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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v SPURS

June 12, 2007

Mike Brown

CLEVELAND, OHIO: Game Three

Q. Can you comment on the 2-3-2 format and comment on whether you think that can help get this team back in the series?
COACH MIKE BROWN: I'm okay with it. You know, 2-3-2, it changes it up from the other rounds. I don't know if it is an advantage for any team, though. You've still got to win games, most likely on Sunday's home court, especially if you're not the higher seed. So it's fine.

Q. LeBron was out there about 6:00 working pretty hard. He worked up a pretty good sweat before the game tonight. I'm sure you're not surprised by that, but do you worry about him? He plays so many minutes already. Or are you fine with him however he's got to get himself ready for this game?
COACH MIKE BROWN: Yeah, whatever it takes. Whatever those guys need to do. I'm talking about any of other guys, whatever they individually need to do to get themselves ready for the ballgame, I'm all for it.

Q. Did you see him out there at all?
COACH MIKE BROWN: No. I guess he's done it a few times during the playoffs. I thought he had done it a few times, also, not much, but during the regular season, too. But I don't know (laughing). But I'm okay with what he wants to do to get himself going.

Q. Seeing how Game 2 went, how important is the first quarter tonight, to get off to a good start?
COACH MIKE BROWN: I always want to get off to a good start. But again, it's a 48-minute game, and we have to make sure that we're playing for 48 minutes. We can't have any lulls whatsoever, especially against this team. Because if you do, they'll make you pay and they'll make you pay for every single mistake that you make. If we get off to a great start, good, but I just want to be solid to begin the game so that we have a chance to figure out what it's going to take to win.

Q. Could you just give us an update on Larry and if he'll be starting tonight?
COACH MIKE BROWN: I'm going to go. I still have to talk to our doctors. I've been doing a few other media things, and I'll go talk to our doctor, see how he's doing. They were supposed to take a look at his foot today, and if he can go, it's going to be just like normal. He's going to start, and I'll keep watching him. His minutes may be limited like they have been ever since he's been injured against Detroit and even in the last two ballgames, and then if he can't, we'll just have to make a decision.

Q. Daniel Gibson only averaged about 17 minutes this season and hasn't played 40 minutes yet in a game. Is that part of the reason why you don't want to change the starting line-up, because you don't want to give him his minutes early because you want to have him at the end of the game?
COACH MIKE BROWN: No, Larry went three straight games against the team that won the east in the Pistons, and we had a nice rotation that we're comfortable with. Daniel has a nice rhythm coming off the bench. He feels good about it, we feel good about it. That's the reason. I'm not worried about Daniel playing 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes. He's a young guy and he'll have a few months to rest here in a couple of weeks, so it doesn't matter.

Q. Game 6 here was pretty electric. What do you expect the atmosphere to be like in this arena with the first Finals game in franchise history being hosted?
COACH MIKE BROWN: Well, the fans here have been terrific. They've been terrific the entire year, and the playoffs, they've been great, so I don't think that's going to change at all tonight. I think the city is fired up for this game tonight and for the game we're going to have in the future. The building will be electric.

Q. You really stressed aggressiveness after the last game. How big a part of that equation is being physical?
COACH MIKE BROWN: That's a lot to do with it. Right now they've been the more physical team, and it's showed by the hustle plays that they've come up with. It's showed by the offensive rebounding they've been able to do, and it's showed by the way they've been able to get to the free-throw line. We're going to have to step up our aggressive play on both ends of the floor, but we're going to have to do it with poise. It's a fine line you have to walk when it comes to being aggressive. You want to make sure that you don't go over the top with it because it can really take you out of your game, especially against a very good team in the Spurs.

Q. Have you thought at all about maybe altering your inactive list and taking a look at Shannon?
COACH MIKE BROWN: Yeah, I always think about altering my inactive list, but I don't -- for me personally, I'd be a little worried putting any of those guys on Tony Parker because David hasn't played much and he's older, and Shannon hasn't played much. And yes, he's athletic, but all he has to do is breathe on Tony and it's going to be a foul. You know, if either of those two guys were to be activated, I'd most likely wouldn't put neither one of those guys on Tony, especially if I can help it.

Q. How can you describe your team's spirits being down 2-0?
COACH MIKE BROWN: We've been in this position before, so our guys have an understanding where they are. We've had success with it, we've come close to having success with it before. We keep preaching one day, one game at a time. If we keep following that sermon, then we'll be good to go.

Q. Not to belabor the point, of course I guess I am, but you have a player in Hughes who obviously you said you're monitoring his minutes, and he has a medical condition. Are you getting enough from him to justify playing him, given the circumstances you've described about him?
COACH MIKE BROWN: At times I am, at times I haven't, and I did the last three games against Detroit. The first game I didn't feel like I was getting enough, and I think that's why he played maybe 23 minutes, I'm not sure. I didn't feel like I was getting enough from him in Game 2, and that's why his minutes went down from 23-plus down to 20. If I don't feel like I'm getting enough from any of our players I don't have a problem sitting them or telling them they're going to sit. But again, I always talk to the doctors beforehand when it comes to anybody that's injured, hear what they have to say, and then I'll go and I'll reevaluate where I think the player is, whether I think he can help us or not in that particular game that's coming up.

Q. What can you do to try to get more out of Ilgauskas?
COACH MIKE BROWN: You know, he's had some pretty good looks, and we're going to have to keep giving him the ball in those spots because we need something out of him when it comes to scoring. San Antonio was too tough for us to get all or the bulk of us going to one guy. We have to spread the wealth a little bit. He's got to get us anywhere from 10 to 14 points on the block and picking-and-popping. We're going to keep trying to give him the ball in those sweet spots and he's going to have to keep stepping in and shooting that ball or making a move to the basket trying to score in the post. You know, if we don't, it's going to be tough for us to win.

Q. Can you just talk about Daniel Gibson's emergence, and if he does have to log a lot of minutes tonight, are you feeling confident about him being able to perform under this pressure?
COACH MIKE BROWN: The one thing that Daniel is, he's really poised. That's given me the confidence in him from day one. I'm confident in the guy. He's a second-round pick that I put in the starting lineup in the middle of the year over a veteran point guard in Eric Snow, who's a winner. I made the change because I felt Daniel was ready. The reason why I took him out of the line-up was because he got hurt. When he got hurt, the group that was out on the floor, they played fairly well, and I didn't want to break up the flow nor the chemistry of what we had going.
Daniel is a guy that's capable of playing big minutes for us, and it could happen tonight, it could happen on any given night. I'm confident in him. I just tell him, "Let it fly. Nobody can guard you. You're one of the best shooters in the NBA even at the young age that you are now, so let it fly."

Q. During the regular season, rebounding was one of your strengths as a team. Game 1, lost rebounding battles, lost rebounds looking at the tape. Game 2 you were down 11 rebounds at the half. Second half you make your run and you out rebound them by seven. What have you done to re-emphasize it? What from the tape in Game 2 was the rebounding problem, and how are you going to fix that?
COACH MIKE BROWN: They're just kicking our behind, there's nothing to it. They're getting to those long rebounds quicker than we are. We're not putting bodies on bodies when it comes to boxing guys out, and that's what they're doing on the other end. The thing is we can do it, we can talk about it and we can show it, and we did both those things to all of our guys where they're not putting bodies on bodies and boxing guys out and we're not going to get the long rebounds. San Antonio is just hungry in those areas. Now we've just got to go do it.

Q. The line-up that you had on the floor in the fourth quarter in Game 2, I know you said they played with aggression and poise. What else worked with that line-up? Why did that line-up seem to have so much success?
COACH MIKE BROWN: If you think about it, that's the line-up that won the game for us against New Jersey, scored a lot of points with that line-up in the fourth quarter. They just got to driving and kicking, and they played great team defense together in Game 6. That was the same line-up out on the floor when we went on our run that fourth quarter. Again, you've got four shooters -- excuse me, three shooters with LeBron and Andy out there, and we get to playing pick-and-roll and driving aggressively and moving the basketball and having multiple drive and kicks until somebody is open for a lay-up or somebody is open for a catch and shoot three.
And then again against Detroit they played great team defense. And in Game 2 in the fourth quarter, same thing, we just drove and kicked the basketball aggressively off the pick-and-roll and guys stepped into shots when they were open, and defensively, we were solid as a team on the defensive end of the floor.

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