Kyrie irving joins Inside the NBA after Game 1, FULL Interview

Congratulations, way to play Kai, I appreciate it, so we've discussed Kyrie's problems, the U, your guys in the first

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and you have five in a row that you lost to Jason, the kid didn't seem to bother you, you still won the series, But now, winning the first

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of the Western Conference Finals on your home court, how significant do you think it will be for your team? In about 30 minutes it won't mean anything. You know, to be honest with you, just because we. I feel like we played a decent game, but the first half didn't go our way, we felt like we hit a lot of open jump shots.

Jaden Mcdel got going a little bit and Luka and I are trying to figure it out. To pace the game, I started a little early and then he was trying to find the balance of it, but you know, I felt like we competed on the defensive end and gave ourselves a chance in the second half and went down. Until the end and I feel like most of the games in the series will be like that. Chuck asked the question that Chu I said he got the other day, another day, wait, let me ask you, do you know what it is?

If you ever interrupt my FL again. I got a knock, now go ahead, I'm sorry, I don't want to record done, no, no, the way I want to be part of a record, I'm sorry, my bad, hey, I heard you at home minding your business the other night, Yes, whats up? with your beautiful family just relaxing, probably enjoying a good meal and then the young man fell down and says, I've got Kyrie, so you say, excuse me, yeah, and he said it again, he said, I've got Kyrie, yeah, that is the most aggressive. You've been around a long time, yeah.

Sir, I know it had to bother you a little bit, use it as motivation, you know, when I was sitting at home and I saw it, it was like a gesture of respect and then I also knew what kind of game it was. It's going to be the first game and also the rest of the series, so you're right. I was at home with my family watching game seven. You just mind your own business and then a message comes out saying "I've got Kyrie," but that's also a No Fear Mentality and that's why we love going out tonight.

I knew he was going to pressure me a little. But I knew they were coming off a grueling Game 7, so his legs were biting him a little tonight. Hope

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y in the second game they'll come back and, you know, they're preparing a little more, but we'll be prepared. Kyrie, I said in the pregame that you've been nice, you know, wait. Kenny has a question, wait, wait, no. Don't do that to my Jersey boy, New Jersey man, right, don't do that, don't make them Jersey boys stick together no matter what don't do that, you know what I'll hit, don't break character, No.

At the break, I said earlier in the last series that you were kind, so when do you decide? I mean, because you know, in the last series, the first half you let the guys get off and then you get off, so when as a player you decide, you know? I'm going to get mine and you follow me tonight, you set the song. The tone. So my question to you is: when does he decide to take charge and when, when, when, when does he decide to get everyone else okay? Tonight I knew some of the guys on the team haven't been to the Western Conference finals so I know the nerves were getting the best of them a little bit and when we start the game you know basketball feels a little extra balance , you know you're not. in the right rotations, uh, every time, uh, but for me personally, starting to attack, I know that calms our guys down and when they see the ball go into the rim, that opens up opportunities for them, so it's actually just the flow of the game. but I know that in this series, to give Luca enough breaks and things like that, I have to stay aggressive all the time.

I have a two-part question number one. You and Luca seemed to love Rudy Goar in that fall. coverage, what did you see in the drop that you were able to take advantage of and then secondly, are you expecting more blitzes because they seem to start attacking them towards the end of the game? more blitzes in game two uh I mean the downfall is you know it's his defense so we just adjust and you know Rudy has defensive capabilities protecting the rim but when we move him further away from the basket that's really our emmo right there.

My comfort zone is Lucas' comfort zone and who knows, maybe in the second game they will start blitzing, but if they start blitzing then I feel like those adjustments will work in our favor. Do you know what playing with great players like you, great scorers sometimes, you and Luca can say? I could really shoot any time I wanted, but there seemed to be a shift when you guys started saying, I'm going to dunk on Lively. I'm going to get PJ. When did that change occur? Because I only remember playing with the team. I mean, I can always write down if you want, if you want, 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 knowing where they like basketball, but also uh, just being honest with yourself, basketball guys reward you for doing the right things over and over again and uh we were. going through 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 all the time and they're available for those lobs. I mean, our offense is performing at a high level, so I feel good as a point guard and especially with LCA, when we can go in tandem.

I'm going, it's not your turn, it's my turn, I'm just looking for the next opportunity to make a play for my teammates, you know, I saw Rick Carlile and a thousand Turner say something last night, they're like we knew we were great offensively, but we realized. We kind of stink defensively, we can't be last, we have to be at least in the middle of the pack, we've been saying something, we have the stats to prove it, the Dallas Mavericks have been playing great defense, when did they make that change? for you? For you guys, come in, uh, I would say a little bit after the All-Star break and, um, you know, I didn't say it out loud to my teammates, um because, but I set a goal for myself: get 50 wins.

Once we got 50 wins I feel like we were in the middle of the pack in the Western Conference and were going to be considered one of the teams to win, but I kept working at home in addition to getting 50 wins on the defensive backbone of our team. team, our identity, we have to create the defense to win championships, no matter how powerful your offense is, you have to be able to stop if your offense is not clicking for you, so tonight I think is another game where we have shown. where if we're not shooting well offensively we can still make defensive stops and manage the game and the game doesn't get out of control, you know, sometimes it could be like that in the NBA game that we play in a lot of games that everyone has played in .

There are a lot of games where if you don't make those defensive stops, it's hard to play offense, times when guys aren't running back, guys aren't making such tough screens, guys aren't cutting off the backdoor, those opportunities They're not there, so, uh, Just try to stay positive during those moments and tell those guys that defense is what our identity is now. The latest thing now that we have you here, the CarMax House highlight of the year here was written by you, yes it was. yes oh oh yes yes oh yes oh yes yes rightly tell us about that because I see you working on a lot of things before the game, but why would you try that?

I mean, you know, Dre, I'm just working on my game out there, did you know you were going to do that before you shot? No, no, no, I didn't make jokes, he took my right hand away and uh, he had a great competition, but when I went to the left-handed float, that was something I've done. I've been working since I was 12 13 years old and to be able to do it on the biggest stage against the best athletes, the best players, it feels even better. Hey, I have one more question for you, geez, Chuck, I don't have this, this is the time.

This is my time of year when I like I can ask serious questions about basketball, I have to be respectful, understand, but this, this, this is an important question, although everyone on this team talks about you being a leader, now the facts and they talk about you. This guy's been a leader and you said something before, you said none of these guys really the young guys on your team were in the Western Conference Finals, yeah, when did that change trigger you like you know I'm the only one? I won a championship I have to be a leader.

When did you do it? When did you discover it? I would say last summer when we were knocked out of playoff contention and I'm watching my teammates go looking for a chance to win the You know the man with the golden trophy, that great thing is that failure motivates you and you get inspired and I was watching the playoffs at home and I was taking little notes on some of the best leaders in our league. You know Draymond is one of them. I know we have guys that are really the backbone of their team and they do the little things that don't show up on the stat sheet to help their teams win, so this year I really focused on doing the little things and if my points came in , they came, but I wanted to make sure that we felt good as a team after each game and that we had to be honest with each other.

We had a lot of long meetings with the J kids. Sometimes it felt like therapy, you know, getting the guys to do it. talking, getting guys to talk, I mean getting guys to talk about the sport, sometimes it's hard, you know, so I felt like we had a good group and then we made a crucial trade in the middle of the season, where we got to PJ and Gaff. and then from there, the sky is the limit, once I saw that we had a chance, I thought well, I'm not going to take this for granted, so every day I remind those guys that they know what it's like fail, you know what it is.

I would like to get to that mountain, get really close and then fail, you know, I have this guy sitting next to me, we have two rings, you know, so for me I use it as motivation and try to encourage my guys as much as I can, congratulations. that was a great question L Luka with 3 one no less