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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAGIC v CAVALIERS

May 20, 2009

Mike Brown

CLEVELAND, OHIO: Game One

Magic Â– 107
Cavaliers - 106

COACH BROWN: I tell you what, that was one hell of a game by both teams. I thought down the stretch each team -- both teams made plays. The guys stepped up and made big plays. And obviously Rashard's 3 was the last big play made of the game, so you have to give them credit.
I thought that LeBron throughout the game was amazing for us. Offensively, he was terrific, he did exactly what we asked him to do in terms of attacking the rim, and the other guys fed off of him.
But he had an amazing 41 minutes and 14 seconds. I thought for those guys obviously Dwight was very good on the low post.
Rashard shot the ball well from the perimeter, but Mickael Pietrus did a nice job coming off the bench and knocking down some shots. He had a couple of tough shots tonight that we felt like we wanted him to take as opposed to catch and shoot 3s in the corner.
I thought in the second half our defensive transition wasn't as good as it was in the first half. That opened up the game a little bit for him. And then also obviously in the pick-and-roll game they got going some.
And on the flip side, offensively, in the second half we were a little bit more stagnant than we were in the first half, the ball wasn't moving from side to side like it was in the first half and we didn't get the throw-aheads for some easy looks in that second half like we did in the first half. But that's why this is a series. A series is not won nor lost after one game.
I have confidence in our guys. I trust our guys, and we'll be ready for Game 2 when it comes around.

Q. You mentioned in the second half both the defensive transitions not being as crisp but also the offense getting stagnant. Why do you think that is? Could it be related? I know the rust and the layoff is an overworked question. But is there a mental fatigue maybe as much as physical that just not having played until recently can contribute to?
COACH BROWN: No. I mean, we had a layoff after the first round and we faced the same thing, so I don't look at it as, you know, that layoff being -- affecting us and affecting us offensively or defensively. You got to give Orlando credit. They did a nice job of staying in the game and making a run there at the end. We know we can do a better job offensively of getting the ball from one side of the floor to the other or driving their defense -- especially when their defense is set. That's what we have to do. But it didn't have anything to do with the layoff.

Q. Last two possessions, their possession with Rashard hits the 3. Defensively, with Dwight out, were you thinking they were probably going to go for the 3 and not want to go to overtime? And then you end up taking a 3 when you only need to add two on that last possession. Can you just go through those?
COACH BROWN: Well, they didn't -- their play wasn't designed to get a 3. Because what happened, Rashard caught the ball on the wing and drove it, I think, the first time. I got to go back and watch the tape. He drove it the first time and he did a pretty good job of reacting to it.
What he did was he made a hell of a play popping back out to the wing. And he caught Andy in isolation, and Andy in terms of isolation, Andy has done a nice job on him all night. Rashard was in a rhythm, and he raised up and knocked down a tough shot.
On the flip side for us, LeBron drove the basketball. They ran Gortat at him. They shrunk on him. We had our shooters in the game, and, I mean, you know, it was the right basketball play. I have not seen the last play, but just thinking back on it, he didn't have the shot because they ran somebody at him, plus they shrunk the floor. So he kicked it to Mo who had a guy closing on him. He swung it to Delonte and Delonte was wide open. Delonte's look was ten times better than Rashard's look at that point.
That's something that you live with because I believe in all of our guys, especially shooting an uncontested 3 at any given time.

Q. Mike, Stan Van Gundy was pretty down on himself right before you came in, saying he didn't do a very good coaching job, but obviously his team made the adjustments. How do you feel about the job he did and how much credit or blame do you feel the coaching gets in tonight's game?
COACH BROWN: Stan is a good coach. I don't know how good or bad he did tonight. He would probably be the best evaluator of that, just like I would, too.
I know obviously there are things I can do better to help put our team in a better situation in order to win. That's part of going back and watching the game tape and making adjustments or cleaning up areas that you didn't do well in.
But in terms of what he said in terms of him being a bad or good coach or being down, you know, that's his call. I know I have to worry about myself and what we are going to do for practice tomorrow and then getting ready for the next game.

Q. LeBron had some trouble getting off the court. What's wrong with him and how is he?
COACH BROWN: Just now? I don't know. I didn't -- nobody has told me anything.

Q. It seems like he was cramping. Just wondered if you knew what was going on with him.
COACH BROWN: I didn't know he was cramping, if he was cramping or if there is something wrong.

Q. 55 percent they shot from the field. What is it? What will you need to do better defensively? They did it before to you and they continued to do it tonight in Game 1.
COACH BROWN: We have to do a better job in getting to their shooters. In the pick-and-roll game, they had a stretch in the second half where they had some looks and they could pick and pop.
Obviously, Dwight was a monster in that low post tonight. The combination of them playing the pick-and-roll game and executing very well in the pick-and-roll game and Dwight on the low post hurt us with the transition thing going on to a certain degree. So we have to go back and watch the tape and figure out what we want to do.

Q. Can you talk about the decision to sit LeBron at the start of the fourth? There was a couple games earlier in the post-season where he started the fourth on the floor. Was there anything to that?
COACH BROWN: We felt he needed a blow. That's normally when he comes out. At times we will keep him in if we feel he can go the whole 24. At times he'll ask to stay in. At that particular time, I just felt that he needed a blow so I wanted to see if I could give him that rest during the break, plus two to four minutes so he would be able to finish out the last eight to ten minutes after a nice little rest.

Q. Mike, you started LeBron on Rafer.
COACH BROWN: Right.

Q. What was the thinking with that strategy? And then you went away from it. Why did you go away from it?
COACH BROWN: We went away from it because we felt that they were hurting us in the pick-and-roll situation, pick-and-pop situation with Turkoglu and Rashard.
We put LeBron on Turkoglu and we just said, hey, we are going to switch those pick-and-rolls between Rashard and Turkoglu and see if we can take them out of that.
And we did do that, and then they started playing ball screen with Turkoglu and Dwight. The few plays they took advantage of us in that area before we figured it out, and then that's when we made our little bit of run at the end of the game, took the lead and Rashard hit the big 3.
So, you know, we can't give them the same diet the entire night. We will have to change up because they are too good of a team and they will be able to get a rhythm and pick up on some things. So we felt we needed to change that up.

Q. (Indiscernible).
COACH BROWN: We wanted LeBron -- we knew Rafer likes to drive the basketball, and we just felt that LeBron's length he would have an effect hopefully on driving the ball.
LeBron is a very good, quote-unquote, free safety. We felt he could help out some in certain situations. Those are the two main guys they go to in pick-and-roll, and Turkoglu is deadly if he gets to a point where he is able to turn a corner or go downhill; he can really impact the game. So we just felt LeBron's length, he would be able to help someone on the backside.

Q. Delonte and Mo, just a bad shooting night for those guys, or would you credit the defense of Orlando? Anything in particular they were doing that you would have to counter-react?
COACH BROWN: Orlando is a solid basketball team, and they are well-coached. You do have to give them some credit. But we thought -- I thought both those guys in Mo and Delonte, they had some pretty good looks tonight, and they just got to keep stepping up and shooting them because they are very, very good shooters.
They are going to make more for us at the end of the day than they missed, especially if we feel like we are getting some good looks. We felt they had some good looks tonight that they did miss.

Q. I noticed late in the fourth quarter you started to double Hedo, to push him away from the basket and get the ball out of his hands. Is that something you might try to employ earlier in the next game, or is that just based on the situation?
COACH BROWN: We did it in the first half. We doubled his pick-and-rolls in the first half at times because, again, he's such a big guy that when he gets going downhill, he does a terrific job of attacking the big and then you got Dwight rolling.
So it makes it -- he makes it tough on you and, yet, you don't want him to be able to impact the game -- or impact the game with his penetrate and kick ability.
So we just felt we wanted to try to get -- see if we can get him on his heels a little bit and help tag the roller or help on the roller and then see if he would make a pass or two to be able to get back to Dwight rolling to the rim. We can't give Turkoglu, because he is too good of a player, the same look the entire night.
We try to switch it up on some, which we did, but he ended up hurting us a little bit down the stretch.

Q. Do you leave here tonight up 15 at the half feeling like you gave one away and this is your first adversity that the team is going to face in the playoffs? How do you think they will respond?
COACH BROWN: Obviously, this is a first, quote-unquote, adversity that we have faced. And, I mean, I have confidence in our guys. I trust our guys. I believe that they will bounce back and we'll be ready to play in the next game.
But this is good for us. We didn't expect to go undefeated in the playoffs, and we have our work cut out for us. But my belief in the guys is that we can get it done.

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