Caris LeVert: Cavaliers found ‘grittiness’ they’d been missing to beat Pacers in Indianapolis

Caris LeVert: Cavaliers found ‘grittiness’ they’d been missing to beat Pacers in Indianapolis

These are two teams that were fighting for seeding why did your urgency win out tonight I think defensively we were great down the stretch um we got the stops that we needed Darius obviously had a huge stop on halberton the end the game uh Jay had some big rebounds um it

Was just a big game for us facts you mentioned the defense there was a point in this game where they didn’t score for nearly six minutes when did the defense flip for you the first quarter was bad for us um and Coach buck you know he

Kept telling us uh we got another gear and I think the second quarter it kind of picked up um and we took that energy uh toward the rest of the game tonight just two round shy of a triple double we talked about it this morning and how

Well you do seem to play against this team but how confident were you feeling out there tonight yeah I got to the paint early um got to the free throw line got my confidence going um and then I just started making plays for others they started trapping me and things like

That so uh we have a team that’s capable got a lot of guys that are capable we love playing this way you’ve got a guy in Marcus Morris who comes in here shoot around this morning 10day contract 14 points in huge minutes and he’s out

There on the floor at the end of this game how big was he true Pro true true Pro that’s the real definition um he was with his kids a couple days ago um and now he’s with us you know contributing major like that in the fourth quarter um

Hitting timely shots like that um it’s just huge it’s huge to have that veteran presence on our team we keep talking about this this next man up men mentality and finding your identity through wins like this what do you think you guys found tonight uh just that

Grittiness that we kind of been missing over the past two weeks um and then finishing the game it was huge for us you know we love these type of close games and um it was great to finish it especially against this opponent you know uh it was a huge win for us you

Mentioned this opponent this is somebody that you could technically face in the playoffs right so why was it important despite being under man to make sure you gave them your best shot yeah you always want to give every team your best shot but especially team that you may see in

The postseason um we know how important the postseason is and we’re looking forward to it this season and then lastly Carris look what just kind of kept you tight during the stretch of this game when things got tough just communication and the huddles from the coaches to the players um staying on the

Same page talking about defense um and not letting up

Cavaliers swingman Caris LeVert speaks with Serena Winters after the 108-103 win at Indiana.