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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v SPURS

June 13, 2007

Mike Brown

CLEVELAND, OHIO: Practice Day

Q. Have you gone back and watched the game, the film, already?
COACH MIKE BROWN: Yeah.

Q. With LeBron last night, there seemed to be a couple of opportunities in the post where he had a one-on-one, and it almost it seemed like he waited and invited the double-team. Would you like to maybe see him attack right away instead of waiting to draw the double-team?
COACH MIKE BROWN: Any time he can attack, we're all for it, and we tell him if he can catch and go quick, great. But they've done a nice job mixing it up. Just like we've done on Tim. If you watch Tim play, he never goes quick. What he's doing is he's waiting to see where the double-team is coming from so he can get his teammates involved. That's what great players do at times. They read the defense and then they react and make the defense pay, and that's what he does from time to time.

Q. With the lack of scoring, though, in this series for you guys, would that be something you'd talk to him about and try differently since he's had 17 turnovers in this series already?
COACH MIKE BROWN: No, no, he's going quick. A lot of his turnovers have not come from when he was posting up. They come from pick-and-roll situations or even when he's just dribbling the ball down the floor a couple times, he's lost the handle. But when he's got the ball in the post and he's kicked it out of a post double-team, I mean, we got great looks. We went back, and we took 19 threes, and all but maybe three or four of them were great looks, from the same guys, from the same spots that we made the threes against Detroit and against New Jersey. You know, so I don't want to tell our guys to not shoot. Our guys have to understand if somebody is closing out -- it happened a couple times because San Antonio is great at it, then we've got to drive it.
But in terms of LeBron going quick or probing to see when and if a double-team is coming, if he mixes it up, that's great, but any time he feels like he can catch and go, we're okay with it.

Q. Can you talk about the frustration that you're feeling with the inconsistency from the supporting players? You're not getting good games from other guys on the same night and how costly that has been?
COACH MIKE BROWN: You know, you'd love to have it. You'd love to have all your guys play well every night. But San Antonio has something to do with it. San Antonio is a very good defensive team. They've been very physical. Like I just said, one of the things that they're doing a great job of is they're getting to our shooters and then making that paint look crowded, even after getting to our shooters on close-outs.
We've just got to continue to try to step into shots if we're open. If we're not open we've got to continue to drive the basketball. But the main thing is we've got to be aggressive. And if we're aggressive, I think at the end of the day good things will happen to us. But there's really nothing that you can do about a lack of scoring here or a lack of scoring there, especially when you're getting some pretty good looks like I thought we did last night.

Q. Comment on Drew's play. Foul trouble has bugged him throughout the series.
COACH MIKE BROWN: Well, last night I thought he was a physical presence. He took some pretty hard fouls, which is what we need him to do. We can't give up lay-ups against this team. We have to be a physical presence, especially around the basket, because if you give them lay-ups they're already too good, so they're going to get some open looks so it's just going to hurt you more. I think Drew was active, I think he rebounded the ball well, and I thought he tried to be a physical presence, especially the times he guarded Tim or when he was around the basket. You know, he's just got to keep being active. If he's open he's got to shoot it. If not I don't want him to force it. I want him to go get a teammate open.

Q. Comment on the foul trouble he's been getting into.
COACH MIKE BROWN: I feel like we have plenty of bigs to where if one of them gets in foul trouble, then Donyell can step in or Andy can step in, or if Z is sitting down we can bring him back. So with the four bigs that we've been rotating, I'm not really concerned about either one of those guys getting in foul trouble because I feel like they all give me something positive and they all give me something different. So Drew gets in foul trouble because he's taking the right fouls, or correct fouls, that I'm okay for. Because again, we don't want to give up any easies around that basket. The foul was when Tim had position on him. Tim is not a great free throw shooter. It was a 1-2 possession ballgame and the shot clock was winding down and he ended up getting beat, so instead of giving up a stone cold dunk he took a foul. But I'm living with that.

Q. LeBron's final shot there, surprised there wasn't a foul called after reviewing the play on tape?
COACH MIKE BROWN: You know, that's definitely not why we won or lost the ballgame. But again, it's the officials' call, whether it was a foul or not. From what I saw watching the tape, and I have an advantage because I'm going back and watching the replay and rewinding and pausing and all that, it looked like a foul to me. We asked the official about it at the end of the game, and he said that Bruce didn't touch him at all (laughter).

Q. Because of the status in the league, should he get that call? Should he be getting more respect, especially at home?
COACH MIKE BROWN: You know, you hope so, but again, officials are human, and he said that he didn't see Bruce touch him at all. The only thing I can do is believe him because he didn't make the call. But you'd hope a guy like LeBron in that situation would get that call, especially when the opposing team is intentionally trying to do it. But it is what it is. And again, that's not why we won or lost the ballgame. It would have been interesting to see if he would have gotten the call and knocked the three free throws, had a chance to knock down the three free throws.

Q. We watched LeBron shoot for 31 minutes before yesterday's game early, like around 6:10 to 6:41, something like that. Is that ever an indication of how he's going to shoot in the game, and once he did get into the game, he made no jump shots. How much of that was him, how much of that was San Antonio?
COACH MIKE BROWN: You've got to give San Antonio some credit. Bruce does a great job of hawking the ball and making sure that there's not a ton of airspace. He had some good looks, though. There were times especially during pick-and-roll situations that Bruce goes at least two removed, sometimes he goes three removed, to get -- in terms of dropping the ball and trying to meet LeBron on the backside. With him getting shots up before the game, this playoff run, there are times that he has come really early and he's shot the ball really well during the game. Then like last night he came really early and he didn't shoot the ball well. But like you said, you've got to give San Antonio some credit for it. But hey, if he's open I want him to keep stepping in and shooting it whether for two or for three.
The one thing that he did do is, late in the ballgame he gave us an opportunity in that fourth quarter because he started driving the ball. Even though his shot wasn't falling he was still turning it up a notch with his aggression and he found a way to get to the rim. A couple of lay-ups he had going back and watching the tape, boy oh boy, I'd almost bet my whole paycheck that those shots would go in. Not my whole contract but my paycheck (laughter).

Q. LeBron talks about wanting to take on the mantle of responsibility of being a leader. So other than being just generally positive and encouraging and all the things I'm sure all the guys on the team are doing right now, what can he do in this 24 hours to be a leader of this team?
COACH MIKE BROWN: The biggest thing is understand with body language, not necessarily saying anything, but just with body language, show that, hey, this thing is not over, because it's not over. It's not over until somebody wins the fourth game. We, when I say we, it's myself and the rest of the guys and especially LeBron included, have to understand it's one day, one game at a time. Nobody has come back from an 0-3 deficit like this, but like I was saying, there's always a first time for everything.

End of FastScripts

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