NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS VS. HEAT

September 16, 2020

Brad Stevens

Boston Celtics

Practice Day

Q. Seems like so many of these mistakes you made in the fourth quarter, miscommunications, just mental mistakes. How do you get these guys to refocus and clean some of that up?

BRAD STEVENS: What I said yesterday stood out more than anything: The transition defense was just really bad. To their credit, they attacked us all night down the floor, but some of those plays in the fourth where we gave up layups and/or got lost on some threes hurt us.

So we've just got to clean that up. We have to be a lot better in transition. I think we've got to be a lot better on some of their actions, though. We guarded other actions well. We need to know what not to overreact to from an action standpoint.

Those are things we talked about, and on the defensive end, we'll look to play better.

Q. You guys have the same deal, too, where it's never just one guy. You guys always have a bunch of options who can come up with big nights at any given time. Miami has the same thing. Is it just commonplace that this is just going to be very difficult to defend when you don't know fit going to be Goran or Jimmy or Bam or whoever?

BRAD STEVENS: Well, Olynyk has had 20-point games. Crowder had 22 last night. I just think they go nine-deep with guys that can really score the ball. I think that Nunn's had several big scoring games this year. You have to be on your toes all the time.

Q. When you're looking at film, are you just focusing on the final minutes of quarters or taking a deeper look at everything?

BRAD STEVENS: Every possession matters. I think that that's what we always focus on. We try to do our job as well as we can possession-to-possession.

Obviously, the game is filled with momentum swings, but the best teams I've been on haven't been affected by momentum. They just do their job on that play. I think that we need to make sure we do a better job of that in Game 2 than we did in Game 1.

Q. After looking at the Tatum isos down the stretch, what did you see that was not going on that should have been going on?

BRAD STEVENS: It wasn't just Tatum. There were several times we isolated at the slot and they did a great job of the next guys, both the corner defender and the wing defender, were both long and active and helped. They have been great at that. They have probably identified that from the start of the year and worked on it, and it's clear they have worked on it.

And then when they put that lineup in at the end of the game with [Derrick] Jones [Jr.] and Iguodala and Butler and Crowder, they are just so long. You are not going to attack them one-on-one, let alone one-on-three. So we just all have to do a better job of moving the ball and getting to where we want to go.

We talked a lot about that today. There's no question that, the last two games specifically, our offense has been way too stagnant at the end of the game. That's contributed, I think, to then some of our transition defenses. You're not quite as engaged when we're all staring.

Q. As you talk about not overreacting to the things you do still react to -- you have young players that have been in this type of position before, guys that have played in Conference Finals and played in so many important games. Does that help?

BRAD STEVENS: I think that all that stuff is helpful but you know, when the ball tips off tomorrow, probably meaningless. You've just got to play well tomorrow. None of the stuff you've lived in the past matters. None of the stuff that you dream of in the future matters. It's just about what you need to do on this possession right now. I know that sounds cliché, but that's really the only way to go through these things. Two years ago, we kept saying there was a power of naiveté. So now we don't have that.

So, whatever. Spin it however we want to. We've just got to play well tomorrow.

Q. Maybe not specific to your series but in general, is there anything to be said or appreciated, this is super unique, but it's a neutral site, no travel, no home fans, no road situation to deal with, just two teams playing and may the best team win.

BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, the level of basketball has been great. Obviously, as much as the NBA has tried to make the home stuff matter, it just doesn't. It has no impact, unfortunately. I'm not sure that we've played in a home game where the home team has won in three weeks. At the end of the day, it's just guys playing in between those lines and who executes better and who plays the whole 48 or 53 or 58 minutes, or however long it takes, better. Miami did that a little bit better than us last night.

Q. Kemba by his own admission has not been playing well and it's gone on for a little bit now. Are there other actions you can get him in to get him going, and the other part is, where is Gordon on his timeline right now?

BRAD STEVENS: I don't have an update on Gordon. He's going to do a workout with our staff later today, but no real update there.

And then as far as Kemba goes, I don't lose any sleep over Kemba. Nobody cares more than Kemba. Nobody wants to play better. We are constantly going to the drawing board to figure out how we can make his life a little bit easier from our own perspectives. So we'll keep riding.