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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS vs CELTICS

May 20, 2018

Brad Stevens

Cleveland, Ohio: Practice Day

Q. Al Horford's four shots in Game 3, was that a function of what they were doing defensively, or you guys just maybe weren't probing enough to get him going?
BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, I just didn't think our offense in general was very good. Our defense wasn't much better. We got thoroughly outplayed on both ends. Obviously we're going to need to play through him more than that.

Q. Your passes were way down from where they have been throughout the rest of the playoffs. What did they do to kind of take you out of that ball movement you've been so successful with?
BRAD STEVENS: I thought they did what they do harder. I thought they played with great intensity and got into us, picked us up. Their matchups were very similar as far as who they guarded the last game. I just thought we didn't move it like we'd moved it. Credit them for getting into us and putting us on our heels, and that's what happens when teams do that. But we've got to be able to own our space and play a little bit better.

Q. How much of it was mental and how much of it was physical last night?
BRAD STEVENS: I don't want to take away from what they did. I don't think that's fair. I think there are two teams out there. It's not just somebody trying to get a project done by themselves. There's a physical component to it, and they won that. Hats off to them.

Q. Was it more they're correctable mistakes, or do you think it's more the mindset of your team going into Game 4?
BRAD STEVENS: I think we can play better, and I think we have to play better if we're going to have a chance to win.

Q. This is a pretty big intangible. Did you see or hear anything after the game or this morning that will lead you to believe they can be focused for Game 4?
BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, this is a prideful group. Again, there are two teams out there, so at the end of the day, you're going to have to compete at a super high level to have a chance to win. But this team has responded to challenges all year.

Q. What's your tone with guys after a game like this? Do you have to show them every single mistake on film, and how do you hold them accountable?
BRAD STEVENS: I think as coaches you probably watch it over and over and over and over, and then you try to just trim it to what's necessary. This team is, again, prideful, competitive. They've been resilient. Nobody felt good leaving the gym last night. Nobody felt good when they woke up this morning. And so I think that we have to look at what we can do better. There is a physical component to that, and we have to be honest and watch the film and see the things that we got outworked on and see the things that we can just execute better on both ends.

Q. It's been so long since you guys had a game like that where you just really got taken to the woodshed. Is it almost a humbling effect for your team to go through something like this? Terry Rozier kind of alluded to that, that you needed something like this to happen to refocus, get back to doing the things you guys have done to be successful, that kind of stuff?
BRAD STEVENS: Well, the game will be honest. I think that's one thing that you learn as you're in it longer. I thought, again, they played great. Did we play as well as we want to? Absolutely not. But I never think you need those things to be ready to play and compete the next game. But it is what it is now, and we've got to move on and focus on tomorrow night.

Q. You talked last night about how they were more connected than your team, and you've talked a lot about connectivity over the years. I'm curious how you define that and why it's important.
BRAD STEVENS: Five guys playing as one. You can see it. You can probably stat it somehow, but you can feel it. You can see it. You know what's happening right in front of you. We did not do that last night. They did it at a high level.

Q. Do you just assume that Aron Baynes starts tomorrow? What goes into sort of choosing the wings that start? Does it start with the LeBron matchup? Does it start with Marcus Morris being most comfortable coming off the bench?
BRAD STEVENS: Well, there are two sides of the floor, so there's a lot that goes into it. We'll make that decision based on both sides.

Q. Anything different today at practice, or is it just business as usual?
BRAD STEVENS: We just came in, we did a long film session and then we walked through some offensive stuff, walked through some defensive stuff. We'll be back in tomorrow, have a chance to do that again tomorrow morning. We're fulfilling our media obligations; that's pretty much why we're here. And that's pretty much it.

Q. You mentioned you can't allow LeBron to make these plays and get on 10-0, 12-0 unanswered type runs. Is last night kind of indicative of the freight train rolling through there?
BRAD STEVENS: Well, they had 89 points, the other guys. LeBron was great. He did what he does, and everybody else was great. So it's not just one guy. We've got to do better on everybody.

Q. In the first two games, I think the non-Brons were 50 and 60. How much did that factor into it last night, the fact that the Cavs had other guys hitting?
BRAD STEVENS: Well, first of all, I think one of the things, when you're playing with a great player like LeBron, he's going to get all the attention. Everybody is going to dissect his game inside and out. That's what makes him great, is he's able to do it through any circumstance every single night. That's what separates the top tier of guys to ever play the game. But the guys around him are good players and they've been there, done that on a high level for a long time, obviously starting with Kevin [Love] and J.R. [Smith] and Tristan Thompson and George Hill. These guys have played a lot of meaningful games.

[Kyle] Korver. In this Eastern Conference Finals or The Finals. And I think that at the end of the day, we've got to be a lot better on all of them. Everybody is going to start with LeBron, and we have to, too. But we've got to do a better job on all those guys.

Q. You are giving some thought to possibly tweaking your starting lineup?
BRAD STEVENS: I think you do that every day. Yep.

Q. What has Guerschon [Yabusele] showed you so far in this series?
BRAD STEVENS: One of the things about their size with Kevin -- especially when Kevin and Tristan are together, and then yesterday they played Kevin and [Larry] Nance together at the end of the quarter, so they played Kevin the whole quarter -- was the fact that Kevin is a hard guy to guard smaller. Now, obviously we're doing some switching, some late switching. We've done that OK, and we've done a pretty good job of helping each other when we have a post mismatch, et cetera. But he's a tough guy to guard, and I thought Guerschon certainly has the ability to move his feet and to make things difficult on really good players.

Q. Were you surprised about the start that Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier had in yesterday's game? What do you tell them about bouncing back in Game 4?
BRAD STEVENS: Those guys are tough. One of the things that I really enjoy about this team, again, is the resilience of it. Like I said earlier, I believe in them. I don't have to talk to those guys about what needs to happen.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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