Brad Stevens was interviewed postgame after the Celtics dropped another game, losing 102-94 to the Cleveland Cavaliers. On another deflating loss and a big game from Kevin Love, Stevens said “Love had a great game from behind the line… we missed some switches, we missed some opportunities to get into his air space, and he made us pay.”
Stevens had mentioned pregame about the team getting together in the coming days to figure out resting players before the play-in, and based on the outcome of this game was asked if that changed. Stevens said, “We gotta look at it now and figure out what the best mode of attack is… I’ve never been through this from the standpoint of a play-in tourney and the quick turnaround.”
After another putrid night defensively on the perimeter, Coach Stevens said “Love’s three-point shooting probably made us a little bit more anxious to guard at the line… we haven’t been perfect, I thought that we had some really good possessions there.”
On the execution getting sloppy and the Celtics seemingly losing steam, Stevens wanted to give the Cavaliers their due. “It was as much about them… they have a lot of good players out there… it’s more about them… I don’t want to blame this on fatigue… they deserve more credit than that… we didn’t balance guarding Love at the three-point line… I thought we got a little jump shot happy at times.”
On the continuous defensive lapses and communication breakdowns, Stevens said “It’s a fine line… you want to try a bunch of different things in the game… every rep with the basics is very important… we have not been consistent… it’s one of the reasons why we’re where we are… we could be better defensively… if we lose guys for any given amount of times, then we should be able to still defend… this team hasn’t been.”
