Kyrie Irving Joins Inside the NBA After Mavs’ Game 1 Win over Timberwolves | NBA on TNT

Kyrie Irving Joins Inside the NBA After Mavs’ Game 1 Win over Timberwolves | NBA on TNT

what’s up boy congratulations play to hoop Kai appreciate you all right so we we have discussed Kyrie the uh your guys trouble in game one and you’ve five in a row that you’d lost under Jason kid didn’t seem to bother you you still won the series but now to win game one of the Western Conference Finals on their floor how meaningful do you think that will be for your team uh in about 30 minutes it won’t mean anything thing you know to be honest with you guys uh just because we uh feel like we played a decent game but uh the first half uh didn’t go our particular way we felt like we gave him a lot of open jump shots Jaden mcdel got going a little bit and um me and luuka we’re trying to figure out the the rhythm of the game I got going a little bit early and then he was trying to figure out his Foo in but um you know I felt like we competed on the defensive end and gave ourselves a chance in the second half and uh came down to the wire and I feel like majority of the games in the series will be like that Chuck asked the question I said the other day day hold hold on let him ask you know what it is shq if you ever interrupt my FL you gotow go ahead sorry I don’t want to record made out on the way I want to be part of a disc record I’m sorry my bad hey one har you at home minding your business the other night yeah what about it you with your beautiful family just chilling probably having a nice meal and then the young fellow says I got Kyrie and you says excuse me yeah and he said it again he said I got Kyrie yeah that’s the most aggressive youve been in a long time yes sir I I know that had to irk you a little bit use it as a motivation you know when I was sitting at home and I uh and I saw it I was like just a nod of respect and then also um I knew what type of game was going to be game one and also for the rest of the series so you’re right I was at home with my family watching game seven you just minding your own business and then a comes out says I got Kyrie but but also that’s that’s a no fear mentality and that’s why we love ant so coming out tonight I knew that he was going to pressure me a little bit um but I knew that they were coming off the game seven grueling game so their legs were biting him a little bit tonight so hopefully game two they come back and um you know they set him a little bit more but we’ll be prepared Kyrie I said in the pregame that you’ve been nice you know you hold it Kenny’s got a question hold on hold on don’t don’t do that to my jersey New Jersey right don’t do that that’s don’t do that those Jersey guys stick together no matter what don’t do that he you know what I will smack don’t break character don’t break I said in the pre in the last series you was nice so when do you decide I mean because you know last series the first half you let the guys get off and then you get off so when as a player do you decide you know I’m going get mine and you follow me tonight you set the song of the a tone so my question to you is when do you decide to take over and when when when do you decide to get everybody else well I knew tonight that a few of guys on the team haven’t been in the Western Conference Final so uh I know that nerves were going get into them a little bit and when we start off the game uh you know that basketball feels a little extra balancy you know you’re not on the right rotations uh every single time uh but for me personally getting going offensively I know it settles our guys and when they see the ball going in the rim for me then that opens up opportunities for them so it’s really just the flow of the game but I know in this series uh in order to give Luca um enough breaks and stuff like that I got to stay aggressive whole time Kyle um I got a two-part question number one um you and Luca seemed to love Rudy Gober in that drop coverage what did y’all see in the drop that y’all were able to take advantage of and then secondly are y’all expecting more blitzes because they seem to start blitzing y’all towards the end of the game are y’all expecting more blisses going in the game too uh I mean the drop is you know that’s their defense so we just adjust and you know Rudy um has defensive capabilities protecting the rim but when we bring him further away from the basket that’s really our emmo right there that’s my comfort zone that’s Luca’s comfort zone and who knows maybe game two they start blitzing but if they start blitzing then I feel like those adjustments will work in our favor you know what playing with great players like yourself great scorers at times you and Luca can say I could really get my shot anytime I want but there seemed to be a switch when you guys started still saying I’m going to get Lively of a dunk I’m going to get PJ when did that switch happen because I just remember playing play with a Keem and is I can score every time if you want me if you want me to so when is that switch and how do you turn it on and off yeah I think it’s just getting to know your teammates and uh knowing where they like the basketball but also uh just being real with yourself the the basketball guys reward you for doing the right things over and over again and uh we were just passing out of a lot of double teams but also when we had our shots we wanted to be aggressive and uh when those guys are in the pocket making plays every single time and they’re available for those lobs I mean our offense is clicking at a high level so I feel good out there as a point guard and especially with Luka when we can go in tandem he goes go it’s not your turn my turn I’m just looking for the next opportunity to make a play for my teammates you know our so Rick carile and Miles Turner said something last night they’re like we knew we were great offensively but we realized like we suck defensively we can’t be dead last we got to be at least to the middle of the pack we’ve been saying something we got the stats to prove it the Dallas Mavericks have been playing great defense when did that switch for you for for you guys come in uh I would say a little bit after All-Star break and um you know I I didn’t say it out loud to my teammates um because but I set a goal it was to get 50 wins once we got the 50 wins I feel like we were in the middle of the pack of the Western Conference and we were going to be considered one of the teams to beat um but I kept hammering on at home other than getting the 50 wins getting into the defensive uh backbone of our team our identity we have to create that defense wins championships no matter how high powered your offense is you got to be able to get stops if your offense isn’t uh clicking for you so tonight I think that’s another game where we’ve proven where if we’re not shooting well offensively we can still get defensive stops and manage the game and the game doesn’t get out of hand you know sometimes it could be like that in the NBA game we’ played in plenty of games everybody’s played in plenty of games where if you’re not getting those defensive stops it’s hard to play offense sometimes guys aren’t running back guys aren’t setting as hard a screens guys aren’t cutting back door those opportunities aren’t there so uh I just try to stay positive throughout those moments and uh tell those guys like defense is is what our identity is now last thing now that we have you up here um the CarMax House of highlights moment of the year was authored by you uh yes it was yeah oh oh yeah yeah oh yeah oh yeah yeah rightfully so tell us tell us about that cuz I see you working on a lot of stuff before the game but this why would you try that I mean I mean you know I’m just working on my game out then did you know you was going to do that before you shot no I no I did not he jokies took my right hand away and uh he got a great contest but when I went to the Lefty Florida that’s been that’s something I’ve been working on since I was about 12 13 years old and to be able to do it at the biggest stage against the greatest athletes greatest players it feels even better hey I got one more question for you geez Chuck I got no this we this is time this is my time of the year when I like an Ask serious basketball have to be respectful understand but this but this is this is an important question though everybody on this team talks about you being a leader now facts and you they talk about like this guy is being a leader and you said some earlier you said none of these guys really the young guys on your team been in the Western Conference Finals yeah when did that switch kick on to you like you know what I’m the only one w a championship I’ve got to be a leader when did when did you figure it out uh I would say last summer when uh we got exited from the playoff contention and I’m watching my peers go for you know a chance to win the you know the golden trophy man that big thing like it’s just you get motivation from failure and you get inspired and I was watching playoffs at home and I was taking little notes on some of the greatest leaders in our league you know draymond’s one of them you know we got guys that are really the backbone of their team and they do the little things that don’t show up in the stat sheet for their teams to win so for me this year I really just focused on on uh doing the little things and if my points came they came but I wanted to make sure we felt good as a team after every single game and we got to be honest with each other we had a lot of long meetings with Jay kid sometimes it felt like therapy you know getting guys to talk getting guys to talk I mean getting males to talk about in competitive sport it’s hard sometimes you know so I felt like we had a good jeling group and then we went through a crucial trade in the middle of the season um where we got PJ and Gaff and then from there it’s just the sky’s the limit once I saw we had a chance I was like well I’m not going to take this for granted so every single day I remind those guys you know what it’s like to fail you know what it’s like to get to that Mountaintop be very close and then fail you know I got this guy sitting next to me we got two rings you know so for me I use that as motivation and um try to encourage my guys as much as I can congratulations that a hell of a question Luka with 3 one Dall over Minnesota in a game in which they only hit six threes that’s pretty strange for Dallas that’s Str bad news for the Wolves yes sir that is trouble coach Irving for spending some time with us excellent stuff and good questions thank you Ernest it was too many but it was good it’s just too many it was good though

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