NBA FINALS: CELTICS VS. MAVERICKS

June 11, 2024

Daniel Gafford

Dallas Mavericks

Practice Day

Q. How does it feel to be back home?

DANIEL GAFFORD: Oh, I mean, it feels great just to be back on the home floor.

Q. What's your mindset coming into this one?

DANIEL GAFFORD: Pretty much with me, just the same as coming out from the last game: setting the tone physically. Just come out with energy, match everything that they're throwing at us.

Q. Are they doing something differently to take away the lob dunk from you guys?

DANIEL GAFFORD: The only thing I would say they're probably doing differently is just 1 through 5, switching on every screen-and-roll. But we've found ways to get around that. Of course we want to get a lob every now and then, but we can find other options on the floor besides lobs. It's always good because we have a lot more weapons in our arsenal.

Q. How do you attack that?

DANIEL GAFFORD: Just have patience. Not necessarily letting them speed us up and then find the loopholes when it comes to their defense.

Q. How much more do the little things matter, especially in a game like tomorrow? Luka talked about making more shots, free throws, turnovers. How much more do you feel like you can tighten up in those areas?

DANIEL GAFFORD: I feel like everything matters when it comes to just like being in the Finals in general. Free throws are big, like you said. Making more shots, of course. But like I said, just stay patient with the game, let stuff come to us and not let us get sped up when it comes to what we want on the floor offensively and defensively.

Q. When you got traded to the Mavs and put on the Dallas uniform for the first time, your reaction was what?

DANIEL GAFFORD: It's a blessing to be in a situation like this, coming from the situation that I was in. Just that next step in my career, for sure.

Q. How do you make them uncomfortable?

DANIEL GAFFORD: I feel like a segment of some stint of the last game, we found ways to be able to do that. We have to make them take the shots that we want. Once we get to that point and we can do it consistently, I feel like that's when we can make them uncomfortable.

Q. How do you get Kyrie going on offense? He's only got 28 points in two games.

DANIEL GAFFORD: Just believe in him. Find ways to get him downhill. At the end of the day, just try to keep him as motivated as possible.

Q. First action of the game, you posted up and it worked. But you didn't go back to posting up in general the rest of the game. Was that just part of a plan that you wanted to be diverse?

DANIEL GAFFORD: I mean, it's been a minute, in all honesty, just to have a post-up play for me, for sure, so it is new to me. Most definitely it's just something that me, J-Kidd, anybody else on the team that has seen it, if we see anybody down there when it comes to like a mismatch, I always throw it down there and we can just play out of it.

Q. It seems like this postseason but also within this series you've been facing new challenges, seeing what you're capable of, from the post-ups to figuring out how to guard a stretch 5. All that adjustment in such a rapid period of time, how have you managed that? Are you having fun? Is there anybody who's helping you?

DANIEL GAFFORD: Oh, for sure. The whole team is helping me. Everybody is having fun because at the end of the day it's the NBA Finals. There are going to be challenges. There's going to be obstacles. There's going to be adversity. We find ways to get through that as a team.

Q. I thought the crowd in Boston was awesome. What are you anticipating tomorrow night?

DANIEL GAFFORD: I feel like it's going to be the same. I always loved just coming here and playing with the home crowd involved. I heard it's a sold-out game tomorrow, so hopefully it's going to blow the roof off, most definitely. They should hear us on the other side of Texas.