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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAGIC v CAVALIERS

May 28, 2009

Stan Van Gundy

CLEVELAND, OHIO: Game Five

Cavaliers Â– 112
Magic - 102

COACH VAN GUNDY: As rough as tonight was, we are going to start this off by saying happy anniversary to my wife. And, Kim, I love you very much. Twenty-one years today. You put up with me for 21 years; you deserve a huge reward.
At the start of the game, again, is just -- I think it is really good that -- we'll continue to fight and dig out of holes, but I think we've proven to the nation that we have mental toughness and we'll fight back enough. Okay? We don't need to keep trying to prove that by being down 20-plus points at the start of games. It takes a great deal of energy to dig out of those holes every night.
I thought we did a really good job. We go into the fourth quarter we are right there, and we just didn't get it done. There are a few factors. No. 1, the Cavs played I thought very, very well, moved the ball well, shot the ball better than they have.
Mo Williams busted out. I thought they did a lot of good things. I thought for us we put them on the line too much. We missed free throws and at key times, we turned the ball over and allowed them back into the game.
And I think to win this series we will have to play for 48 minutes, which we haven't done other than Game 3 in this series. We are going to have to defend better. We are going to have to rebound and take care of the ball. Those are simple things.
I'm sure Mike is telling his team the same things. Those are tried-and-true basketball principles, and we haven't brought that mentality into the games. We have been living and dying with our offense. As I said before the game, a very, very dangerous thing. And I thought the Cavs brought -- besides great offense especially early on, I thought they brought a heightened defensive mentality, and we did not.
They deserved to get this one. As poorly as I thought we played, we still were there with chances to win with five minutes to go and didn't get it done, and we have to get ready to go on Saturday.

Q. You mentioned the start. What is it when you guys get down that sparks this team? Is it the Cavaliers taking quick shots and allowing you to get back in, or is it something -- adjustments you are making on the bench?
COACH VAN GUNDY: Oh, yeah, my brilliant judgements, yeah. If it was my brilliance, I would figure out how to start the game better, believe me.
I don't have any idea, to be quite honest with you. I just -- it is three straight games here in Cleveland and you are in a big hole. We were lucky enough to get the first one, a chance with the second one. Tonight we got all the way back up, eight, I think. But it just -- it takes a lot out of you. I don't get into my bench enough, wear down our starters a little bit trying to fight back.
And I start to put it on our starting unit after the game. They got to get us off to better starts, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. I don't think they've done that in this series. They will have to do that on Saturday night.

Q. I know it is uncomfortable. Or as LeBron is assisting and scoring on those 29 straight fourth-quarter points, can you share with us how the feeling is as the opposing coach?
COACH VAN GUNDY: I guess you can pretty much guess how that is. It is really tough because they are giving him the ball in the middle of the floor, as it has been pretty much the whole series. Now, tonight early on they got some other people involved, but the game is basically all LeBron all the time. It is a difficult area to double team him in. Difficult part of the floor because of his shooters and because of his passing. I do think there are some things we can do, we can look at going into Game 6.
Then you play him one-on-one and it is real tough. He makes shots. If he gets into the paint, it is automatically a foul. So it becomes very, very difficult. And, you know, one of the things we got to do is we can't keep putting him on the line 20 times a game.
I mean, guy's average -- guys like him average 10 free throws, 11 free throws, but he is getting 20 every game against us. We got to find a way to stop that.

Q. Coach, will you go into Saturday looking at Game 6 like it is Game 7 considering --
COACH VAN GUNDY: No. It is Game 6. I can count. I'm good in math. It is Game 6.

Q. Coach, you talked about LeBron through the first four games and how amazing he was with the points that he scored. But a triple-double. Is he more dangerous when he's doing this tonight?
COACH VAN GUNDY: He made great plays down the stretch. It is -- again, I think there is a couple things we got to figure out. But the first one is, I mean, when you are getting close to 20 free-throw attempts every night, that's just going to make it tough. We got guys sitting on the bench, so we are not as good at the offensive end either.
We got to find a way to keep him from every single time he drives the ball it is a foul. I mean, we've got to do something to keep him off the free-throw line.

Q. Do you think running two guys at him trying to get the ball out of his hands -- he beat you on some assists.
COACH VAN GUNDY: That's something you got to look at. Where he's getting the ball in the middle of the floor could make that pretty difficult. But we certainly shouldn't -- you know, I don't think we can go again down the stretch with him doing that.

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