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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS v PISTONSMay 31, 2007Mike BrownDETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game Five COACH BROWN: What an exciting game. I thought Detroit played a terrific ballgame. I thought their crowd was terrific. They gave them a lot of juice, especially down the stretch. I thought tonight we did a nice job attacking the rim at the right time as a team, especially LeBron. He did a nice job of mixing in jump shots and attacking the rim, and so did everybody else from Daniel Gibson to Z, he had some great post moves on down. I thought everybody contributed tonight, especially toward the end of the ballgame, even during the course of the ballgame we had guys contributing. I thought Scot came in and in the locker room I told him, Scot, you gave us a great six seconds, and he corrected me and said it was 12, so his 12 seconds was terrific. He fouled at the right time and fouled the right guy and he did his job. But especially down the stretch I thought our guys -- because we were going offense-defense a lot with Daniel and Eric Donyell and Damon was in the mix, and I thought our guys were doing what they were supposed to be doing, trying to keep the floor spread and keeping our guys in there defensively, and the guys were in tune to what was going on and it made my job easier when it came to subbing right away. I thought that obviously LeBron had a terrific game. I mean, we've been riding him the whole season. We rode him most the playoffs and tonight for him to score 29 of the last 30 points, somebody told me that in the locker room and I could not believe it. I could not believe he scored 29 of the last 30 points. That was a phenomenal performance, not only that but the guy had seven assists, he has nine rebounds, he did it all. He always does it all for us. And, you know, everybody keeps asking for more and he is a willing guy, he just keeps giving us more. I thought he got hit a couple of times, also, and he just clapped his hands, you know, and kept going. He could have gone into a funk, and just said, hey, forget it, especially when we were down seven or five or something like that. He got hit a couple of times when it was a little bit closer, but he just kept attacking. He said the other night, "hey, we're a no-excuse team" and I also said it, and he showed that tonight. He just kept attacking and he didn't quit. Because he didn't quit, the rest of the team didn't quit. We kept fighting until the final buzzer. We know the next game is going to be tough. It's going to be a dogfight and we're ready for the challenge. Q. Coach, do you think LeBron has any sense that this is a historic game, and people will be talking about this game for years to come? No one has ever scored 29 out of 30 points at the end of the game. COACH BROWN: I don't know, he's 22 years old or something like that, so I don't know if he thought this game was important. He's a pretty smart guy, he might know, he might not know. I think he just did what he felt he needed to do for us to win the ballgame. I don't think he was trying to set any historical mark or anything like that, he just did what he felt he was supposed to do to help us win, and that's defending and he scored for us late in the fourth quarter and in overtime. So that would have to be something you ask him. I don't know. That was a heck of a game for him, but for him to score 29 of 30, that completely blew my mind, what I was told. I don't know what he can't do. Q. Mike, you've been on a championship team as a coach, you've coached some great players, where does LeBron rank, even though he's only 22? And is this the single most important game you've ever witnessed? COACH BROWN: In this atmosphere, yes, this is the single best game I've ever seen in this atmosphere, hands down. And I've been around some great players. He was phenomenal tonight, and I felt bad because my words don't give it justice for what he did. He was awesome and at 22 years old, wow. That's all, wow. Wow. Q. Coach, you didn't know the stats but going through those two overtimes, the only guy who scores in either overtime, what was the thought process on the bench of what LeBron was doing? Were you guys turning to each other at all and saying, "wow, he's really taking us -- COACH BROWN: No. I asked him one time because I knew he was -- I knew we were going to him an awful lot. That's why we tried to keep our shooters on the floor when we had the basketball. I asked him one time I said, "Hey, LeBron, you want to go sit for five and take a break?" And he said, "a break on offense?" And I said, okay, let's go right back to LeBron and spread the floor. That's what we did and he won the great many for us. Q. Coach, the first quarter, McDyess on Anderson Varejao, LeBron went after Antonio McDyess and Maxiell grabbed him before he went after Antonio McDyess. COACH BROWN: I didn't see LeBron going after Antonio McDyess, I turned to look at the referees to see what they were going to do, and I looked up and it looked like there were a group of guys together, so I ran out there to try to get him first and the other guys second. You know, he's a smart guy, he was doing what his teammates are supposed to do, sticking up for your players, and we know it's going to be physical and they would have done the same thing. So I'm proud of him, and his teammates are proud of him, too, for coming to Anderson's defense. Q. What did you guys learn from last year that you can apply to this year and close out in Game 6? COACH BROWN: It's going to be tough. The most aggressive team is going to win, simple as that. Can't come out and be passive. Can't be nothing passive about our game. We've got to come out with aggression on both ends of floor and get after it for 48 minutes. Q. Is there anything specific that your team learned that you can apply? COACH BROWN: There were a lot of moments that we learned from last year in terms of the Game 6 and Game 7 losses, and we know what it feels like to be defeated, especially until a situation like this. We feel like we've grown from it, but it comes back to they know exactly what we're going to run, we sort of know what they are going to run, it has nothing to do with it; it's going be to the most aggressive team defensively and offensively that's going to win that ballgame. Q. Mike, you took LeBron out in the beginning of the fourth quarter, I think that's the first time in the whole playoffs, and you guys were able to get a lead there. Talk about the rest and if you thought that helped him with energy down the stretch. COACH BROWN: I did, I thought it helped him down the stretch. I just looked at him and I think we finally won a third quarter against these guys, and he had a lot to do with it because they jumped out on us early. I think they scored eight quick points and he carried us toward the end of the third, and I just looked at him and I thought he looked like he needed a blow, so we got our subs in and gave him a rest, and we had a nice rhythm going. So I tried to keep him out as long as possible and I think probably at the end of the day that did help out. Q. Mike, what was the difference in the third quarter? Did you guys do anything differently at halftime? COACH BROWN: No. Q. Did you say anything differently? COACH BROWN: No. A good friend of mine told me, he said, "Tell your team to see if they can score three layups before the first time-out, and see if that would help." So I told the team that; I don't know if they did it or not, but that's the only thing new that I said to them, "Hey, guys, let's see if we can score three layups before the first timeout." I guess it worked. My friend might have a little bit of insight. Q. Who was the friend? COACH BROWN: I can't tell you. Q. Coach, talk a little bit about LeBron's defense. You made the decision to put him on Chauncey, and that created an obvious mismatch somewhere else. Were you concerned about that at all and how did you manage to cover that up? COACH BROWN: Well, I mean, Chauncey is a terrific player. I mean, they've got four All-Stars and Tayshaun should be an All-Star, so they have terrific players especially across the perimeter. If Chauncey gets going we'll try to put a bigger guy on him so he won't take advantage of taking us down to the post, and that's what we tried to do. But then you've got to worry about taking LeBron off Tayshaun and putting a smaller guy, Sasha is not that small but he's smaller than LeBron, and putting Damon or Daniel Gibson on Rip, so it makes it tough. But none of our guys have an assignment all by themselves. So Damon doesn't have Richard Hamilton when he's out on the floor by himself. Our philosophy is all five guys guard the basketball, so Damon knows if his feet are placed the right way, when he's guarding the ball he's going to eventually get help. Our big thing is communicate, help, and trust, trust that your teammate is going to be there, trust in the system, and if we do all those things with effort for 48 minutes, we'll give ourselves a chance no matter what the match-ups are across the board. Q. Mike, you mentioned this after Game 4, Eric Snow didn't play a whole lot in Game 4 and had some key possessions for you defensively. It looked very similar tonight that he had some key possessions for you in the fourth quarter and overtime. Can you talk a little bit about his defense. COACH BROWN: Again, I can go down the list and talk about everybody, you know, had one specific moment in time during the course of the ballgame. But, again, Eric, I threw him in there ten seconds I think in the first half and down the stretch in the second half, and I felt that I needed him on the floor because Rip started to get going. And I happened to keep LeBron on Tayshaun. I wanted to put Sasha back on Rip because we had Booby on him and that allowed me to put him on Chauncey. And Eric is a tough guy to post up, so we tried to see if he could drive and do some pick-and-rolls. He was key for us, he made some stops and offensively he did exactly what we needed him to do when he helped space the floor, and we had him on the ball a couple times. He was huge especially down the stretch defensively guarding different guys. 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