Kevin Ollie | Post-Game Press Conference | Cleveland Cavaliers | 3.10.2024

Kevin Ollie | Post-Game Press Conference | Cleveland Cavaliers | 3.10.2024

Good con coach coach you used the words like hunting Focus attitude and just response and what ways did your team show you that tonight all of that all of that I just love their effort I think do talked about it that was the best game I think

We had just communicating on offense and defense uh covering up for each other and that’s our power uh we was underdogs coming in here I just told him like nobody thought we was going to win this game especially the back to back and how we’ve been playing back to back backs

Off a tough loss but they believed um they communicated they talked together and they stayed in as a pack and that’s our motto just staying in as a pack and it’s our standard and they just play um of course it’s it’s great when shots are going in but I think those shots came

Off them sharing the ball getting downhill finding an open man nobody was selfish the ball did not stick and then us getting after on the defensive end and then cleaning up our turnovers um as our recipe of winning um they put it all together tonight which was great to see

See well you look at just it being you had the 12-point lead at one point in that first half then it the Cleveland Cavaliers were able to take the lead in that third but then something just sparked where you were able to have put on offensive performance where you guys

Put up 44 points in the third what stood out about that third quarter of how your team was able to still you know have be resilient and still come out like that yeah start us on the defensive end we start getting stops so we got out in

Transition um and our three points was was was something special but they was all on sprays and kickouts we talked about Jared Jared Island being at The Rim it’s hard to go and challenge him but what is our we call I call it kind of Court mapping understanding where

Jared Allen is and then understanding where your other players are so you have a plan when you’re going and attacking them and when he comes over the BL or when their low man comes in and seek in let’s pray the ball and be confident in our Shooters um and that’s what they did

Tonight and it was great to see but our defense picked up uh Steals and pressure and all the different things that our coaching staff and me wants U was on display tonight when you have a guy like cam who forget the fact that he missed as

Much time as he missed I mean a lot had been said about his his defense or his passing or having to improve those aspects of his game um for him to be plus 27 tonight and for him to be sharing the ball the way that he did and

Even kind of getting stuck in on defense the way that he did is that something that’s contagious and guys kind of feed off of that I mean yeah I mean Cam’s in there I mean we challenge him um about the egbs and egbs is offensive rebound and defensive rebound he had seven

Rebounds today five assists so it wasn’t all his scoring he was contributing other ways and that’s just great to see I want him to keep that up uh we going to keep challenging him in those ways and we want him to be a masterpiece on the offensive end and a masterpiece on

The defensive end and he can do it um but we we got to keep challenging and and it’s not coming from our coaching staff it’s our our players challenge them to be that that that special because we know what talent he is and we got to continue to harness that continue

To have his Masterpiece come out but he displayed it all tonight um got hurt a little bit and banged his knee and you know I was going to take him out and then he’s hit two threes I was like n we going to be all right I like you all right stay aless

But um just his toughness his resiliency balance back and getting back on the court for us means means the world to us um it was good for Mel too see some shots go in and you know uh coming off the curb playing off CT you know just taking the pressure off himself and

Stepping up he put so much work in so I know those seeds that he’s planted is going to bloom and and Blossom at some point he he he’s meticulous in his work and they going to show and like I said the other day struggle is part of it and

He’s just going to grow through it if he don’t stop in the middle and he didn’t stop in the middle tonight he finish it to the end and we all finish it the right way the Brooklyn way speaking of M I guess just again kind of WR off what

You said when someone like him obviously Tak so much pride in his craft in what he does and had the games he’s had before for a game like this what does it do for him just to see his energy on the court translate when the shots are falling defensively he’s doing his job

And just being the player he can be even though he’s had these struggles the last few games yeah it’s it’s very important but you said it um Evan that is the energy that that should not never waver if shots going in or shots not going in

And shots may be going that should never waver his energy he’s too good defensive player for that to to that to waiver and physicality that we brought that’s a physical team over there and I thought we brought it to them tonight which is good for us cuz we’ve been taking

Punches and for us to throw punches and like you said Megan for us to have a lead and then they come back in the game that’s when we usually kind of fade off or get discouraged but we got discouraged about that all right that’s they punch but what’s our counter punch

And and do talked about it Point talking being resilient you know running the corner 6 seconds offensive rebound and defensive rebound and we did it together as a pack when we do it as a pack I mean that’s where it’s at that’s who we are I challenged them after one game in a

Halftime like who we going to be who are we going to be forget about Atlanta and all that stuff and chasing all that let’s take care of what we need to take care of and then the results will happen and they’ll fall out in where where

Where God ATT tending to be but we can’t be focused on something that we can’t control what we can’t control is us getting better and we got better tonight speaking of doing it as a pack when you look at the stat sheet and you look at your starters all five being double

Figures and then every starter having multiple rebounds and then multiple assists like that just when you guys move forward just with the rest of the season just what is that showcase about what the that group is starting to kind of like grow and how can you use this

Game as an example yeah we can use this game we can use games when we don’t do it like all of it just it’s just part of our journey it’s just our our learning experience with each other but we can’t get down on each other we can’t point

The finger we can’t be split we can’t be disjointed and that’s all I want to talk like this is special like we’re spending our lives together and I want them guys to understand that because this group might be the group next year but we got these games to spend our lives together

And be around each other and have a Brotherhood that we have and we got to take this to to make sure we’re grateful about it and then work hard but the ball sharing and all that stuff is just great to see um and they put it all together

Tonight it was it was the fruit of our labor and what the pain that we’ve been through we got a reward for it tonight but I keep telling we can’t be drunk on success we we’ve done this before we’ve seen it before we got to come back with

The Lando with the Focus take care of your body when we get back to Brooklyn and come with the same Focus now are we going to win I don’t I don’t I don’t know that’s up to God but we need to have the same focus and have our same

Attention to detail like we did tonight thank you Kevin thank you

Kevin Ollie spoke to the media following the Nets vs. Cavaliers on March 10, 2024