NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS VS. HEAT

September 25, 2020

Brad Stevens

Boston Celtics

Game 5: Pregame

Q. When you look back at the tape from the last game with Jayson Tatum, what did you like that he really did in the second half versus the first half in terms of getting to his game, more of an attack mode?

BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, just really aggressive in the second half. I thought obviously a lot of guys, when they have a first half where they struggle, would struggle the whole game. Really good players in this league, all they need to do is see the ball go in once. Once he saw that at the start of the third quarter, took off from there.

Q. Your six playoff losses are by a combined 22 points. Can you take anything from that? Is it fourth quarter execution?

BRAD STEVENS: Some of it is. The turnovers are killing us, right? Some of it is we've had some stagnant moments on offense, then we've had some times where defensively we haven't been as sound. I just think each game has been its own entity in that way. There haven't been as many parallels as there have been just different things that have affected us.

In this series in particular, other than the couple of moments of being stagnant from certainly Game 1, I thought the turnovers have really hurt. Those run-out baskets in those critical moments are big deals. We just got to make sure we handle the ball as well as we can.

Credit them, they're the ones causing them. But I think those are things, to value and maximize every possession is really important.

Q. Back to Tatum in the second half. Are you any believer in momentum at all? Is he the type of player, it will carry over to the next game? Is that even real?

BRAD STEVENS: I think that's a better question for each individual. So some guys I'd say yes. Some guys I'd say I don't know. Some guys, like Tatum, are so good that how he played yesterday doesn't affect how he plays today because he usually plays well. I think that's probably person to person.

I don't think there's any question that you can go through periods of great confidence. At that point in time when you're playing against someone going through that, you have to do your best to break their rhythm, right? But on the other end of things, I think each player is a little different.

Q. We like to use buzz words like “playing with desperation.” Does that mean anything to you? What does playing with desperation mean? Is that a good thing, bad thing, wrong thing?

BRAD STEVENS: That's a good question. I think the idea is what you want to be, right? You want to play like every possession is the last possession of the game. You want to play with great focus on hitting singles on those possessions.

At the same time missing a shot at the early part of the game isn't going to make or break the game. You also have to play confidently, assertive and aggressive. You can't play timid. I think there's a fine line.

Our thing this whole entire experience has been compete with great intentions and do your best to stay in the moment and play as well as we can. We've had really good moments playing all the way up to this point, including in this series. We haven't had enough of them when it's mattered most. I think that's where we have to be even more locked in, taking advantage of every possession.

Q. Gordon's usage rate has been low in these first games back, understandably so. Is it a priority to get him involved more? Or is it how the flow of the game works?

BRAD STEVENS: I think one, first of all, he didn't play a game for five weeks, now he's on game two or game three. I think that's a little bit of a unique situation where we already have some high-usage players that have played well, in a lot of ways have carried us offensively. I think there is a fine line there.

We need to be able to play to each person's strengths. The zone does make it so that the ball, the action, has to generate the next right play. It's oftentimes the person that generates that action that doesn't necessarily get the shot, or even the second guy that doesn't get the shot.

We need to make sure we're just making the next right play. We're not really worried about individual usage, we're worried about getting great shots for our team tonight.

We did a lot better in the third quarter the other day, with the exception of the turnovers. We had some good looks in the fourth quarter. Looking forward to building off that.