NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HEAT VS. CELTICS

May 29, 2023

Malcolm Brogdon

Boston Celtics

Game 7: Postgame

Miami Heat 103, Boston Celtics 84.

Q. Can you now, now that it's all over, kind of give us the depth of the injury that you suffered. How bad is it?

MALCOLM BROGDON: What was reported was correct. It's a partial tear of a tendon, I don't know the name of the tendon but it's coming out of my elbow. Unfortunately, you use it a lot to shoot. So, when I'm shooting, I'm having a lot of pain.

Q. Is that something you're going to need surgically corrected?

MALCOLM BROGDON: It's something that I'm going to consider now.

Q. Obviously you guys almost made history. What was the difference tonight and how frustrating, disappointing was this evening for you guys where you just seemingly couldn't shoot well starting from start to finish?

MALCOLM BROGDON: Yeah, I thought we were tight. I thought we played tight. When you play that way, it makes you hesitant on both ends of the ball. I thought Miami played the opposite. I thought they played loose. I thought they really executed on the defensive end.

Then offensively they were poised. They weren't rushed, they weren't nervous. I thought Jimmy did what he was supposed to do for them and lead them.

Q. You guys went down to that hole early in the series, you talked about how this team has lost its defensive identity and this used to be a team with a defensive identity, and you guys haven't really found that identity all year. You make the comeback off your defense. Tonight, you're hurt, JT is hurt. Can't seem to run consistent half-court offense. Can't get stops. So why do you think that identity like once again kind of vanished and how big of an issue was that for this team this year?

MALCOLM BROGDON: It was the issue. I think this was a team in the last year that prided themselves on defense. I think defense was our calling card. This year offense was our calling card. I don't think you win championships with a high -- with a better offense than you have a defense.

I think pretty much we were the best offensive team in the league, for sure. Depth, you can talk about the ways we can score, our versatility on offense, really 1 through 7, 1 through 8. But defensively, I thought we had the versatility, I thought we have the talent defensively. But in any given night we would let go of the rope and have a lot of breakdowns on that end.

Q. Then you guys were so focused on trying to create transition threes and find cross matches, so when you guys weren't getting in transition, you have the stagnation like you have tonight. What are the things you guys could have done from like running more plays or just having a more coherent idea of what you want to get to that could have made that problem better?

MALCOLM BROGDON: We talk all the time about ball movement and player movement. Sort of having a free-flowing offense and trusting each other. When we're not playing well offensively and shots aren't falling, I think we lose trust. I think that's how the game works. But I think we lose trust and it shows, and then we have more breakdowns on defense because we're not making shots, because we stopped moving the ball. Then defensively it shows as well.

Q. Do you guys need to diversify your offense? Is the team too reliant on the three-point shot? You guys gutted out a win in 6 when you guys didn't have the three. But tonight, once it didn't go down, heads dropped, you couldn't score. Do you guys need to diversify?

MALCOLM BROGDON: I think that's something we'll look at in the offseason. That's definitely a Joe question. But for us I think we can be better. I think we can -- I think defensively is where the difference is for us more than anything, whether or not you make shots.

That was a game, whether or not we made shots, if we got stops, we could stay in that game. That's not a team that's going to score 120 points. It's not a team that's going to get out in transition and beat you that way. They're going to slow the game down and play in the half court. So, if we can get stops, that's a game we can stay in, even if we're not making shots. But the fact of the matter is we didn't get stops. That ultimately was the death of us.

Q. As you reflect on this series, the frustration with Game 7, do you think back about the first three games? Kind of what's your upshot in the moment?

MALCOLM BROGDON: What do you mean “upshot"?

Q. Do you get frustrated you got into this position and had to, given what happened the first three games, or more frustrated with the outcome obviously fresh here in Game 7?

MALCOLM BROGDON: Yeah, it's all around frustrating. The hole we put ourselves in, it's hard. No one's climbed out of that hole. It was the same tonight. We couldn't climb out of the hole we created. I thought we showed how resilient we were, how good of a team we are, climbing out of it partially. But not being able to finish it on your home floor? That's super disappointing. Then getting beat in the way we got beat. They handled us tonight. So that's definitely disappointing.

Q. Along those lines coming into the playoffs you told us you felt the best physically that you have going into a postseason. How disappointing is it that it had to end this way with you feeling the way you do?

MALCOLM BROGDON: Yeah, super disappointing. I came here to win a championship, to help this team as much as I could. I thought we had a great season. After the season we had, it's definitely crushing. For me personally, I did feel, I do feel great, my body feels great. I just have this tear in my arm which is unfortunate but it's part of the game. I tried to battle through it, JT tried to battle through a sprained ankle literally on the first play of the game, so and there are guys on the Heat that are battling through stuff.

So, this is how the game is. Sometimes the ball doesn't roll your way. But we'll regroup and we'll be back next year.

Q. Everybody talks about how great this locker room is. You've been around, you know how rare it is to get a great locker room. How can you, I guess "guarantee" might not be the best word, but how can you carry that over and make sure that the locker room is the same next year? Because you know year to year that that's hard to maintain.

MALCOLM BROGDON: It's a culture thing. I think top down, I think the locker room has to be diversified. I think it has to have role guys that are willing to play their role that are willing to sacrifice. It has to have your stars that are willing to be humble and that are willing to sacrifice at times, and then it has to have your leaders like Al Horford. It's hard to build a locker room like that, to construct a roster like that. And we have it.

As far as it being the same next year, we've got to keep the same culture and the same sort of identity within the locker room, but as far as personnel, that's not the players' decision. So, all we can control is who will be back and who is in that locker room and replicating that feel and that camaraderie that we had this year.