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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS v HAWKSMay 26, 2015David BlattCLEVELAND, OHIO: Game Four Atlanta Hawks - 88 COACH BLATT: If I could, I want to say something first, if I may. Thank you. If you'll indulge me. I wanted to say congratulations to Coach Bud and to the Atlanta Hawks, who had such a fantastic season. They won 60 games and played great basketball over the year and deserve all the credit and all the compliments that they've received throughout the season. They do things right. We're awfully happy and awfully proud to have beaten them in the Eastern Conference Finals and to do so in a great manner ourselves. But a big congratulations to their program and to the coach and their players. Q. Can you talk about what this means to you winning the Eastern Conference championship in your first year as head coach of the Cavaliers? COACH BLATT: I know it's hard for people to understand because they don't really know well my path and my career, but this also is a new situation for me and a new place for me. LeBron came home. I left home to come here, and I left a lot of people that I love dearly and a lot of people that I'm close, so close to, in order to pursue a dream, in order to do something in my career that I hadn't had the opportunity to do. That's a big sacrifice on the part of my family and the place that I'm from. It's special because it's all worthwhile. I came here. I got the opportunity to work with a great group of guys, with the best player in the world and maybe in the history of the game, with the wonderful management who's given us every opportunity to succeed and with fans who are so loyal and have been for so many years, who just want a champion. So it makes me very happy and very proud to be a part of that and to have this experience in my life. That's it. Q. Coach, could you talk about, I guess, the good problem to have the pressure of the 51 years behind you guys and trying to end that streak. COACH BLATT: Growing up, I was a Red Sox fan. They went through about 100 years of pennantless seasons. I always remember that. But I was also a Celtics fan, and we were winning championships at that time left and right. But what I found here is a wonderful sports town, really, really invested group of people in every respect, and a hunger for success, but not a pressure because you know they've always got your back one way or another and that's a good feeling. Because it hasn't always been easy and it's not always easy, and it hasn't been easy for the last 51 years waiting. But we put ourselves in a position to have a shot at it, and we know that people are behind us, and that's part of our motivation. Q. Could you even imagine what LeBron James could be to this city, to this area if he were to get that, to make that happen? COACH BLATT: LeBron said, and I think correctly so, we still have a lot to do, and we still have a goal to try to achieve, but at the same time, you have to enjoy this for what it is, too. How many teams win the Eastern Conference Finals? How many teams are in this position? How many teams have done it the way we've done it with all the obstacles, with all the difficulties, with all the challenges? This is special. For a day or two, we're going to enjoy that and appreciate that, and we're going to go back to work and try to accomplish the very thing that you're talking about. Q. David, congratulations. Describe how you feel Kyrie did, not only in terms of how he actually performed on the court but in terms of how his body is responding, where he's at, and just how much you held your breath when he went out there and so on, just his performance tonight. COACH BLATT: First of all, he did fabulously. Fabulously. He played beautifully. He moved well. He was impactful. But it's a lot bigger than that. The fact that he came back to play, the fact that he wanted so badly to be a part of us winning this series and being able to move forward. He wanted so much to be with his guys and to contribute. You know what, Delly barely could get up off the bench today. He was very sick. And Kyrie playing‑‑ not only the fact that he performed so well. We know that Kyrie is one of the top basketball players in the world. We needed his minutes. We needed him out there because Delly, as well as he played, he didn't have a whole lot more in him. It was good for the guys, too. It was good for the guys to see Ky out there. And now the fact that we won tonight, that was one of the reasons that we really wanted to get him back tonight because we wanted to have this break to get him well, to let the other guys heal and come fresh for The Finals. And he stepped in there, and he really, really lifted us, did a great, great job. Q. Coach, first a tip, if you're being away from home, lonely, LeBron might have some ideas about this‑‑ COACH BLATT: I never said I was lonely. There you go again. You're always putting words in my mouth. Why you got to do that? Q. We're just hating. COACH BLATT: No, that's all right. Q. The second question, during the series, when Atlanta went small, you would go small. This time you stayed big. Mozgov kind of punished them inside. I was curious about that decision. You say it's a gut thing sometimes. Tell me why you did that and might you do that against Golden State. COACH BLATT: Number one, Tristan has the ability to guard perimeter players as well, and we saw an advantage, and when we saw that it was working for us, we just played it, and we stayed with it. Tristan and Moz have been terrific together, and when they're playing together with J.J. or Bron at the four, and tonight they just, they dominated the rim, they dominated the glass, and they did it pointedly, you know, very, very specific, small areas of the game, and did a great, great job. Q. David, congratulations, first of all. Number two, I know coaches are never at ease until there's no more time on the clock, but when did it kind of sink in for you that you guys had this one and you got to absorb the energy in the building? How did that make you feel? COACH BLATT: I think that moment came in a very, very memorable one, maybe the greatest below‑the‑rim tap in the history of the game, if you remember Delly's tip‑in. Now, he wasn't up over the rim, but he made it look natural, and he made it look special, just like that kid is. That's when I kind of relaxed. Q. Coach, what is it about this team that has allowed it to overcome so much adversity, injuries, and speculation, and it's been one thing after the next.  What is it about its character that's allowed that to happen and get to this point? COACH BLATT: Well, it's a lot of things honestly. It's not one thing. We've got a terrific staff, a terrific group of coaches that are working hard every day, are preparing every day, are giving these guys the best of guidance and work‑specific help. We've got a group of players that have a lot of grit and a lot of character. And we have a champion who leads them in the right way, a guy that is not only a fabulous basketball player, but he is an experienced winner who's about the right things and who leads his guys in a way that empowers them and does not belittle them, in a way that lifts them. Last thing is I just think we really play hard. Even when we're not great, we're still playing hard, and we have been. Since January, I don't know that there's a harder playing team than us, and that takes you a long way. Q. You hear the term in basketball "defense travels", "defense wins championships", at what point did you as a coach see a change in this team defensively where you knew, okay, this could get us to where you're going now, the NBA Finals? COACH BLATT: On January when we made the personnel changes and we changed some things tactically in our defense, and the guys really, really bought in and gained confidence from the success that we had at the end of the floor, because we knew we could score. We've been scoring the ball all year. But that was the moment. You get a rim protector like Timo, you get a great defender like Shump, you get J.R. Smith, who really locked in and played both ends of the court. To put that together with the other guys we had already and get guys buying in to the way you want to play, that really turned it around for us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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