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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v HEATMay 28, 2012LeBron JamesMIAMI, FLORIDA: Game One Boston Celtics79 LeBRON JAMES: We knew at halftime we hadn't played our best basketball. So we just have to stop making the mental mistakes and just play the way we're capable of playing. Q. (No microphone). LeBRON JAMES: I don't know. We just feel more comfortable out on the court, no matter who is out on the floor with us. We try to complement one another. When one guy is flowing. We try to feed off of each other's energy and always try to stay in attack mode to help our team. We get to the free‑throw line as individuals or try to spread out our three‑point shooters and allow them to make plays as well. It's definitely a high comfort level right now. We just want to keep it going. Q. Obviously, they come off a seven‑game series, play Saturday night, travel, how much do you guys want to sort of take advantage of their fatigue, and how much will you put your first quarter and your third quarter to maybe try to seize the moment against a more tired opponent? LeBRON JAMES: That's a veteran ballclub. They're mentally tough. One of the most mentally tough teams that we have in this league. So we don't even put in the factor of them being fatigued. We don't let that be in our head. We try to work our games, work our habits, the coaching staff gives us a great game plan, try to execute that, and hopefully it continues to result in wins for us. Q. You've seen the Celtics team in the playoffs many times. Can you see when you're looking out there, that Ray Allen is not quite the same (indiscernible). LeBRON JAMES: I mean, just they are a championship‑caliber team. No matter what injuries goes on, I look at them as a top opponent, as a top contender, and as a competitive group. Anytime I look out there and I see Paul and I see Ray and KG and Rondo, no matter who they have in their supporting cast, I feel it's a championship‑caliber team. I approach every game with a high intensity both mentally and physically. Q. LeBron, a couple of your teammates in the locker room talked about how you were able to frustrate‑‑ maybe "frustrate" is too strong of a word, but disrupt Rondo early in the game. What did you do to make him get off to a rough start? LeBRON JAMES: It's going to be tough on all of us. We have to be in tune with Rondo. He's probably the number one unpredictable guy we have in our league as far as how he forces his action. A lot of his points come in transition where you kind of‑‑ you want to lull to him, but also he spreads off the threes. He's that good. He's that good that he forces a lot of our triggers. He forces us to pay a lot of attention to him, and then he's able to get him a shot or get someone else a shot. We try to make it tough on him, like we do any other guard or any other player in this league. We try to make it tough for him and wear him throughout the game. But he's a great talent. Q. LeBron, you've obviously played against them a lot of times. Had some success in the half court against them and some not so much. What worked for you in the half court tonight that maybe didn't work earlier in the season? LeBRON JAMES: Defensively, no matter what year or group they have out there, they're great. So you try to get the ball moving from one side to another. When it comes back to you, I try to attack. I was able to attack early in the game. Also in a lot of my post‑ups I was able to get to a lot of my shots I was comfortable with making. So just always try to be on attack, no matter what point of the game it is. And I was able to get a couple to fall for me tonight. Q. LeBron, you play a lot of teams where the centers don't necessarily respect your centers offensively, Ronny and Joel and they'll play off of them. KG probably does that better than anybody in the league. What do you look for from your centers in order to sort of counteract that? And at the end of the game what makes you think those guys had a good game? What are you looking at? LeBRON JAMES: It doesn't‑‑ what our complementary guys do never show up in the boxscore, especially our centers. They go out there, they defend at a high level. They get us open offensively, setting great screens and transition and also in the half‑court set. We find them, they try to go up there and finish. Everything we get offensively from our centers is always a bonus. It puts no pressure on them offensively. We just want them to play hard, rebound and defend. We know the opposing team is going to sag off our centers, try to clog up the paint. It's been like that the last two years. But they understand their role, and that's what makes them so good. Q. LeBron, Rondo seemed particularly disappointed with how easily you and Dwyane were able to get in the paint tonight. And he was asked what the counter would be to that. He said, nothing dirty, but those guys have to hit the deck, too. What's your response to that? And do you expect a more physical posture from Boston in Game 2? LeBRON JAMES: That doesn't change anything for us. We expect to hit the deck every single game, me and D‑Wade. It's how we feel like teams approach us. They feel like they need to put us on the floor, hard‑foul us. It doesn't change our approach. We still have to be in the attack mode no matter what happens, because that's when we're at our best as a team. Q. LeBron, you guys missed 20 three‑pointers and only had 10 fast‑break points, and yet you won by 10 points. Do you feel there's another gear or two you can get into? LeBRON JAMES: We feel like we didn't play our best basketball tonight. We had some great looks offensively, but we had a lot of breakdowns defensively. So we didn't play our best game. And we want to just try to continue to get better throughout the series. We come in tomorrow, we're going to watch a lot of film, break down the film, see the ways we can get better offensively and defensively. It's a good sign. It's a good thing for us, but we understand we didn't have our best game tonight. So we will prepare and we will be better on Wednesday. Q. LeBron, you had 11 blocks as a team, can you speak to that. Does a big block do as much for a team as a big dunk? LeBRON JAMES: First of all, it let's us know we're active. We're playing the rim and playing the ball. Definitely a defensive stop is just as effective as a big dunk. They are both momentum‑changing plays. Especially when a guy feels like he has a good lane to the rim and someone comes over and gets a block. That definitely helps us offensively, because once you get the block in, most of our blocks aren't hit out of bounds, so it allows us to get out in fast break and get out on the floor. So it helps us a lot. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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