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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS vs CELTICS

May 23, 2018

Brad Stevens

Boston, Massachusetts: Gam Five

Q. Just what's your reaction to Al Horford getting Second-Team All-Defensive and Marcus Smart didn't get anything?
BRAD STEVENS: My reaction is I think those guys are motivated by team success, and I think their team success, that their impact on team success and our defense speaks for itself. So I don't think they're going to lose sleep over an award or not. To me they're easily both All-Defensive players. I thought [Aron] Baynes has an All-Defensive year, as well. I realize you can't take multiple people from one team. Maybe that's the deal. But those guys all, along with our young guys, everybody was really committed on that end of the floor all year, and it was led by those three guys.

Q. You're contemplating, as you always do, changes to the starting lineup. How's it looking tonight?
BRAD STEVENS: Well, I'm done contemplating. I was done contemplating this morning. I actually got in this discussion on the radio show earlier about if you had already made your decision or you're still contemplating, you just didn't want to say it, it probably was more I just didn't want to say it than I was contemplating.

Q. Is that where you still are?
BRAD STEVENS: I'm in that mode of I've made the decision but I'm not contemplating anymore.

Q. Or saying if there will be a change?
BRAD STEVENS: Right, right.

Q. Just to follow up on that --
BRAD STEVENS: I don't know how deep we can get here.

Q. You've kind of changed your philosophy on that, like for example last year in the Playoffs you came out and said, hey, I'm starting Gerald [Green] tonight, and it seems like there's been some shift on that.
BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, I don't think I knew the rules. Nobody told me the rules when I got here. They just sent me out here to do the media sessions before every game, and nobody said I didn't have to say it. Yeah, I guess I'm learning every day. I'm still contemplating the rules.

Q. So you're doing it because you thought you had to basically?
BRAD STEVENS: Yeah.

Q. Quickly on Al in general, what makes him a good defender?
BRAD STEVENS: Just awareness, his awareness is elite. He knows every action in the league that anybody would possibly run. He understands when it's the right time to give help, when it's not. You know, just watch like -- just simple things like when he and Baynes are back in transition, they're back at the nail or the top of the key, and they are in a stance like this and taking up so much space, and just that idea of making the floor appear crowded to start a possession is enormous. And then being able to basically anchor and communicate our defense through the action while still usually guarding the best forward on the other team, I mean, it's really hard. This year I think he took even more steps because last year we didn't try him on Giannis [Antetokounmpo]. We didn't try him on guys like Ben Simmons. This year those have been his matchups every other night because the league continues to get, quote, smaller, but just faster and more skilled at the 4.

And now he's got -- so you go through the Playoffs and you have to guard Giannis, Ben Simmons, Kevin Love. I mean, that's a monster. But there's a reason why he's All-Defensive team.

Q. That second half of Game 4 you guys were playing much better. Do you see that as a carryover to resume?
BRAD STEVENS: I think every game is its own entity. I didn't think we played great the entire night. Obviously the first quarter was poor. But the end of the first, end of the third really stood out as the times where we lost the game, and so that to me is -- you know, those are the two times. And we have to avoid those big lulls like we had the other night.

But we did some good things. I mean, it's been -- obviously everybody talked about the shots at the rim, but Cleveland was at the rim on some of those shots. It's not like going up for a dunk with somebody jumping is an easy thing. Some of those, yes, we'd like to have them back and make them, but the other ones are contested. Maybe we kick them out. We just have to be more efficient offensively because a lot of those plays ended up in baskets the other way.

Q. You've coached some high-profile rookies the last couple years. Are there things you learned along the way, advice you received about how to keep guys fresh that went from a 30-game college season to playing 75, 80 games for you?
BRAD STEVENS: You know, not specifically. I think it's more about our assistant coaches that are assigned to those guys, and Micah Shrewsberry has spent a ton of time with Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum over the last two years, doing everything they can to help expedite their learning curve. But it's not just that. It's everybody in the organization, our strength staff, our training staff, talking to them about the importance of diet, sleep, extra work in the weight room to keep your body feeling good, extra work on your pliability. You know, these guys are really committed to that. They both take care of their bodies at a very good level, and I think the messaging has been good.

Q. Right now there's so much conversation about home-court advantage. I want to know, even at Butler, what do you attribute to that, just because people say the road players play better at home. What have you seen since being at Butler and then being in the NBA, what have you learned from that and what do you see from that?
BRAD STEVENS: Well, I don't know what the stats are as far as road and home records over the course of all levels. But it's -- you know, there's a reason that you play for home-court advantage. That being said, you've got to be able to win in any venue on any night. Pretty obvious that we haven't been as good on the road, and when we get that opportunity on Friday, we need to play better, and that's the bottom line. And at the same time, we recognize that when you're at home, you'd better play well. You know, your focus still has to be between those lines.

Q. I have two for you. The first one is the Cavs had 59 turnovers in four games, and LeBron loves to throw crazy passes because he can and Love likes to throw that home run ball. Is this team easier to bait into turnovers than other teams you play?
BRAD STEVENS: No, no, I wouldn't say that's ever a part of our discussion. We're trying to make it as hard as we can on those guys. The Love pass to LeBron was a joke, not just the pass but the catch was a joke, and it's funny, because we went through the transition stuff, and we're mad about our transition, and everybody is looking at me like, come on. We went for the ball, we were there, we were in perfect position, and he jumped up and caught it.

But I think that the one thing we're trying to do is we're trying to keep our shell intact and make it as hard as possible. And with that comes some disadvantages, too, as have been talked about quite a bit.

But I think the more that we can stay attached to everybody else and make it as tough as possible, the better.

Q. How is Kyrie? Not his health, but obviously he played for Cleveland for all this time, and now he's watching this series, and I don't think anybody has gotten a chance to talk to him from the media, so where is his mind? Is he processing this okay? What has he shared with you?
BRAD STEVENS: In our sit-downs, and I obviously see him regularly, but in our sit-downs or just our casual conversation, he seems to be in a great place. You know, it's killing him not to be out on the floor. But I think that would be the case, obviously, any time you're playing this deep into the Playoffs, especially in a new place.

But other than that, his recovery is going great, and we're excited about that. But he seems to be in a good place.

Q. Have you heard any more from the training staff about Shane [Larkin], just where he might be for the rest of the series?
BRAD STEVENS: Shane is out tonight, and like I said before, very doubtful for any portion of this series.

Q. How do you balance defensively not overreacting to LeBron but also knowing that you can't show him a steady diet of anything?
BRAD STEVENS: Well, I think that that's the greatness of him. You know, and I think obviously I've been asked a lot about Terry [Rozier] being on him, and there were -- I think he scored seven points with Terry on him in isolation. He scored 37 others. I think that ultimately he's a tough guy to guard. You can't show him one look. You have to keep mixing it up. We're trying our best to keep everything in front of us to play with active hands, to try to make sure that it's at least difficult, and then we've got to be better on everybody else. If you look at Game 3, everybody else had their biggest scoring game of the series. We were a little bit better in Game 4 but not as good as we needed to be. You know, again, we're trying to make it as hard as we possibly can with a number of different guys, and it's one of the great strengths of our team. But you know, he's a great player for a reason, and hats off to him, but we're going to keep trying to make it hard.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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