Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff loves seeing teammates celebrate each other

Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff loves seeing teammates celebrate each other

Been awesome um I can’t think of enough adjectives to use to describe him um you know just as a human being as a basketball player as a teammate uh as somebody that I’m fortunate enough to coach um he’s just a special person and you know again with you know all the ups

And downs and roundabouts and you know things that have happened the adversity that this team has seen and fought through uh for a guy to just you know will himself and his team uh a willingness to do whatever it takes to help this team win uh and survive this

While all these things you know have been happening um is just special and he’s a unique person um and we’re fortunate to have him in our locker room something else that’s special is how badly his teammates want it for him as well what was the reaction like in the

Lock uh they lost it uh you know he got the ice bath and everything but it’s it’s a genuine thing and that’s the thing that you know is most appreciated about this group it’s like they don’t care who’s getting getting the opportunities or who’s getting the shine or whatever whoever’s doing their job

They just make sure they celebrate that guy doing their job and each of our guys is focusing on thriving in their roles and Ja is thriving uh in his role clearly Chris J we’ve talked a lot about the fast starts that you guys have gotten off to what do you feel like is

The common denominator with that uh Jared Allen wins the tip and we get the first possession uh we get an opportunity to Score first and you know and then our defense has just been incredible um I mean we our guys have been Elite on that end of the floor and

When you are that good the way that they’ve been you know you’re going to give yourself a chance uh to get off to those starts but uh I think what tonight they had seven points around the six minute Mark like I mean you know that’s difficult to overcome and then when

You’re getting that amount of stops the offensive opportunities that we create with the talent that we have on the floor uh you know we have the ability to make them pay in what way has Sam Marill raised your offensive ceiling uh I mean he’s he’s just such a weapon uh that defenses have

Really really difficult decisions to make um you know and not only is he you know he’s not just a standstill guy right you don’t know where you’re going to find Sam um but you know if you want to over rotate like tonight they threw in the ball in the corner time and time

Again and he was there just to bang out threes uh but he takes at least six eyes so when he’s moving and screens are being set on him you know defenses shift to him he gets the shot or somebody else has get an opportunity to play Advantage

Basketball uh guys that are you know like we said extremely talented offensively when you’re fully healthy if you’re ever fully healthy you have a lot of guards and you’ve talked about that so how do you find minutes for somebody like Sam um when you get to that point

Uh we’re fortunate that we have guys that are versatile and we’re fortunate that we have guys that can defend multiple positions you know like we talked about earlier ear it comes down to matchups for us uh and we’re not opposed to playing uh Sam and having him

Guard bigger guys so uh you’ve got three spots there that you can work those guys and again you know if we’ve got to go to a fourth one you know we again got guys who can compete that we can play Four Smalls around one of our bigs so uh you

Know guys have earned minutes you know it’s not going to be easy um obviously but uh I’d rather have this problem you good with extending to 11 if we have to Donovan is such an elite scorer but he’s been such a great playmaker over this stretch 13 assists again tonight uh

Can you talk about just how how good he’s been in that role yeah I it’s he he understands you know where we are and what his teammates need and I think that’s something um that is understated about Donovan’s game is he has an extreme empathy for his teammates uh he

Knows he has the ball in his hands he knows he can you know create a shot whenever he wants to um but he’s so dedicated to his teammates and making sure that they’re successful he’s just doing the job of getting them the basketball when they’re open um and you

Know again understanding in a leadership position that he’s in you know if anybody touches it or gets a great shot offensively they’re going to give you more effort on the defensive and the floor uh he knows if he leads by selflessness there’s nobody else on the

Floor who can’t play that way right so uh you know he he’s assumed the role um of the lead facilitator but he’s a guy who’s leading his team because he understands what his teammates need and what the team needs as a whole I know kind of emphasis was this this team 50 I

Think they Aver 54 points in the pain held them to 34 tonight what was working def I mean execution and understanding your opponent and the game plan on how to win uh we talked about it before the game uh we have given up 62 points to

Them in the paint in our previous two games an average of 62 points uh another 23 free throws because of the packing in the driving and if you look at that’s 85 points of 107 points they’ve averaged against us uh so our guys understood what we needed to do to win and they

Went out uh with you know Precision uh and executed

Cleveland head coach J.B. Bickerstaff after the 126-99 victory over the Magic.