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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS v HAWKSMay 22, 2015David BlattATLANTA, GEORGIA: Game Two Cleveland Cavaliers - 94 Q. LeBron has so many ways that he can put his impact on the game, but particularly the way he was playing point guard duties, distributing the ball in the third quarter when you guys really made your run. What can you say about that assetor that facet of his game? COACH BLATT: I've got a good vocabulary, but I'm sort of running out of superlatives for that guy. I'm going to let you think of something; you're the writer. He's just a great basketball player. Everything more that you would add to that is probably better than I can say it. Q. Coach, have you‑‑ I mean, I know of course you haven't coached a player like LeBron‑‑ COACH BLATT: Not many people have. Q. But have you seen someone who has that kind of ability to almost completely change how they're playing in the course of a game? If you think about it, in the first quarter, he was kind of going back through the post and scoring the ball. In the second quarter is when he started throwing it around all over the place. COACH BLATT: If you ask LeBron, I'm sure he would answer this way: Part of what he's doing so well has to do with his teammates reacting and responding to him in the proper way. Certainly, his greatness is evident, but the other guys are completing him, and that's what you want from a team, and that's what you want from a team that plays with such a great player. They've got to position themselves properly. They've got to move properly. They've got to finish the plays. They've got to recognize when and how to get him into the situations where he can do what he does or he can help them do what they do. And I think our guys have grown together with him during the course of the year, and they really know how to play off him well. Q. Coach, it seemed like in the first quarter you guys really went downhill a lot. You were really attacking the basket and didn't settle for threes. It seemed like that maybe opened up the three in the second and the third. Was that the game plan, and could you tell me how that worked? COACH BLATT: Well, we did want to attack downhill. We wanted to get the ball at the rim. We wanted to drive and kick when possible, and we did a good job of that. We made good decisions with the basketball. I'm not sure, I think we had five turnovers in the first quarter, but after that, we took good care of the ball; maybe only had seven the rest of the way. You know, our guys just played right. They played right, played the game right at both ends. Defensively, we were really, really, really high level, and, again, I give a lot of credit to our staff, who's done such a good job preparing this team for the series. Those guys are a big part of our performance thus far. That being said, this thing is not anywhere near done. We've got a lot of work ahead of us, and we've got to continue to play right. Q. You guys collected more than a quarter of your missed shots via offensive rebound. How valuable is the strength that you guys have with the offensive boards toward your game plan? COACH BLATT: Well, it's part of the game plan, obviously, and we've been doing a great job rebounding at both ends honestly. Also, the spacing on the floor for us has been pretty good, and we're able to attack the glass intelligently because offensive rebounding is a weapon at a number of different levels. Certainly, regarding what you just mentioned, but also that's going to help your transition defense when the other team's got to take the ball out of the net more often than not. But you have to be careful. You can't overdo it because this is such a good team running the ball back at you, and I think we're mixing it up pretty good, and I think our guys are going aggressively but intelligently to the glass. When they can get it, good. When not, they're getting back, and that's something we've got to continue to concentrate on. Q. Considering the situation, obviously, Kevin's been out, Kyrie's not playing tonight‑‑ what kind of effort did it take to beat a Hawks team that was desperate and didn't want to go down 2‑0 and to win it kind of going away there? COACH BLATT: What kind of effort did it take? Well, my feeling is right now we're the big one, one team. You've got to be a team. To miss a guy like Kyrie, to miss a guy like Kevin, to miss them both together, the other guys have to raise their level and have to be committed to competing and to believing in themselves as a team, and that's exactly what they're doing. Doing just a terrific job, playing as a team and making the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Q. David, so many of LeBron's assists tonight came on three‑point baskets. Eight of his first nine assists were on threes. COACH BLATT: Is that a fact really? Q. That's a fact. COACH BLATT: That's unusual, wow. Q. His ability to find three‑point shooters and get them open at the right moment, can you talk about the sixth sense he has in understanding where to get the ball and how to make three balls capitalize on those? COACH BLATT: Well, I don't know if it's a sixth sense as much as he's a‑‑ well, we could have a real philosophical discussion about instinct, if you want, but we won't do that now. I think that LeBron, he sees things ahead of time. Whether it's knowing the play that we're running and understanding where guys are going to be or whether he's taken very quick mental pictures of where the defense is or where there's just understanding by his feel for how defenses play him, who's going to be open where when he makes a move to the baseline or to the middle, or whether it's the fact that he has terrific court vision and he uses his size so well to see over guys. You know, it's a lot of things, a combination of things. But probably more than anything else, it's the fact that he's willing to pass the ball and that he believes in his teammates, and they feel that, they sense that, and that makes them more efficient and effective shooters. Finally, not a lot of guys deliver the ball in the shooting pocket seemingly every time. That's unusual. To throw a pass from here over there to that basket is not easy under pressure. To throw it right here where the guy simply catches and in one motion is able to shoot the ball, that's extraordinary, and he's got that capability. Q. Two quick questions for you: One, with J.R. Smith not actually having the same type of night he had the other night are, how important was it for Shumpert and Jones to give you that three‑point shooting? Last but not least, it's hard to obviously coach in the playoffs, but how much easier is it to have a guy like LeBron to almost be like a second coach on the court? COACH BLATT: You know, the other night, Shump‑‑ neither Shump nor James nor Delly shot it real well, but J.R. shot the lights out, and what I said before about being a team means that the next night it might be somebody else. As a matter of fact, I think we talked about that two nights ago, you know, the fact that J.R.'s not going to make eight threes every game. Nobody does. So other guys picked it up. By the way, it was great to see J.R. cheering his teammates out in front of the bench most of the second half, understanding that it was their night. Regarding the question how easy is it‑‑ or how much does it help to have LeBron on your team in the playoffs, do I really got to answer that? Let's put it this way, better that you have than you have not. How's that? Very helpful, yeah. Q. Following up a little bit on Josh's question about the idea of you're rolling into the playoffs and then you don't have Kevin, you don't have Kyrie. What was your level of concern that you maybe might not be able to put it together the way you wanted to? COACH BLATT: Well, we were a pretty good team with Kevin and with Kyrie, and Kev going down for the season and then Kyrie struggling physically the way he has and doing his best to play through it and fighting the elements, just to kind of get out there and give us what he could. And then suddenly to find out same day that he's not going to be able to play. That's not easy, but I just‑‑ I love the way our players responded. We always talk about no excuses. You haven't heard us once bemoan our fate or look for an excuse. We haven't been that way all season. We haven't asked for any quarter. We haven't asked for any break from anybody the whole year, and it's not been easy on us at times. Our guys are hardened. They're about the right things and trying to win games. Obviously, we've got more games to win here, but their hearts and minds are in the right place, and hopefully, we can continue to perform without Kev and quickly get Kyrie back and be all the stronger. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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