Sam Merrill: Cavaliers have ‘kept their foot on the gas’ during winning stretch

Sam Merrill: Cavaliers have ‘kept their foot on the gas’ during winning stretch

Jared Allen because it’s clear how happy everybody is for him take me through what the moment was like for all of you guys when you got to Locker him and why you guys are so proud of him yeah I mean he’s this good of a guy as you’re going

To meet uh just a great great dude great teammate and um he’s just been so so important for us and so good for us and to for him to be able to do that um just a really cool moment uh again he’s I bet if he took a a little survey

Of like who was the most liked guy on the team he he’d be right up there so we’re happy for him why he’s just he’s super down to earth um just kind of does his thing but uh also just a really nice guy and um jokes around and does all the fun

Stuff so he’s great eight game winning streak fourth consecutive game of holding a team to under 100 points obviously we can see it on the defensive end but how confident is this team playing right now yeah I think there’s definitely a high level of confidence

And it’s not I think it’s more of in each other and understanding where guys are going to be and having confidence and Trust in each other and that was a thing um that because of all the new guys and a little bit of a different new

System to start the season I think we had to grow and um we certainly have that right now you haven’t trailed in a week what does it take to play at that high of level for such a long time I didn’t know that but you got to play

Really good basketball and uh we certainly have been able to do that so far and um it’s you know it starts with the starting unit getting off to good starts and they’ve clearly done that those last few games and then um just everybody just playing the right way and

Um keeping our foot on the gas which is really important in this league like I was saying in a halftime against a team like this they they keep playing and keep playing no matter what and we were able to hold them off and get it up over

30 and then Coast from there you were mentioning guys just feeling confident in their roles you look at Donovan again tonight you know ties a career high in assists with 13 he been really you know an AC of facilitator how has he embraced that particular role yeah he clearly has

He’s done such a good job of um getting into the paint and looking for guys and um it’s clear that he has a lot of trust in us and we obviously have trust in him and um his ability to see things and make passes some of the passes he makes

Are pretty pretty impressive I’ve always thought he’s a very very good passer pretty underrated as a passer um and he’s obviously done a great job with that when you got your bigger opportunity about a month ago what was your approach in terms of how you wanted to try and stand out Elevate this

Team I think it’s I try and be as solid as I can and everything that I do like I don’t obviously the shooting will pop at times but um for me it’s it’s always been like know I I know I can shoot I know that’s

What what people are going to see me as but I want to just be a winning basketball player and I felt like I’ve always been able to do that whether that’s communicating on the defensive end getting through screen staying in front of guys um making the extra passes

Uh being a distributor when I need to uh get into the paint when they run the off line stuff like that that’s just all I’m trying to do and um the shots obviously going in for the most part cuz I have a lot of confidence in that but at the end

Of the day I’m just trying to play winning basketball and I think that’s what we’re all trying have you ever participated in a Three-Point Contest at any level no I have not no would you want to yes not sure what I’m supposed to say to that I was really looking forward to

All-Star break to go play some golf so we’ll see what happens your teammates have already started yeah we we’ll see what happens with that he unbelievable

Sam Merrill addresses the media after the 126-99 win over the Magic in Orlando.