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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS vs CELTICS

May 25, 2018

Tyronn Lue

Cleveland, Ohio: Game Six

Cavaliers - 109, Celtics - 99

Q. Start with LeBron: 46, 11 and 9 in an elimination game. What do you take away from what you saw from him?
TYRONN LUE: Greatness. Championship pedigree. Giving it his all. We needed that, especially when Kevin [Love] went down. We had to play Bron as many minutes as he had to. He delivered. He was up for the challenge. He carried us home as usual. But a lot of other guys stepped up, too. I thought Jeff Green did a great job. I thought [Jordan] Clarkson came in and gave us some good minutes. George Hill being aggressive. Larry Nance plays that whole fourth quarter. Guys really chipped in and helped in the absence of Kevin. And LeBron brought us home, as usual. Big shots, playing through being tired and fatigued. We needed him to be big, and he was big.

Q. You basically played eight guys, I guess, maybe less, and with Kevin being out and the way we Bron had to play tonight and the way the other guys had to play, do you worry at all about them having enough left in the tank for one more?
TYRONN LUE: Enough as in what?

Q. Enough energy, enough --
TYRONN LUE: Oh, man, come on. We ain't got no choice. One game from The Finals, Game 7? I mean -- yeah, I can get out there and do something for that. Come on, got to be ready. Ready to play. No excuses. Game 7 to go to the NBA Finals. We've got to be ready.

Q. After Larry Nance fell into LeBron's leg, what did you see? How did you think that affected LeBron's game if at all?
TYRONN LUE: We were short on timeouts and I was about to take one. Bron said, No, I'm good. And then he came and scored right in the same possession. I think he might have just banged his knee, but other than that, he's fine.

Q. And Kevin, have you had a chance to check in with him?
TYRONN LUE: I have not had a chance to see the medical staff. I know at halftime they was evaluating him, but I don't know anything right now.

Q. You started the second quarter with LeBron, Green, Korver, Clarkson and Nance Jr., down five, outscored Boston 26-13 in the first 8:37 using that lineup in the second quarter. Can you talk about the defensive presence of that lineup in the second quarter?
TYRONN LUE: I thought it did a great job defensively. That's what got us back in the game. I thought we got stops and they were able to get out and run in transition. I thought Clarkson came in and gave us a defensive lift -- five rebounds, rebounding the basketball. Nance was great -- switching out, guarding smaller guards and having two steals and rebounding the basketball. Jeff, a versatile player who can guard multiple positions. Bron. And you've got Kyle just fighting and competing. I thought we had a scrappy unit out there, and they provided and helped us out in that second quarter.

Q. Only nine turnovers tonight for seven points. How much of an emphasis was there from you, the coaching staff, to the guys about value the basketball in this elimination game?
TYRONN LUE: A big emphasis. We know that they scored off our turnovers. Tonight, I think we did a great job defensively as far as getting back in transition. I thought they hurt us by getting it up quick and trying to attack early, so we've got to do a better job with that. But our half-court defense has been really solid this series. We've just got to do a better job in transition and taking care of the basketball, which helps with that.

Q. As a player and now as a coach, have you ever been involved in a series where home-court advantage seems to mean so much? And with that mind, how do you take what you guys did here tonight at home on the road?
TYRONN LUE: We've been talking about it for a while now, but we have the blueprint. We understand what we need to do defensively and offensively. I think if we take care of the basketball, I think we'll be in good shape, especially on the road. We've got to do a better job of just getting off to good starts and not letting their crowd get involved in the game early. And limiting our turnovers. Then I think we'll be in good shape.

Q. In games like this, what goes into your thinking on LeBron and rest? When you're going to try to rest him, if you're going to try to rest him?
TYRONN LUE: You always want to close the quarters great, but if you can get him the end of quarters and try to bring him back, that's what you shoot for. Then after that, just trying to use your timeouts wisely. When Brad [Stevens] called a timeout with 6:14 and we had one to waste before the three-minute mark -- I think around the 4:17 mark I was able to take another timeout and that helped Bron get a little bit more rest. Just the flow of the game, how the game was going and how he's feeling.

Q. So when he comes off with 57 seconds left, even a little bit of rest is better than none?
TYRONN LUE: Well, you get the minute rest of actual game time and then you get the three-minute rest during the timeout. And by the time you step on the floor, you're close to four-and-a-half minutes. Yeah.

Q. LeBron scored 12 points after he banged legs. Could you tell at all that he was feeling that?
TYRONN LUE: I tried to get him to bang his other knee so then we could have 24. But no, he just fought through everything tonight. He was huge. That's what you expect out of the best player in the world. You expect games like this on elimination nights. I think he's the all-time leading scorer on elimination games, so add this to it.

Q. We all know what a three-point shooter Kyle is, but even getting that jump ball with Aron Baynes, could you talk about the way he plays overall?
TYRONN LUE: He plays like a champion. He plays to win every single night, no matter what it is. If it causes for him to come off screens for 35 minutes and not get one shot, but he's causing confusion and we're scoring the basketball, that's all he cares about. He doesn't care about shots. He doesn't care if he's making baskets. All he cares about is winning, and that's what you need out of veteran guys. That's what he's showing. That's what he shows as he's been here and throughout his career. Just him competing, boxing out all the time, taking charges, in the right place defensively all the time. You can count on him defensively. Not the best one-on-one, -- you know, 37 years old -- but when it calls for help defense and being in the right place in the right spot, you can count on Korver to be there every time.

Q. Could you talk about how important Larry Nance's emergence was or his performance tonight?
TYRONN LUE: It was huge. I think Tristan [Thompson] did a great job of being physical early, shutting [Al] Horford down early. That's a big emphasis of ours going into this series. Then Larry came in and they cut the lead to seven. I think Bron went to the hole and missed an easy shot. They kind of had the momentum but Larry tip-dunked it and put us back up nine. It was a huge play. Just his athletic ability around the basket -- when Bron drops it off to him, he's going up dunking and finishing quick. We needed that. We needed that spark tonight. Like I said, we needed everybody and everybody collectively came together and got a big win for us.

Q. J.R. Smith played 38 minutes. Are you concerned about his efficiency and anything else he does behind the stat sheet?
TYRONN LUE: J.R.'s shots, they come sporadic so you can't ask him to make every shot. But we want him to take every shot that he gets. I think defensively he's been great. Just doing a good job on [Jayson] Tatum, being physical, trying to deny the basketball, switching on the bigs, boxing out. One thing about J.R., you're going to get scrappy and you're going to get competing. We needed that tonight from him. Like I said, he only got seven shots, but I thought defensively he was really good.

Q. How encouraged are you on how the guys responded with K-Love out?
TYRONN LUE: Very encouraging. I think when you lose an All-Star like Kevin and our second go-to guy, pivotal part of what we try to do, and when he goes down and then you help your brother up, that's what they did. Kevin left the game. He didn't come back, and guys got together and they played. They played for Kevin. They played for each other and were able to get the win.

Q. Did you see anything in the three games that you've already played at Boston that gives you enough confidence that you can go in and win a Game 7 without Kevin Love?
TYRONN LUE: Yes.

Q. I think when Kevin went out, pretty quickly thereafter you started to switch everything, which I knew you had gone away from that earlier in the series. I know you obviously would not want anything to happen to Kevin, but is that something you can do when he's not there, is switch more? And does that make you more versatile defensively?
TYRONN LUE: You can switch more. I think when Jeff is in there playing that position, it makes you more versatile defensively. But we miss his rebounding. We miss his offensive ability. It kind of all cancels out. But we did start switching more. I thought we did a good job with that. I thought we did a good job with our double teams when they had mismatches in the post. We timed it perfect and we got some 24-second violations, a couple turnovers. It looked good. We've got to continue to keep getting better at it. But I thought for the first time using it in this series, I thought the guys did a good job with it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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