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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS vs WARRIORSJune 5, 2018J.R. SmithCleveland, Ohio: Practice Day Q. Home court has been good to you guys in these playoffs. Do you feel like you'll get a reset back here? J.R. SMITH: Yeah, it feels good to be around a familiar area, friends, family, obviously. So it feels good to be home. Q. A lot has been made about Game 1 and what occurred in between regulation and overtime. The fact that there wasn't much said between you and LeBron or LeBron and his teammates. What are your thoughts on the analysis or the thoughts that there could be something between you and LeBron and the teammates after that game? J.R. SMITH: No, actually we all spoke about it after the game. We spoke about multiple plays. I don't know where that information came from. Maybe sources, I guess. Q. There was criticism of -- again, it's from outside, but there was criticism of the way LeBron handled that. What are your thoughts on the fact that he didn't say anything to you guys or his teammates in that moment? J.R. SMITH: He spoke to us. He spoke to us. He's going to get criticized regardless. So, I mean, nobody over here is losing any sleep over what anyone else has said that's not in our locker room, whether it's our coaches or our players. It's The Finals, and we've got to take care of business. Q. You guys have been down 0-2 before, most recently in the last series. What is the biggest difference and mindset in getting into Game 3 to change that? J.R. SMITH: We obviously know they're not the Celtics. We've just got to go out there and continue to compete every play. We've got to bring the energy. Our crowd is going to be pretty good to us, so we've got to step it up. Q. Defensively, how confident are you guys that some of the adjustments that you've been talking about over the last few days can be impactful against those guys? J.R. SMITH: Everybody seems to be pretty much on board. We talked about making these adjustments after Game 1. We felt as though we were in good position, so we didn't change it. We lost Game 2, so back at home we feel like we can make those changes now. Q. Can you talk about the difference of this team on home court -- 8-1, you guys haven't lost since the playoffs opener? J.R. SMITH: We just play well here. We feed off the energy of our crowd. We take pride in defending our home court. I mean, it's just like any other team, really. Everybody pretty much plays pretty well at home if you get this far in the playoffs. You've just got to make sure you come out and take care of business. Q. Since you guys have been here before, is this a position that doesn't really faze you guys? Do you almost feel comfortable coming back home? J.R. SMITH: Comfortable, no. Like I said, we've been here before, but I don't think you get comfortable being down 0-2. This is a completely different team than what we've faced in this situation, so we've just got to make sure we bring it. Q. Back home in Cleveland how important is it to be playing in front of your fans and what will that atmosphere do for you? J.R. SMITH: It's tremendously important for us. We run more, we move the ball a lot better at home. Communication on defense is better. So it's going to be very important. Q. Considering how close Game 1 was and I think it was a seven-, eight- point difference in the fourth quarter of Game 2, how do you feel you guys have played so far? J.R. SMITH: We definitely haven't played our best basketball. We've missed a lot of easy shots. Myself, Kyle [Korver]. We're not getting the ball to the second side. That's a tough thing to not do against a transition team like that. We feel confident in the position we're in. We've just got to go out there and make it happen. Q. You guys have been dealing with adversity all year -- injuries, trades, all kinds of stuff. What have you learned about this team overall? J.R. SMITH: When we get back on the floor, we've got to come out swinging. We've got a great core of guys that have like-minded mindsets. So that benefits us tremendously. We still have guys who haven't played in the series that can come off the bench and help us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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