NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS VS. HEAT

September 23, 2020

Brad Stevens

Boston Celtics

Game 4: Postgame

Miami Heat 112, Boston Celtics 109

Q. 19 turnovers here, a lot of them seemed very undisciplined. How do you explain that?

BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, they turned us over in the fourth quarter. Those were huge plays against the zone. A couple of times I just thought we tried to split through small seams. A couple Jimmy read the pass. He's done that all Playoffs against us. He's done it against others.

It's easy for me to say be tough with the ball, be strong with the ball. Those guys are tremendous with their hands when you put Iguodala and Jimmy at the top of that zone. We got to do a better job of handling the ball. We got to do a better job of taking care of it.

I thought that and just the rebounding, those multiple possessions where they got multiple rebounds, and our first-half shooting, probably did us in tonight.

Q. You take the 85-84 lead, then Herro gets going again. How do you contain that?

BRAD STEVENS: They do a really good job of trying to set those screens. I think a lot of times you want to blitz or switch. They do a good job of getting out of the switches or setting the switches low. Specifically on those hand-backs, the minute you jump it, he fakes it, dunks it. Puts you in a real bind.

Herro's shot-making tonight was, in addition to the things we just talked about that were our own issues, was the difference in the game. Jimmy was great late. Adebayo was his typical self. Dragic made some big plays. But Herro was ridiculously good tonight. That rim must have looked like the ocean to him.

Q. Another issue was defending without fouling. Why do they make that so tough? How do you improve on that?

BRAD STEVENS: Got to do your best to be in a stance, show your hands, emphasize lower man wins. Easier said than done. They're constantly cutting. They draw a little bit of contact.

But I think we played better in other games defensively than we did tonight.

Q. You're down 3-1. How do you approach this now? No margin for error.

BRAD STEVENS: It's hard to win a Playoff game, right? It's hard to win a Playoff game both ways. We're just looking at how can we play better Friday night? That's the most important game of the season. We need to play our best game yet. That's it.

Q. Do you think you played desperate enough tonight?

BRAD STEVENS: I thought our first half we looked, for whatever reason, we didn't look crisp. Obviously, that showed itself in our shooting numbers. I thought we were lucky to be at 50-44 at halftime, to be candid. Then I thought we found a nice rhythm.

We really attacked the zone much better in the second [half]. We shot the ball with authority, we hit the middle, but we also screened the outside. We got great looks. I felt like we were getting good looks all night. For whatever reason, our first half just wasn't as good as it's been.

Q. You went to your best five there down the stretch. Defensively, it seemed tough for them to get stops. With the lack of playing time that group has had, how tough is it to defend a powerhouse like Miami?

BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, I mean, that's a little give and take, right? I don't think we can rebound as well obviously with that group. Those guys really have to fight for it. We should be able to switch and pressure.

But they never really felt us all night. At least Herro didn't. Then those guys did a good job against that lineup. They just chose some matchups to go after. Butler came off the screens and made some plays.

We got to do a better job with all our lineups. Certainly that one has had its moments. But we looked small, I will say that.

Q. Is there any way to make sense of Jayson's night, the first half versus the second half? Any sense of what went wrong in the first half, what was better in the second half?

BRAD STEVENS: It's basketball. I mean, I don't want to oversimplify it. We've all had nights where you just don't feel like it's going for you. You go into the break -- you've seen great players like that, they go into the break and can reset. See one go through the net, then they go.

I think that's all Jayson needed to see. He was way more assertive, way more aggressive in the second half. But it was probably because he felt a lot better about it. For whatever reason, I thought in the first half, just struggling to find the net. It only takes a great player once or twice to get his confidence rolling.

Q. Denver has come back from 3-1 twice. Do you look at them as a motivation?

BRAD STEVENS: I don't know what the historical odds are, whatever that is. Doesn't really matter. The situation we're in, we got to play well Friday. We don't have to win three games on Friday; we have to win one. That's going to be our focus. That's going to be our attention. We'll get after it.