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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS v PISTONSMay 21, 2007Mike BrownDETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game One Q. I wanted to ask, Ilgauskas for instance, this kind of opportunity doesn't come around this time of year, especially going through his personal tragedy, especially to kind of get away and play basketball for a while. COACH BROWN: I'm happy for all our guys, for them to continue to try to get better day in and day out and understand if you do focus and play the right way, you'll give yourself some opportunities that not many people get. I'm happy for him, but in the same breath, too, I know and they know that our job is not over yet, so, you know, we're cautious about getting overjoyed about where we are now because this is not where we want to stop. Q. The way the series ended here last year, how much more confident are you or how much more versatile do you think you guys are as an offensive team, to maybe give you the sense that that wouldn't happen again, that kind of stagnation? COACH BROWN: Well, we feel like we are better offensively. We've still got a long way to go on that end of the floor, but we've done some things this year that will help LeBron and not put as much pressure on him, on his shoulders, to carry us all the time. We'll be able to give other guys opportunities to step up and help us out through the course of the ballgame. In the same breath, Detroit is a very good team defensively. They held Chicago to 40 percent shooting and 88 points a game in that last series, and who would have thunk it with the way they play offense and the way they have shooters on that team. We know we have a tough task at hand. Q. Are you going to be cognizant after last year what happened early in the series, not letting them get out to a big lead in the first quarter? Will you maybe call time-out earlier than you would have and try to manage that just from what happened last year? COACH BROWN: Yeah, I will. Last year they came out smoking, and I didn't think they'd hit all those threes. You would think that they'd start missing after a while, shooting that ball, but they didn't. They ran away with it. But the thing that I liked that our guys did, they understood that it wasn't over, and it's not going to be over until the fourth victory for one of us, until that buzzer goes off. Yeah, I would try to manage it a little bit better this time around. Hopefully it doesn't get to that point. Q. What one thing do you think makes your team different or better this year than last year at this point last year? COACH BROWN: Well, we have a better understanding not only offensively, like Bud was talking about, but defensively, too, we feel like we're a more capable team. But on the offensive end of the floor, we feel like we have more weapons, and we feel like we have a better sense of what to do with those weapons and how to use them. So hopefully tonight we'll get some good looks and guys will step in and they'll knock some shots down and we can continue getting stops like we had throughout the playoffs. But the experience of going through what we went through last year has helped in our confidence department and our understanding department of where we are. And hopefully that will show tonight. Q. Which LeBron do you like to see come out, the one who tries to get everybody involved in the first quarter or the one who comes out like he did in New Jersey the other night? COACH BROWN: You know, I like him aggressive, but I don't want him overly aggressive because to do that for 48 minutes is tough. It's tough for anybody to do. So at the beginning of a lot of games, I purposely call other guys' numbers to see if we can get this guy involved or that guy involved so we have another outlet or we have confidence to go elsewhere with the basketball. And then I let him -- let the game come as it may in whatever terms he feels necessary. So it really doesn't matter, I just don't want him to go out there and be overly aggressive initially, do it for 15 minutes, and then gas out, because he's going to play a lot of minutes for us, and we'll probably go to him late. Q. I just want to lighten this up a little bit. COACH BROWN: Fair enough. Q. At least part of the reason that you're playing Thursday instead of Wednesday is because the NBA didn't want to go up against American Idol. I'm curious if you watch American Idol and how you feel about being upstaged by American Idol. COACH BROWN: Trust me, I've been upstaged a lot in my life, so I'm okay with that. But I don't watch American Idol. I did see some stuff, though, when that guy had the hair going on (laughter) -- he had like the braids and the wig and stuff like that. That's all I know on American Idol, and Paula Abdul. I used to listen to her when I was younger. Q. One other question: Last series they picked on Sasha, New Jersey picked on Sasha to see if they could get him rattled a little bit. Do you anticipate Detroit picking on guys or getting extra physical to see if you'll respond? COACH BROWN: They're going to be physical because that's their nature. They're a veteran team, and they want to make sure that we understand that we're in a dogfight, so they're going to come out, they're going to be aggressive, they're going to be physical, and not just with Sasha but with all our guys. One of the things we have to do because they don't get fouls called on them at all, I think they have the second least amount of fouls called on them as any team in the league, we're going to have to keep our poise. We're going to have to play through some calls we think that should have been made but weren't. That's going to be a real concern of ours; we can't get rattled. End of FastScripts |
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