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NBA FINALS: MAVERICKS v HEAT

June 11, 2011

Rick Carlisle

MIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day

Q. Hey, Rick, what's it like to make the lineup changes that you've had to make in The Finals at this time of the year, putting Barea in the starting lineup and then having to play Cardinal, even Mahinmi minutes? What's it been like at this time of the year?
COACH RICK CARLISLE: I don't know, what do you mean, "what has it been like?"

Q. I know it's with one thing to do it in the regular season, but to do it in The Finals.
COACH RICK CARLISLE: Well, I'm not crazy about lineup changes. I'm for being systematic in your approach and stuff. But there are times when it's necessary, and then when you have injuries in those types of situations, you've got to have guys ready to play.
So the great thing about our team, really all three years that I've been here, the guys that we've had have always been ready to play. We've been such a component-oriented roster that a lot of times there are certain situations, certain guys are better than others. So guys got to be ready. There's so much predicability to it, but they have to roll with it. And they've been very professional about it.

Q. There might be a natural mentality you guys have two games to win one and there's a two-day break. How do you emphasize to your guys that Game 6 is important, you want to close this out, as opposed to having that kind of, we have two games to win one?
COACH RICK CARLISLE: We're just going to stay with our approach. We approach each day and each moment as being important. There's nobody in our locker room that's looking at it as it's a two to win one. Every minute that you're out there in the NBA Finals you've got an opportunity to gain ground. That's what we're looking to do.

Q. Rick, I don't know how much you saw of the '06 series, but I wonder if you can comment on what you think might be different with how they're playing Dirk or what Dirk is doing this year versus '06?
COACH RICK CARLISLE: Well, I've seen the '06 series, but things are very different. The rosters are 95% different. A lot of the dynamics are very different. It's two teams that are both aggressive, attacking teams. Haslem is still here. So he's still playing the same way he played then. I don't know that there's a lot of stuff that I can give you on that. Sorry.

Q. Rick, in 2006 Pat Riley got some attention for his one shirt, one suit comment. I'm wondering if you can share with us how you packed for this trip.
COACH RICK CARLISLE: I've got a lot of respect for all of you. I feel like I've gotten to know you well. But I don't believe at this point I'm ready to share the number of pairs of underwear I packed. I just don't know that that's the right way to go.

Q. When it came allowable to use zones, did you think it was something you would do? I know some people said a good NBA team, like the '86 Celtics, would kill a zone. Is it the opponent you're playing against or do you think it's always going to be effective?
COACH RICK CARLISLE: It depends on how hard you play it. Any defense that you play hard and with conviction has a good chance to be successful. Early on I was not a believer in zone necessarily. I had to change my thinking because of the kind of team that we have. Look, we've used it some in this series. We haven't used it that much. And we've had success in stretches and we've gotten hurt in stretches.
It's a weapon, it's something we take pride in, it's a tactic that we can use, but it's not a cure-all by any stretch.

Q. Rick, if you're fortunate enough and good enough to close out tomorrow, how do you think Mark Cuban will celebrate?
COACH RICK CARLISLE: Well, again, I'm not going to get into any thinking ahead. We're going to stay right where we need to be, and that is in the moment. There's some things, there were some sobering things from Game 5 coming out of it, because we didn't defend well, and we've identified defense as being the most important thing to our success. We gave up 53% shooting. Our percentage of contested shots was down significantly from the previous two games. Those are things where you look at it, and even though you won the game, you have to be self-critical enough to understand that that kind of effort moving on to the other venue and in lieu of another crazy shot-making night, you're going to need to play defense better. And we're going to.

Q. Rick, can you speak to Chalmers' production for them, whether it surprised you or not. And have you had to make any adjustments to deal with it? Or would you make any adjustments to deal with it? He's been fairly consistent for them. Off the bench, a guy that at times during the year hasn't been so consistent. But he has been in this series.
COACH RICK CARLISLE: I disagree, I think he's been consistent all year. I felt that he's been a big part of who they've become. He's a better all-around player than people probably believe. Look, off of this series, he's their fourth most dangerous player, if you look at the stats. He's a kid that is not afraid of the moment, as everyone saw in The Finals of the college -- in the championship game. The shot he hit there.
So we got a lot of respect for him. He's gotten better as a ball-handler, and he's attacking when he has the ball. We have to treat him with a high level of respect, and we are.

Q. Rick, you are 2-0 since you moved J.J. in the starting lineup. What have you gotten from J.J. that you haven't gotten from Stevenson? And how has Stevenson adjusted to the move to the bench?
COACH RICK CARLISLE: Our overall rotation has changed. We've won a couple of games. And I think also when you make lineup changes, it's the kind of thing you to have the right kind guys to roll with it. It's a form of upheaval. It's not easy. There's adjustment involved. DeShawn embraced it. Game 4 he had one of his best games of the year. And then, you know, each game has been a little bit different. Now we've got some different guys playing due to injury, due to Haywood's situation.
I don't know. I don't know that I make that much of the lineup change, other than to say we've got to have 9, 10, 11, 12 guys playing extremely aggressively and at an extreme high level, and our defense has to be better in Game 6.

Q. In your previous closeout games you said you want to place yourselves in a position where you can steal it at the end. Do you go into this game knowing you have to win it in the fourth quarter? And are you feeling confident it won't be all on Dirk's shoulders now that you've had other guys step up in the fourth?
COACH RICK CARLISLE: I don't remember saying that, that we just wanted to hang around and try to win at the end. The thing that's really coming to light in this series, and it's something that we've talked about all year, is the importance of things in the first quarter carrying over to the fourth. The first six minutes of Game 5 we gave up six points; in the next six minutes, we gave up 25 points. Those things can't happen. Game 3, the 7-0 run at the end of the first quarter was the difference between winning and losing in that game.
Our 48 minutes has got to be disciplined, it's got to be strategic, it's got to be systematic. We've got to put ourselves in a position to try to stay in front of these guys, which is not easy. We have to do a job on the boards. And offensively we have to play with tremendous efficiency.
And so, you know, yeah, will it come down to the end? Sure, most likely. Every game has been extremely close. But for us the game is about the whole 48 minutes, and it really -- it isn't about hey, let's get to the fourth quarter and now figure it out. It's just not going to work that way.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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