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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS v PISTONS

May 25, 2007

Mike Brown

CLEVELAND, OHIO: Practice Day

Q. How do you calibrate between being a no-excuse team and maybe coming in and taking league discipline and people saying, he's standing up for a superstar, and making a statement about something like that?
COACH BROWN: Taking who's discipline?

Q. Taking a fine or something like that along those lines.
COACH BROWN: We're new to the game when it comes to the Eastern Conference Finals, and Detroit is not, obviously. They know how the game is supposed to be played at this level. You know, I feel like if I blame this or I blame that, any outside influence, then I'm giving -- I'm letting us off the hook and giving us an excuse. I don't want to be about that. I want to control -- I want us to control our own destiny, so we've just got to play better.
The easiest thing is to go in there -- I make good money, so I might have to take a $10,000 fine or a $50,000, fine. My wife might beat me up a little bit, but to me that's just letting us off the hook and adding fuel to a fire that doesn't even need to be there.

Q. Last year, I know Shaq had been there a lot, but basically that Miami had just paraded to the line --
COACH BROWN: Yeah, it might. I'm just saying they might have. I don't remember.

Q. And against you, too, 25 times against you guys once this year, too.
COACH BROWN: Yeah, he's a tough guy, tough cover, and sometimes he gets in those modes where when he's attacking he gets sent to the free-throw line, and so do we. LeBron has gone to the floor 20-plus times, a couple times during the course of the year. We've got to stay with it. We've got to keep trying to attack, keep trying to execute offensively and then keep trying to do what we're doing a decent job of, which is defending.

Q. You said you wanted your team to control its own destiny, but in essence you have controlled your own destiny the last two games. You had the lead last night. I mean, what is stopping you from taking that last, basically one minute left to seal out the win?
COACH BROWN: We're not playing good enough.

Q. Is it mental, physical?
COACH BROWN: They're executing a little bit better than us down the stretch, offensively or defensively. They're doing just a little bit more than what we're doing to get over the hump.
In the first game they came up with a big offensive rebound, and off the offensive rebound they hit a big three. If we come out with the offensive rebound, which we should have because we have inside position, maybe they don't hit that three, you know.
Down the stretch last night we had a couple turnovers that cost us, so we've got to make sure that we're even better than what we have been throughout the course of the game and down the stretch in order to get a win.

Q. Did you think Andy's position came into play on the Rasheed shot?
COACH BROWN: I mean, I don't know. You'd have to ask the three officials or call the League and ask the League on that because I have no idea. I know Andy plays hard and he's done a nice job in this series, and Rasheed hit a hell of a shot. I didn't even think LeBron was there. I didn't think anybody was there to contest the shot, but after going back and watching the tape, man, LeBron was right there and Rasheed was fading and turning to the baseline.
It was an unbelievable shot.

Q. You guys have changed the way sometimes that you warm up, coming out in the second half, warming up as a team as opposed to just guys shooting around. What can you do to maybe step out of --
COACH BROWN: I have no clue what we have done in the past or what we're doing right now in the second half when it comes to warming up. I don't tell our guys to go do this or go do that. Speaking of warm-ups, I can't help you there.

Q. How do you get a better jump on the third quarter?
COACH BROWN: We've got to play better. It's a good team, and that team has something to do with it. We've just got to do a better job of focusing and not letting them be the aggressors because they're coming out, they've come out and they've been the aggressors, and it's shown as the series has gone on.

Q. Are they doing anything on the court at the beginning of the third quarter or are you just not --
COACH BROWN: They're coming out and they're being really aggressive. Defensively they're up in our chests and they're denying and picking up full court and harassing us. That's what they're doing defensively. We're running the same plays that we've been running. We ran some of the same plays we ran in the second quarter to score points.
And then offensively they're being aggressive. Like Chauncey, you know, in that third quarter, Chauncey comes off a pin-down, and without hesitation he rises up and he shoots that jumper. He didn't do that at all in the first half. You could just see his demeanor change, you could see Rip Hamilton's demeanor change. Even Chris Webber has had some nice third quarters because of their aggressiveness on the offensive end of the floor trying to get us on our heels.

Q. Sasha took the shot on your first possession of the second half, he didn't shoot again the rest of the quarter, is there a reason for that?
COACH BROWN: Again, watching the tape, they turned it up and they put two or three guys in there trying to touch the ball. And you know, somebody showed me a quote that Chauncey had a while back, and this might have been in the regular season, he said, hey, LeBron is a great player, and we're going to stop him and we're going to see if other guys can beat us. We had some good looks, but our first ten possessions, Sasha had an 11-footer, and then other than that, everything was outside of 18 feet or turnovers, and you're not going to win many ballgames within the first ten possessions against a team that good.

Q. Are you playing well enough to win two games in a row? Does it help the confidence that you guys were right there on the road in the Conference Finals, or does it hurt the confidence knowing you didn't close it out? Does it affect it at all?
COACH BROWN: Yeah, we're still confident. We still feel like we can win. We knew we had a chance to win those games. For me personally, it's not horseshoes. I want the win.

Q. You called a time-out during the third period pretty early --
COACH BROWN: Which one?

Q. Well, the first one you left the same guys on the floor. Why not make a change back to the --
COACH BROWN: The first one?

Q. Yeah.
COACH BROWN: Most times when you take an early quick time-out, you're doing it to hopefully stem the tide and settle those guys down that are out there. That's what I wanted to do. I just wanted to see if we can stem it a little bit, settle the guys. It's our starting group that's won a lot of games for us, and they really helped us get to where we are. I wanted to give them an opportunity.

Q. You mentioned it's not horseshoes. These guys have been in organized sports for so many years, they've heard so many coaches talking to them, the things like "one game at a time" and "must-win" and all of that. How do you as a coach make an impact on them to go into this Game 3 that might impact them a little differently?
COACH BROWN: It might be cliché, but you can talk to our beat writers about it. We're a one-day, one-game-at-a-time team. This series isn't over until somebody wins that fourth game. We've been in this position before and have given ourselves a chance to win. I mean, I don't think much needs to be said. I think our guys understand it. They've been in it, and they know what they're capable of doing if we put it together for an extended period.

Q. There's been so much debate about who LeBron is and what should he have done, should he have passed, should he have shot? Is he getting superstar calls, not getting superstar calls? Do you think this debate actually serves to kind of tell us all who LeBron is during these last two games?
COACH BROWN: You know, I don't know because I don't read the newspapers or watch the stuff on TV, so I don't really know. I don't have a feel for the debate. I know people talked about the last shot in Game 1, if that's what you're talking about. Is that what you're talking about? ?

Q. Yeah, I'm talking about that, and --
COACH BROWN: It was a good basketball play. A guy I believe in is Gregg Popovich, and he called me and told me it was the right play. He tells me that's a good play and I'm good to go.

Q. There's has been so much talk about people trying to figure out who LeBron is and the hype. Who has he been to you in these playoffs and especially the last two games?
COACH BROWN: He's been LeBron James, a 22-year-old superstar that's growing and learning every day and that's going to get better day by day. That's who he is. It's helped us win a lot of ballgames. He's nothing more, he's nothing less. He's terrific in my opinion. It's good for you guys to have something to talk about, so I'm okay with it, and he's okay with it, too.

Q. What do you see him learning in the next couple games?
COACH BROWN: What do I see him learning? It's a great defensive team, so he has to learn how to beat a double-team, he has to learn how to beat a triple-team, not just with average players in front of him, he has long, athletic, smart players in front of him. They throw different schemes at him all the time because they've played together for such a long time, they just feed off of one another. It's not the same thing all the time. They really do a nice job of mixing it up.
So being put in those different situations, going through those types of experiences gives him an opportunity to get better for the next time, you know, and on the other end of the floor, we're trying to throw a lot of different coverages at them, too.
Just like the rest of the team, he's got to adjust and learn and cover for his teammates on stuff like that on the fly.

Q. Has he shown you a killer instinct in these last few games?
COACH BROWN: Yep.

Q. Does he need it to get this team to The Finals?
COACH BROWN: He's got to keep doing what he's doing. He's got to keep being -- especially like yesterday, he's got to keep being aggressive, keep driving the ball. If we don't get the ball then you've got to drive it harder, simple as that.

Q. How can you get Drew and Larry going a little bit more?
COACH BROWN: How can I get those guys going a little bit more?

Q. Is there anything you can adjust, especially with Larry getting out of a slump?
COACH BROWN: They've just got to keep playing hard, keep trying to knock down shots when they get the opportunity. Drew has got to do a better job of rebounding for us, I think. He's right around 20, 21 minutes a game and I think he's right around three rebounds a game. He's got to do a better job in that area. Larry is going to have opportunities to knock down shots because of the attention that they're paying to LeBron.

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