NBA FINALS: CELTICS VS. MAVERICKS

June 16, 2024

Maxi Kleber

Dallas Mavericks

Practice Day

Q. What was the vibe in the locker room after Game 4, and was there a significant difference being 3-1?

MAXI KLEBER: That specifically wasn't the conversations, but the vibe was always good because we won, right. I think we also showed that that's how we've got to play and how we should play the game. That was more so the reason.

Q. We keep on talking that the team has never had to come back from 3-0. How do you go about making the impossible possible?

MAXI KLEBER: As a team, when you play professional sports, you never quit. You always fight. You always play. You always compete, and I think we showed that the last game. We had that energy, like a little bit desperation.

We have to treat every game like that. There's no relaxing. We've got to play our best because obviously we're playing against the best. But we are going to stay together and compete until the last game. So that has to be the mindset no matter what.

There's always been history in sports, in different sports. So I think as an athlete, you should always believe and always keep fighting.

Q. Everybody is talking about Luka and Kyrie. How can you help them?

MAXI KLEBER: Well, we have our schemes and we have a certain way that we play. I think it's more so understanding what we want to be and how we want to create certain mismatches and certain drive-and-shot opportunities. It's not so much changing our playing style right now. We've got to keep playing the basketball that we played all season long that got us here.

We've just got to make sure that we create the spot and the spacing for Kyrie and Luka. The first three games, we didn't do it as much. So they had to take all the shots and they had to settle for different shots.

Game 4, we played with a different pace. We got it up quick. That creates mismatches and better opportunities for us, and also creates an open floor, for example, and Derrick Jones, attacking and stuff like that. It's more about finding the right spacing, but there's no time to change our style right now.

Q. How were you guys able to get your mojo back?

MAXI KLEBER: Whatever it takes. That's the mindset, it's not going to be perfect, especially against a team like that. There had to be adjustments obviously because they play different than other teams. But I think we have great guys, smart guys, high-IQ guys that can adapt to changes, that's what we showed.

Last game, overall, still the energy was the key factor. And one of the guys who got us going early, for example, Dereck Lively, just like having that energy and alertness helps us to be on the same page, communicate better and have the right rotations down.

And that's what we've got to keep doing. Challenge every shot, they are a great shooting team, so you can't have moments where you mess up multiple offensive or defensive plays because they are just going to go on a run. For us, the energy kept us being alert and helped us adjust to the defensive rotations, too.