tomorrow.

Q. Is it similar to what happened in Milwaukee?
AL HORFORD: Yeah, I mean, it was -- I just think that Milwaukee game, it's just different. Over there, I feel like they were really riding on an emotional wave. Like here, they just executed way better and were able to get those open looks.

Q. Is it tough to come in on a day like today and watch film?
AL HORFORD: You know, I honestly was looking forward to it, just because I kind of wanted to see what we needed to work on, the things that we needed to do to be better, and it was pretty obvious. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Q. What do you think the team finds going into Game 4?
AL HORFORD: I think we'll be -- I felt going into Game 3, our focus was good, but apparently it wasn't good enough, and I think that after seeing ourselves on film, I think that the mindset is for us to come out and be more locked in as a group and then try to just be better from the beginning.

Q. Brad has preached just approaching each game as its own separate entity and kind of having that short-term memory. How important is it to carry that into Game 4?
AL HORFORD: Well, I think it's very important. I think that today was productive in the sense that we learned the things that we needed to do. We made some adjustments, and yeah, we have to be able to put that behind us and focus on Game 4.

Q. You at one time had to play as a young player on the road for the first time in the Playoffs. How different is it?
AL HORFORD: Well, it's very different. I think that at home, you have your home crowd behind you. You have a comfort level about you. And on the road, literally it's just you against everybody else. That was something that was different, and it takes a while for you to get used to and understand how well you have to play on the road. You have to be able to do all the little things in order to have a chance. Last night we had a lot of breakdown, so we didn't even give ourselves a chance to win.

Q. You guys have talked a lot about not allowing them to stay on runs, LeBron really getting people involved. In their building, is it that much more crippling?
AL HORFORD: It's much more difficult. It just makes it harder on our group to be able to recover with those runs. For us, it starts with our defense, and then getting good shots on the other end.

Q. You said it's been a learning experience all year. What do you think you and your teammates learned from last night?
AL HORFORD: Well, we learned -- well, it's difficult to win on the road. We know that. But I think that when you don't do those little things on the defensive end, they will cost you, and Cleveland is too good of a team, and they exposed us to the point that they just had their way yesterday. I think it's just a reminder for our group, it doesn't matter how things were going before, we need to be able to have that same level of focus in every game.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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