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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS vs CELTICS

May 27, 2018

Brad Stevens

Boston, Massachusetts: Game Seven

Cavaliers - 87, Celtics - 79.

Q. I know from Game 1 of the season, it's been quite a ride. Sort of ends abruptly. How does it hit you?
BRAD STEVENS: Every ending is tough. I guess that's for all 29 teams that don't win it. No matter how good of a season you've had, the ones that don't end when you win a championship, it's going to be a disappointing ending.

But it was pretty incredible run by an incredible group of guys, and an absolute pleasure and privilege to be around them every day. You know -- yeah.

Q. I know it's a tough pill to swallow, but what exactly did you say to the guys in the locker room and just the fight that they showed all season long?
BRAD STEVENS: First of all, I think we all talked about being very appreciative for getting a chance to be around each other all year. It was a tremendous group from the standpoint of pulling together. It was just a great locker room, great support of one another. Then I talked about how the pain is part of the path. We've been really fortunate to continuously get better the last couple of years and put ourselves in better positions. But when it ends it's painful, and that is part of the path. And so we have to let it motivate us.

Q. Just curious how proud are you of this team to be resilient, to push the Cavaliers to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals and just through all the injuries, through all the naysayers, just to prove everybody wrong to make it to this point?
BRAD STEVENS: I feel just privileged to be a part of it. Just to be around these guys every day. I have a small role to play. Everybody that has a role in our organization plays it really well. It's a lot of fun to go to work every day. I'm totally appreciative of the players. They've been incredible all throughout our time here.

I think at the end of the day, again, this team was the only team that I've been around at this level that I thought we might shoot 36 percent and win the game. But we just had one of those nights.

I thought the biggest moment of the game was when we couldn't extend the lead in the second quarter. We were in really good shape, really good shape -- and then we just couldn't quite extend the lead. I thought that added to probably the shooting the rest of the game. But this group was resilient and tough enough to do it anyway. That's what I loved about being around them every day.

Sorry, I'm on a tangent, but a couple years ago when we were talking about -- Danny [Ainge] puts this whole kind of plan together. We want to be as good and give ourselves as many chances as possible, and when things that are tough happen, we don't want to take big dips. We still want to be incredibly competitive. This group, we had two really tough injuries -- three really tough injuries with [Daniel] Theis. There's no dip. They just battled. They were special.

Q. You said the pain was part of the path. What lessons do they need to take from a game like this if they're in a game like this again?
BRAD STEVENS: I think that we'll go back and watch it, as painful as that will be. But I think ultimately it's not just one game in a seven-game series. It's not just one possession in a seven-game series. You go back and look at the whole thing -- what you could have done better, what you could have done differently. But that's part of it. You go back and you analyze it, move on.

Q. I know it's really hard to describe everything that could be said about LeBron. It's probably already been said, but he goes all 48 minutes tonight and delivers the performance that he did. What more can you say about him as a competitor and someone that has to go against him?
BRAD STEVENS: He's unbelievable. I think we've played now until May 25th and May 27th the last two years, and we started on September 25th. That's every day. Every day that you're totally focused on this, and he's gone past that eight straight times. It's ridiculous, and he does it at this level and with the pressure, with the scrutiny -- doesn't matter. It's just unbelievable.

Our goal going into the series was to make him exert as much energy as humanly possible and try to be as good as we can on everybody else, who are good players. For the most part, I thought we were pretty good at that. Multiple games now in TD Garden, held them under 100, three games in the 80s -- but he still scored 35. It's a joke.

Q. I know you never put any limits on these guys, but was there a part of you that was surprised that you made it to Game 7 of the Conference Finals considering all the things that happened to you guys this season?
BRAD STEVENS: I don't think you ever feel that way because you, again, don't want to put a ceiling on yourself or your group. It's funny how kind of the lens changes when you're sitting up here disappointed. But that's how much belief these guys instilled in all of us.

Q. If not now, maybe some day, will it soothe the sting of this at all that plenty of solid basketball people, players, coaches, have sat where you sat because of that guy and his teams? The whole league points to try to stop him, and he just sort of prevents --
BRAD STEVENS: Well, we've played them three times now in the past couple of years. This was the best we played them by far, and probably the best we played him. I give a lot of credit to our players that guarded him, but he's just really, really special, and they've got enough from everybody else. Jeff Green was huge the last few games. Just played tremendous. Those threes were huge. His transition baskets were big. I thought with [Kevin] Love out, they had a lot of switchable parts out there. When we got more tense and tight shooting the ball after we missed some of the open ones, I thought that you could feel them a little bit more.

Q. Jayson Tatum, pretty unbelievable season for what was a 19-year-old rookie, finishes at 20. The world got to see him during this series but you got to see him all season long. What is the top note that you take away from seeing him day-to-day, like you said, since September 25th?
BRAD STEVENS: He can get a lot better. That's the fun part. I think there are so many little things that he'll continue to improve upon, but he's not afraid. He's tough minded, and obviously has a special talent for putting the ball in the basket.

Q. You talked about not being able to extend the lead in the second quarter. When LeBron is on the other side and you allow him to hang around, how difficult is that?
BRAD STEVENS: I think that's just a little bit your margin when you're playing against this level of competition in the Eastern Conference Finals against champions, against guys that have been there, done that and against him. It's not going to be a super high-possession game against those guys, so a 15- or 18-point lead feels pretty significant.

But we just couldn't quite knock them down, and to no fault of anybody. Just happens. You have nights like that. It'll motivate our guys moving forward. I believed all the way until the last couple that they were all going in because they just have a special mentality to them.

Q. Focusing in on that particular period, the defense was playing great. In that second quarter, you took a timeout. Was it because you felt they needed needed a breather at that point? And one other part, the defense against LeBron was just off the charts, Marcus Morris and Marcus Smart, those guys were just -- again, one of your best defensive games of the year?
BRAD STEVENS: I thought it was an outstanding defensive game, and again, he still got 35-15-9. It's a joke. But the first part of the question, the timeouts, I just called them when my mandatory timeouts were coming, with the exception of the J.R. Smith three in the third quarter.

Q. What does kind of a run like this, knowing Kyrie Irving is coming back, knowing Gordon Hayward is coming back, what does that do for this team and kind of your feelings about it moving forward and the optimism that can kind of come from this moving forward?
BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, I think I'll have plenty of time to talk about next year. We obviously have a good thing going. But I don't want to take away right now from what those guys that were in that room just did. Kyrie and his play all year helped put us in position to have home court. As fun as it's been for a lot of guys, it's been heart wrenching in some ways for those guys because they haven't been able to be out there on the court. I think they're going to be really excited to get back with it. I mean, training camp -- I could take a couple of days to kind of get away from it, but training camp can't come soon enough. Those will be some fun practices, I'm pretty sure.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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