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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAGIC v CAVALIERS

May 26, 2009

Mike Brown

ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Game Four

Magic Â– 116
Cavaliers - 114

COACH BROWN: I tell you what, a heck of a game. I thought our guys laid it out there. They did a whale of a job competing, executing the game plan on both ends of the floor. And we got to give Orlando credit.
Rafer was big for them tonight with the 26 points. Also, their team as a whole from the three-point line was huge. And going in we knew that was a problem with that team because they are a good team from that line.
I thought we had a lot of guys step up and play big minutes for us and contribute that haven't played a ton this series. But our focus right now is Game 5. It's one game, Game 5, and we're looking forward to playing back at home.

Q. The turnovers in the fourth and overtime, I think you had nine total since the beginning of the fourth quarter. Can you talk about that and how much that hurt?
COACH BROWN: It hurt a lot. When you turn the ball over, you don't give yourself an opportunity obviously to score. Not only that, they're able to get out and go against your defense and get some easies.
Late in the game, just trying to help put us in a better position to score, our team has been unselfish the entire year. We coughed it up a few times, and that did have a factor late. But that's part -- that's part of the business.
We still got to try to find a way to sustain. Hopefully we don't turn the ball over. But if we do turn the ball over, we got to find a way to sustain.

Q. Mike, I know so much basketball was played after the initial minutes of quarter three. You guys had the eight-point lead at the half. Rafer goes 10-0 for the Magic. Even though you grew a lead again, in your opinion did you talk about trying to grow that lead at halftime? And how big was that Rafer spurt?
COACH BROWN: Rafer's spurt was huge. I mean, he played a heck of a game. Any time we had a lead, we talked about growing the lead. So, I mean, it wasn't like we didn't say keep going and keep doing what we're doing and try to build on it. It's part of what any good team does, is they try to build a lead.
You got to give Rafer credit. He came out beginning of that third, he was a big factor. He kept them in the game when we could have built the lead.

Q. How did Dwight Howard hurt you in that overtime?
COACH BROWN: I got to go back and watch the tape. Right now I'm trying to get my head right in terms of how the whole game laid out. Dwight was big because he knocked down free throws again. These last two games, he's got to be shooting at 83 percent from the free-throw line. So you got to give -- give him credit because in the playoffs he had 60-something percent. These last two games they needed every one of his free throws that he's made.
Just with his presence around the rim on the defense end of the floor and his presence around the rim on the offense end of the floor was big, especially when he knocks down them free throws.

Q. You talked about that one game, that next game.
COACH BROWN: Yeah.

Q. What do you guys have to do better in that next game?
COACH BROWN: One thing we have to do is give the same effort we gave tonight. You know, if we give the same effort we gave tonight and the same focus and so on and so forth, I think we'll be okay. I truly believe we'll be okay.

Q. Can you talk about the decision to go small at the start of the overtime. It seems like they really attacked Dwight in that small lineup there.
COACH BROWN: You know what? They were just playing pick-and-roll. They didn't -- whether we were small or big at the time, they were going to play pick-and-roll and look to create off of the pick-and-roll first and then just roll him to the basket, let him go block the block and throw inside to him second.
So, you know, we had Z, Andy, or Ben on him the whole time. That wasn't -- that wasn't a thing that bothered us. His initial ball screen a lot of times bothered us, and then they got some second shots, too. The time we fouled them, you got to give them credit, they stepped up to the free-throw line and knocked down their free throws.

Q. In the fourth quarter and overtime, it looked like the offense kind of got away from a lot of the quick ball movement and kind of focused a little too much on LeBron maybe. Did you feel that? Was that just guys maybe pressing too much and going to him out of a comfort zone?
COACH BROWN: You know what? He is our money guy. And a lot of teams do that throughout the course of the game. You watch the Lakers play, you watch any team with a great player on it, you have an offense that you run and hopefully you can stay in rhythm and run that offense the entire night.
But, you know, come fourth-quarter time, everybody knows the ball is going to be in Bron's hands. We know that. They know that. If we can get some stops and take care of the basketball, we'll have a good chance -- we'll have a good chance to win. We'll have a real good chance to win.

Q. On that same note, Mo didn't score after the third quarter, only took, I think, two shots. Why do you think he deferred so much late?
COACH BROWN: We put the ball in Bron's hand -- or I put the ball in Bron's hands. And they just did a nice job staying close to him on Bron's dribble penetration. So he didn't defer. We were small and I put the ball in his hands to see if we could get some early drags going and generate some drive and kick.
That's why he didn't get a ton of touches.

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