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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v SPURSJune 9, 2007Drew GoodenSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Practice Day Q. At the end of the day, did you guys just lose a basketball game in Game 1? I mean, we've analyzed this to death. Did they do something that you didn't expect or hadn't seen before, or did you guys just lose a game? DREW GOODEN: I think LeBron as an individual has seen a different type of defense thrown at him throughout the whole year, and we knew how to adjust throughout the course of the game with the different schemes that our opponent was trying to throw at us defensively. We didn't play our best game, and we know that. I don't even think we played our mediocre game. We had a lot of mistakes out there. Offensively we weren't getting it done. Defensively we need to do a little bit better. We looked back at the tape, and we know it's Game 1, we got the first game jitters out of the way, and hopefully we'll play better in Game 2. Q. When you came out of -- obviously you played at Kansas so you played defense when you came out of college when you were in college. But coming into this league, did you really have an appreciation for the type of defense that needed to be played at this level to win a championship? DREW GOODEN: You know what, I thought that the defensive principles of Roy Williams were just set in stone, and that's how you did things, you know, every day and every game throughout my whole career in college. But in the NBA, every night it's different. You're playing against different guys with different talents. So every night the defensive scheme would be different. Playing in a system as San Antonio Spurs or as the Cleveland Cavaliers, that's your model. You're a defensive team, and that's what comes first. We kind of rooted our principles from San Antonio, through Popovich and Mike Brown. So it's two teams that know each other's system out there, so you kind of clash and kind of pick and pinpoint, man, these guys are doing the same thing we're doing out here. So it is a game of adjustments, but at the same time, I don't think you'll see too many defensive adjustments from the San Antonio Spurs. Q. How did your team accept or embrace the notion that you had to play defense under Mike? DREW GOODEN: When he first came in. I think the first minute he came in as a coach, after media day, he put numbers on the board, and it was the four top teams defensively in the NBA from the previous year and where we ranked that year. I mean, we were like 27, 28 defensively that year before he came in. He put four teams up, I think it's the Pistons, San Antonio, Miami Heat and another team, and they all had a certain amount of -- percentage of defensive field goal percentage where they kept their opponent. He said if we can get here from here, I'll tell you what, we'll be a great team. At first we thought, it makes sense on the board, but when we actually got into practice and started figuring out the different defensive schemes and how he wants us to play defense, it kind of grew on us, and now it's to a point where it's second nature. Q. I know that everybody likes to analyze every move that LeBron James makes, but how much of Game 2 is going to depend on how the rest of you guys are able to pay off with shots? DREW GOODEN: What it looks like is San Antonio is going to contain LeBron James and wants the guys around him to do the damage. We accept that challenge. We've got guys that can score the ball in many ways, and off the bench, also. So we've just got to step up and be there to have LeBron's back. Q. In your experience, who do you think is going to have a big game then? DREW GOODEN: From my experience, you know what, it could be any given night. I think throughout the whole season and playoffs, you guys have seen that. Some nights it's me, some nights it's Daniel Gibson, Sasha, Larry, Z, it's kind of like pick your poison, and whoever is getting it going that night, we want to get them the ball and allow them to do the damage. We know LeBron James is the engine that's running this team, but we do have his back if all else fails. Q. Just a question about your haircut. Where does it come from? Tony Parker wants to know. DREW GOODEN: It's an old '80s style called a duck tail. Everybody is bringing back the mohawks, and all the '80s fads are making their way back, so I said, what the heck, I'll grow back a duck tail. End of FastScripts |
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