NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS VS. HEAT

September 25, 2020

Brad Stevens

Boston Celtics

Game 5: Postgame

Boston Celtics 121, Miami Heat 108

Q. How big was the lift Enes Kanter gave you in the first half?

BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, just kind of kept us at bay. We were struggling. They hit some really tough shots. Robinson was going nuts. Kanter's points there in the paint I thought really helped. That kind of helped steady us, give us a chance at halftime, only being down seven.

Q. You were recorded saying this was the best...

BRAD STEVENS: I hate those things (laughter).

Q. What happened in the third quarter?

BRAD STEVENS: I just thought we played with great tenacity defensively, and our offense followed suit.

But they're very hard. It's easy for me to sit up and say to be at our very best and get stops on every possession. I mean, this is a heck of an offensive team, a heck of a well-coached team and hard to guard.

Q. It seemed like you made a concerted effort in the second half to get to the rim, try to attack the paint more. Is that anything you talked about at halftime, being more aggressive instead of settling?

BRAD STEVENS: What is today's date? 9.25 or 26? I think our first practice was an 9.26.2019. We've been talking about it since then.

Q. There's so much stuff out in the real world. What is it about competition that can bring out the best of you and make you want to stay and fight and refuse to be done?

BRAD STEVENS: I mean, we're prideful. We want to do well. Four teams that are here are really good. They've had great years. They're also in the arena and on the stage where everybody is going to be talking about them, try to dissect them, break them down, all that stuff.

Our deal was to come out and play, come out and compete, give it our best shot. I thought we played pretty well in the second half. But we're going to have to do it again and again because of the position we're in.

When we don't get caught up in that other crap, we're trying to be our best. We care about competing. We care about representing our team and our organization well. We care about each other. I mean, that's why you compete.

Q. What was the difference in Daniel Theis in the second half?

BRAD STEVENS: I thought he was pretty good all night. I thought he started the game with good energy defensively. I thought he was one of our bright spots early. But then I thought in the second half he was excellent.

We need him to provide what he provides. He was great in the middle of the zone. He caught it twice and scored. He was great there on the glass on both ends.

We need him to be good. We got a lot out of that center position tonight. That's important.

Q. After the first half it looked kind of similar to Game 4. Did you see any differences or were you saying shots aren't going down? What did you feel like at halftime in comparison to Game 4?

BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, I thought it was similar. But out of the last four halves, our best one was our last one. But I thought first half felt similar to me.

Q. The discussion about the bubble and the way it might change competition, maybe make things more possible, coming back from 3-1, Denver doing that, where do you fall on that debate?

BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, I mean, I really haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it. I think obviously every game is very much a neutral-court game, right? Every time you play, you have a great opportunity. At the same time, so does the other team.

I think obviously it's advantageous to be up 3-1.

Q. 28 points from Jaylen. Another night for him shooting over 50%. The efficiency he's given you guys in the series against a tough defense, how big has that been?

BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, really important. I thought he was really good. He made those corner threes there in the fourth. He had great drives. He had a couple great cuts there in the third. I thought he was very good all night.

Q. In the early third quarter there was a strong commitment to contesting shots even when the defenders were far from being in position. You got into transition offense. How important was it committing to making those plays?

BRAD STEVENS: Again, I go back to I think it was September 26th, 2019. It was a year ago we started practice with this team. That's a huge emphasis for us, not only to stop the ball, but fire out and play with multiple efforts and challenge shots.

All this stuff is kind of back to the basics. We need to be better, again, in Game 6.

Q. Curious as to the thought process of going bigger tonight with Enes and with Theis, given Miami's strengths. What went into that?

BRAD STEVENS: Well, I would say first of all I tried that lineup early in the first half. It wasn't a good start for them. Such a small sample size with that lineup. But they really haven't played a ton together. I think the threat at the rim of a big makes a big difference for our offense and for us.

We'll certainly have opportunities to go back to it. But there's not like this obvious answer with big or small. I think Miami does a great job of punishing you when you go small, screening low so you can't switch, stopping their screen short, rebounding against it. Then it's harder to score because Bam doesn't really lose anything guarding a small. He's capable of guarding one through five.

There's positives and negatives. But our bigs lineups did a good job tonight.