J.B. Bickerstaff | Cavs vs Nets Post Game | 3.10.2024

J.B. Bickerstaff | Cavs vs Nets Post Game | 3.10.2024

You know emotionally physically you just run out of gas um you know everybody was trying to step up you know one more man down um I thought they tried to you know they competed in the first half and then the third quarter kind of broke our back

But give I mean they made shots I mean they hit two 40 foot 40 foot heaves um you know I think they went eight for 10 from three in the third quarter uh so you know just a little too much to overcome tonight how difficult is it to

Defend a team that’s shooting that well from three-point range and how have you guys also seen that in your own game yeah I mean you know when when you’re able to knock down shots like that it changes the game it changes the spacing uh puts so much pressure on a defense um

You know but again we there was times we could have done a better job guarding the ball and stopping rotations and all those things but again I I I give our guys a ton of credit um for going out competing giving what they had but like

I said at some point in time you know you just run out of gas um and I think tonight was one of those nights so hopefully our guys didn’t have to play too many minutes and we get back at it tomorrow tomorrow jaon uh the Nets scored 44 points in the third quarter

What went wrong there uh I mean again they went 8 for 10 from three um you know we allowed some open ones um then we started to allow you know the rolls and dunks and those like that so overall just wasn’t a great quarter defensively

For us but um you know again they make shots on top of it they hit 51% of their threes is there anything from the defense that you saw that led to that uh I mean again it comes down to one we could do a better job controlling the

Basketball we didn’t have to help as much and get into rotations as much as we did uh you know the pick and roll um you know we didn’t execute the backside of our coverages properly to make sure we got the corners and those things covered up but again I I’ll say like you

Know I give our guys a ton of credit um they’ve been fighting and scrapping like I said at some point down you lose enough bodies and then you just run out so um you know again we’ll move on get ready for Phoenix Chris J when did you

Sense that you guys were just out of gas tonight uh I mean it started in you know in the third quarter uh obviously I think it kind of exploded but you know we watched early in the game and you just saw like there were some 50/50

Balls you know that we weren’t coming up with um some turnovers that we made you know things like that where you know you could just kind of feel it but the guys were trying to will themselves into it um and again you know then you get your back broke because they started banging

Those threes um and then that was it for us it’s obviously just one night but you guys Corral like 4% more of your defensive rebounds with Dean w on the court which is like 94th percentile what makes him such an effective uh defensive rebounder and and do you sense when he’s

Out that you do feel that absence well I mean we we miss all our guys um you know what Dean does you know a multitude of things uh Dean covers his man and keeps his man in front of him you know forcing tough shots where our big guys don’t

Have to go and help so that leaves our big guys in rebounding position more and then when the shot goes up you know Dean is a guy who you know flies and goes and grabs defensive rebound so it’s not just a one-dimensional thing with him I think

It’s a couple things that help that where he helps us and you know again we definitely uh feel the presence of his of him being missing anything else

Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach J.B. Bickerstaff spoke to the media following a 120-101 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on March 10, 2024 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.