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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS v PISTONSMay 31, 2007Mike BrownDETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game Five Q. Coach, just wondering, LeBron picked up some fouls, more fouls in the New Jersey series guarding Jefferson, less fouls in this series, is it because he's playing more of a free-safety defense or are the Pistons not attacking him as much as Jefferson did? COACH BROWN: No, he's not playing the free safety. We have team defensive rules that he has to abide by whether he's on the strong side, weak side or even defending the basketball and he's done a nice job with that. I think this round, you know, they're letting a few more things go, maybe, I don't know. But Detroit definitely is coming at him. You know, they post up Tayshaun Prince quite a bit. You know, LeBron has to sit down and defend them, but there are times when we come with double-teams against Tayshaun, we mix it up, sometimes we'll come with a double-team, sometimes we won't. So sometimes he gets a little bit more help. Q. Mike, kind of piggy-backing off that, how would you rate his defensive play, particularly in the fourth quarters of the last two games? COACH BROWN: Very good. You know, he's been in tune to what we're supposed to be doing defensively in terms of assignments. And, you know, he's played with effort and passion. And you can't ask for more than that. He's even going in and rebounding quite a bit, so I would say it's very good. Q. Mike, are you going to go with Larry tonight? Is he going to start? COACH BROWN: You know, I don't know yet. I haven't talked to our doctors or anything like that. They're supposed to let me know about an hour before tip-off. But, yeah, if he can play, he'll start. Q. Mike, there's been a lot of talk the last couple days that Detroit hasn't played real well, is this underdog role something that you guys kind of relish? You guys don't get to play that role very often and obviously that's what your role is this series. Is that what your team relishes? COACH BROWN: You know, I don't know, I haven't brought it up, we haven't talked about being the underdog once in the locker room nor on the practice court, so we don't look at it as that. We do respect Detroit and know that they're a great basketball team and all that other stuff, but we're confident in our own abilities and confident in the guys that we have in that locker room, and we know if we play hard for 48 minutes or for as close to 48 minutes as possible, we're capable of beating anybody, but if we don't, we don't have a lot of room for slippage, then we're going to get beat. Detroit is a great team and I don't know if they've been playing as good as they can or not. We're just trying to win. Q. This may be a stretch but the way you defend Chauncey, how much of that did you get from what Carlisle did when you were on his staff? And did you learn stuff from Carlisle to apply to guarding Chauncey in this series? COACH BROWN: Rick is a great coach. I stole stuff from Rick Carlisle, from Gregg Popovich, from Bernie Bickerstaff. Q. Specifically to Chauncey -- COACH BROWN: Well, no, you know. I was actually the defensive coordinator in Indiana. So Rick gave me a lot of insight while I was there, but we defended Chauncey a little bit different in Indiana than we have done here. But in terms of what we're doing and different things we're mixing up, I've stolen all that stuff. Q. Mike, have you called Pop since their victory last night or do you have any plans to call him? COACH BROWN: I called and left a message just to congratulate him. End of FastScripts |
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