NBA FINALS: CELTICS VS. WARRIORS

June 5, 2022

Ime Udoka

Boston Celtics

Game 2: Postgame

Warriors 107, Celtics 88

Q. I think in Game 1, Horford, Smart and Derrick shot over 20 threes combined. In this game I think it was less than 10. I was wondering, did you feel like that was a result of them doing something defensively? Your offense not executing the way it was? I think overall the three-point attempts were down. What do you think the reason for that difference was?

IME UDOKA: I don't think we got as much penetration to the paint. They switched a few more things. Then turned the ball over and didn't give ourselves a chance with a lot of those turnovers.

Q. Ime, felt like Draymond played more on the ball, had an impact on you guys in a few circumstances kind of getting into guys. I know you picked up a technical off one of those plays. What do you think his impact was on how you guys were playing offensively and just composure-wise out there?

IME UDOKA: That's one player that you can only guard one person at a time. We had 11 turnovers for 18 points in the first half. They had nine steals. Playing in the crowd way too much. He's going to switch matchups a lot of times and try to impact the ball defensively especially.

But we weren't strong with the ball overall, so it wasn't just him. Of course he's going to come out and try to set the tone. But I think we weren't strong with the ball a lot, searching for fouls instead of going up and making plays, especially with their lack of rim protection.

For us, that was a little disappointing, to give up 33 points off of 19 turnovers. That's kind of been a constant theme in the Playoffs. When that happens, we're in trouble.

Q. You guys didn't play great in the first half, but down two. How disappointing is it when the same third quarter issues happen and you guys were so careless with the ball, seemed like you were doing too much and they took advantage? How can you play such a drastically different game than you did in Game 1?

IME UDOKA: Yeah, that's what I said. That's been an ongoing theme in the Playoffs so far at times. We've turned over the ball. Take teams out of scoring against us in the half court, give them some baskets.

But it was more of the same in that third quarter, to your point. Like I said, we had 11 for 18 points in that first half and gave up five or six more in that quarter. Kind of blew it open and that hampered our offense, as well.

For us it was more, that's a disappointing quarter of course, but the first half was just as disappointing, only being down two and not playing good basketball at all frankly.

Had our opportunities. Came out, jumped out up nine early. Then turnovers started happening. Let them back in the game. Then the offense wasn't as crisp with the ball movement and passing. Like I said, 11 of our turnovers were live ball turnovers, nine of them out of steals. So got to be better in that category.

Q. You were switching on Steph early and he was trying to find space on Al, then eventually you just went back to drop and sent over another defender. What was the thinking on making that switch?

IME UDOKA: Keep them off balance a little bit. Give them different looks. Just throwing extra bodies, depending on who was in certain spots on the court. He's good with who he's in the pick-and-roll with. Of course him and Green have good chemistry there and lets Green make plays. So we were choosing who we wanted to double-team off, who we wanted switch off of and who played more traditional coverage. Just some things to keep him off balance.

Q. Were you surprised that there were no technicals or even double technicals with the Draymond and Jaylen dust-up there? And did you feel like that might have taken Jaylen out of a pretty good rhythm that he had going offensively earlier?

IME UDOKA: No, I was not surprised there was a double technical not called. Not surprised at all. Due to the circumstances.

But Jaylen, no, I think he got some fouls early in the game, and that kind of took him out of rhythm more so than that specific play. He got the two early fouls when he was really going early, and slowed him down a little bit there.

Q. In addition to the turnovers, they just came out with another really strong third quarter. You guys gave up two really big runs there. What did you talk to these guys about at halftime in terms of being ready for that run that Golden State was going to come through with?

IME UDOKA: Yeah, that we didn't play a great first half at all and we were down two. Gave away a lot of opportunities, and instead of tightening up in that area we did more of the same.

Those turnovers and poor offense contributed to their runs. A team that scores as well as they do, we don't need to help them out in that category.

Q. What happened on the tech? It felt like more of a culmination than that one play and that one moment.

IME UDOKA: I just let them now how I felt throughout the game in a demonstrative way, on purpose, to get a technical.

Q. Can you look at this as you split without the result, because obviously the narrative over the next few days will be that the Warriors are back and you guys didn't play well. How do you kind of view this trip, this first trip? And then how do you prepare the guys to get back home?

IME UDOKA: We look at it as a disappointing loss in Game 2, a game we didn't play up to our potential and our standard. Regardless of what happened in Game 1, that's behind us. We had opportunities. Like I said, to give up 18 of their 52 in the first half based off turnovers, and obviously allowed them to be in that situation up two.

Opportunities to play much better, one wasted in the first half and then obviously the third quarter got away from us even more, as opposed to the first half where we turned it over a lot and we were still scoring. It worked against us in that half not only the turnovers but poor offense. A lot of those led to leak-outs, as well.

Q. You guys shot well from three but obviously inside the arc I think sub-40 percent. What happened there and how difficult does that make scoring when yours aren't going down?

IME UDOKA: A lot of those turnovers were against drop-offs or getting stripped at the basket. We had opportunities to probably attack the basket and get some buckets, some easy buckets. Settled for some floaters. I think when looking up in the first quarter we were shooting 50/40/90 across the board and still down due to a lot of those turnovers. A lot of times it's just not getting shots up or being a little hesitant instead of attacking the basket, looking for fouls a lot of times. That's what got us in trouble. Had some of our early misses in the first half, and with their smaller lineups in there, we've got to attack the basket much more aggressively.