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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS v HAWKSMay 25, 2015Paul MillsapCLEVELAND, OHIO: Practice Day Q. How will this team try to do what no one's ever done in the NBA, bounce back from a 3‑0 deficit? PAUL MILLSAP: Only way we can do it is just get out there and play and not worry about the situation. I'm not worried about the record right now. Get out there and put our best foot forward and see what happens. Q. How do you guys in the locker room feel when kind of the prevalent notion maybe is this team isn't as good as everyone thought because you're down 3‑0? PAUL MILLSAP: We don't think about it. We don't care what anybody else thinks. We feel like we're a really good team despite what the records say. I feel like a few of those games we let get away. So it's been on us.  But give them credit. They're a good basketball team too. Q. Was your effort last night more technical changes you guys made to the game plan or‑‑ PAUL MILLSAP: A little bit of both, technical, mental, just getting back to just playing basketball, taking the thinking out of the game and just out there playing basketball. A little technical, but mostly myself. Q. The postseason is a good time to measure yourself against contenders. Playoff basketball is different than the regular season. What have you guys learned about yourselves in terms of what it might take to get to the next level? PAUL MILLSAP: This is all learning for us. We've been together two years. We're still learning how to win games, still learning how to close games, learning how to win playoff games. It's been a learning curve for us, but we feel like we've learned a lot throughout the course of this series, and through it all, it's still not over. Q. Going into the playoffs, the competition is tougher, but what do you think about the fact that you haven't been able to reach that same level you have at times during the regular season? Is that just about the competition at this stage, or are you guys still trying to rediscover something that you had that was working so well? PAUL MILLSAP: It's playoff basketball, man. It's not going to go the way you expect it to go. Things change. Teams change. Teams get better. We've got to learn to adjust to it. We've got to adjust to it. It's just that simple. We feel like we can play that style of basketball throughout the course of the playoffs. This far we've been hanging on. Like I said, we've still got another game to go out there and prove it. Q. What's the biggest adjustment you talk about between the playoffs and the regular season that you have to adjust to? What is that? PAUL MILLSAP: A little bit more physicality, going harder longer, being stronger. Just doing what we do. Not changing what we do, but doing what we do a little bit harder. Q. Did your success last night come from the team not patting the ball as much and just gettingopen? PAUL MILLSAP: The ball was passed a little bit more yesterday. A little bit more decisiveness, knowing what to do, what to expect. So yeah, a little bit of it.  Q. The physicality, in the post‑game LeBron said that diving for anything, whereas in your locker room there was a little bit of a discrepancy in terms of Ky's leg is there. Just the physicality of this series. What's your take on‑‑ again, not delving too much into what Al dealt with last night, but just that belief. Like did he cross the line at all? PAUL MILLSAP: It's a physical game, especially a playoff battle. Both teams want to win. Both teams laying it all on the line. Things happen. Tempers flare. Just got to move on. Things happen out on the court. Q. That last possession, you got the offensive rebound after Shelvin's first miss. What was going through your head? Did you just see him open again? Did you think about shooting it at all? PAUL MILLSAP: I thought about it, but I had three guys around me. Maybe I'll put it up. But making the right play, trusting my teammates. I believed that he wanted the shot. He was wide open. So passing the ball gave him an opportunity. Just didn't go in. Q. What's the frustration level knowing that you guys played so much harder, it seemed, last night, with so much more purpose than you did at home? PAUL MILLSAP: A little frustrating, but like I said earlier, the first two games, more indecisiveness on our part. Yesterday we were more decisive. We were attacking the shots. If we're open, we shoot it. Drive to the basket, just more decisiveness. So I think that had a bigger toll on the game. Q. You guys took such pride this season in doing this a different way, having success as a complete unit. There wasn't one superstar to lean on, whatever. How do you feel about that model now as you guys sit here? I know injuries play a part and a lot of things come into this, but how confident are you feeling about that structure? PAUL MILLSAP: Still confident. No matter what happens, still going to be confident. We believe in our team. We believe in the guys that we have. We feel like we can do something special, whether this year, next year, whatever. We're going to stick to this. It's not over till it's over. Q. Not making this an obituary, but do you think you guys have kind of changed the paradigm around the league? PAUL MILLSAP: I think so. I think so. At the end of the day, it's a team sport. Basketball is played with five guys on the court. We feel like we have really good players for all five. Q. What motivation in this city‑‑ you're on the road. The city is ready to crown the Cavs to The Finals. You know you're going into that tomorrow. What motivation is there in just knowing that you can spoil all of that? PAUL MILLSAP: A little bit added on top of everything else that's going on. But we've just got to play. Whatever we've got to use or got to have to get up for this game and to push ourselves over the top, we've got to use it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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