That's What He Said - Cleveland Cavaliers

http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/twhs-20180103
















BRAD STEVENS

RE: What this victory should do to the team’s psyche and confidence:

“I think that that stuff is obviously important, but I think it’s more important to just kind of stay in the moment, prepare, play the right way, and, you know, we’re not going to go out and overdo this. I mean, they were playing on the second night of a back-to-back, we had a couple of days off, we looked fresh, I thought, which is a welcome sign. And then, and then we’ve got a tough one Friday, that we’ve got to turn our attention to.”

RE: Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier’s freshness and aggressiveness off the bench:

“They were great. They were great. And then Daniel Theis, too, coming in and making those shots in the first half. Like, sometimes against teams like this you have to score; it’s obvious you have to score to kind of keep the other team at bay. You know, when (Kyle) Korver goes on that mini-run that he does, even those really, really hard shots, we went down and scored enough to kind of maintain a lead and our composure to then – once we were able to get some stops – push the lead out. But I thought those two guards off the bench were really important for that.”

RE: Getting the combinations of players he wants, now that the team is healthy again:

“Well, I don’t know that we exactly know them, as far as exactly how it’ll all fit together. I mean, there’s going to be games where we’ll start (Al) Horford and (Aron) Baynes and Theis will play 20 minutes, you know. And there will be games where it’s a little bit more difficult to do that, based on the shooting that’s out on the floor. And so, I just appreciate the willingness of all these guys to play their roles to the best of their ability, because that’s how teams work.”

RE: How having more length and athleticism this year helps, especially against Cleveland:

“It’s all – it’s all about being able to be versatile and switch. It’s one of the things with having (Marcus) Morris out, (Semi) Ojeleye out, (Jaylen) Brown missing some games, obviously (Gordon) Hayward, that we haven’t been able to take advantage of here, recently, as much, but it’s really important. You know, against LeBron (James), there’s nobody that can guard him the whole game, so you have to throw as many bodies at him as you can, and then pray.”

RE: Jayson Tatum’s consistency in the first half of his first season:

“Yeah, he’s good. He’s a good player. I mean, I think he’s got a chance to be really good, so hopefully he stays the course.”

AL HORFORD

RE: How were you able to hold the Cavaliers to a season low 88 points?

“I think we just had good energy. Guys were flying around. Really making second, third efforts. We were pretty locked in.”

RE: What impresses you most about Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown?

I just think that they just play with a lot of confidence. That’s the biggest thing that impresses me. When a rookie comes in, or you’re on a new team, sometimes you’re trying to feel yourself out, don’t want to step on any toes, you’re not sure about certain things. They’re very assertive, aggressive offensively, knowing when to take shots. And on defense they just keep getting better. So that’s a really good time for our team.”

TERRY ROZIER

RE: Where did that aggression come from tonight?

“Just playing ball. Same thing applies. Not thinking. Just having a lot of fun. Competing. It opened it up for me.”

RE: Defensively, how were you able to hold the Cavaliers down?

“Just flying around. Pay attention to details. Our coaches had the game plan set up for us. We do our best to try and follow it. And try to make it tough for them. And that’s what we did. We’re not going to have a perfect game but, we tried to make them work for every bucket they had.”

RE: Lebron James said he was impressed with how you’ve improved:

“That’s Big Time. I don’t know. I’m going to keep working. Keep getting better. It’s good coming from him. I just want to stay working. Keep Working.”

TYRONN LUE

RE: How do you assess this one?

“I thought defensively we did some good things. I thought we had a few breakdowns, but we held Kyrie (Irving) to 11 points, (Al) Horford to 11 points. Their bench came in and hurt us. (Marcus) Smart having 15, (Terry) Rozier having 20 really hurt us off the bench. Offensively, we missed a lot of layups and a lot of easy shots and also we got to take better shots at some times too. It was a combination of everything.”

RE: How much do you chalk it up to playing a back to back?

“With Isaiah (Thomas) being out it kind of hurt D Wade (Dwayne) to play a back to back, and ask him to score off the bench and stuff like that. It’s no excuse. We looked a little tired, a little lethargic, but they (Celtics) won the game, hats off to them.”

RE: Does trailing the Celtics by 4 ½ games in the East concern you at all?

“It doesn’t concern me. As long as we make the Playoffs we are fine.”

LEBRON JAMES

RE: How difficult was lack of shot making to overcome?

“Their defense was very good. They were very in tune to what we wanted to do execution wise offensively. We had some good looks at times, some of the looks were a little bit tougher, but they had a good defensive play and they executed very well.”

RE: Having Isaiah (Thomas) out of lineup tonight just after one game of him back playing, is there a ripple effect?

“I don’t know who we are and who we can be until we get IT back consistently. We know what the program is so it’s not like it’s a surprise he wasn’t playing tonight, we already knew he wasn’t. He probably won’t play the Indiana game after Minnesota, he’s not playing back to backs right now. Until we get a full dosage of IT and get our rotations down and things of that nature…We’re playing well and when Tristan (Thompson) comes back we will integrate him. We haven’t played well as of late so we are trying to figure that out as well. We will be fine though.”

ISAIAH THOMAS

RE: Fan appreciation:

“…They showed their true colors like they always do and that’s all I keep saying is that this is genuine love from both sides. The fans are everything here.”

RE: Will Boston always be a part of you?

“For sure. Tacoma is who I am, but Boston is definitely in my heart and will always be some type of home for me.”

RE: Kyrie (Irving) moment and what was said:

“Just mutual respect. We’ve always respected each other and from the day we got drafted to playing on All-Star teams the same times and things like that so it’s just mutual respect.”

KYLE KORVER

RE: Did you feel you had any momentum to climb back in second quarter?

“I thought we had some good stuff going in the 2nd quarter there, obviously put ourselves in a bit of a hole, but yeah we had it going a little bit in the 2nd quarter. Overall, I thought our energy tonight was a little flat, for some reason the ball wasn’t moving around the way it usually does, defensively we weren’t great. Just one of those nights, I wish it didn’t happen, but it was one of those nights for us.”

RE: Lost 5 in a row on the road/common thread:

“Just feels like we are a little stagnant on defense. I think that is what it comes down to. We are really good when we play with energy on defense when we are there for each other flying around, we’re blitzing, we’re covering, and we are covering for each other. We’re usually pretty good on defense. Offensively when the ball is not moving…And some nights you have bad shooting nights, like tonight, we had a few guys that were a little off tonight which happens, but the ball wasn’t popping around like it normally does for us. Those are definitely things we need to look at.”



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