J.B. Bickerstaff | Cavs vs Celtics Post Game | 3.5.2024

J.B. Bickerstaff | Cavs vs Celtics Post Game | 3.5.2024

Coach Dean Wade outscored the Celtics in the final quarter and ended up having the game winning put back dunk what was he able to bring tonight in that final quarter uh he was himself and this is a version of Dean Wade that you know we’ve

Seen in the past uh and it’s the one that we press and press and press for him to be um when Dean Wade is playing with that extreme confidence I mean he’s a hell of a basketball player um he’s a multifaceted guy he’s not just a spot up shooter

Um we know the things he can do defensively but he has an offensive game and tonight you know um he got it rolling but the belief the confidence um but that’s who Dean Wade is at his core speaking of the defensive prow you had

Him at the five for a little bit in that fourth quarter and he was able to hold his own until you get some of your other guys back in there him playing on both sides of the ball do you think he gets as much respect that he deserves no I

Mean I don’t I don’t think so I mean if you look at and I haven’t done it you know a couple weeks maybe but you look at defensive players in isolation uh and Dean Wade has always one been one of the tops um he guards his man he guards

Multiple positions he knows how to keep him in front of him um you know we challenged him tonight to go be the five which is a position that we haven’t had him at a lot um but uh you know he battled he was physical he was tough um

I thought he did a heck of a job there JB down 22 there in the fourth quarter um what flipped the switch for you guys you you lost s you’re without Donan would have been easy to to say it’s not our night what fli that switch uh it’s

Just not our guys nature to give up and you know we’re obviously you know been through situations where we’ve been short-handed we’ve been down um and it seems like every single time it happens somebody else finds a way to step up and help us win but um our guys won’t quit

Um the momentum got going you know the crowd got going uh shots started falling and you know we had done uh you know second quarter I thought we did a great job defensively not so much in the third but you know we knew that there was a

Scheme that we could execute uh that could help us defensively and I thought you know our defense obviously held uh we rebounded the ball well in the fourth quarter not giving them a bunch of extra opportunities uh and then you know again shots started to go uh we started

Getting confidence there Shar another double double from him I think 29th on the season um just to play that well against that team what do you think that can do for him what do you think you do if your your team going I mean it there

Is no secret that we’re at our best when Jared Allen’s at his best there is no secret um you know when he is dominant on both ends of the floor our basketball team is the best that it’s going to be and you know again he’s another guy who

You know saw Evan go down um and knew that he just needed to do more and I thought he did a phenomenal job and he always has um but again when you know the chips were down um you know he was there he was the constant throughout the

Game for us Jeff you know before the game JB you talked about how you want a challenge like the Celtics so is how big was this win is like a signature win for you guys uh I mean it’s a great win um there’s no doubt about it you know again

How we got it to be down and to be able to come back and win it um it’s a huge win for us I think it’s a confidence boost for our guys to understand you know what they’re capable of and what they can do um you know I don’t really

Get into signature wins but it’s definitely a win that you can look back on uh and you can gain confidence and belief in and then I didn’t did I didn’t ask you before the game Max TR can you give us an update on him uh we’ll just

Have to wait and see to be honest with you um you know it’s it’s something that he had been dealing with and then the play the other night um when he tried to take off and dunk um you know it really bothered him and you know it’s Max so if

He misses a game you know uh he’s bothered by it so it’s something we just have to take our time with uh go from there right we you a guy like Dean Off the Bench who gets as hot as he did in the fourth quarter do you try to funnel

Some things through to him or or you really still try to stay in the offense and then if it’s there it’s there I think it’s you know on the floor because we are you know more of a read and react when we’re playing early and in transition uh it’s about the guys who

Are on the floor and I thought they did a great job of finding him and then you know the matchup was good they had a bigger guy on them who wanted to play back and play off of them if you looked at the first half the way they guarded

Him they just went and sat in the paint um you know and he had open looks but you know they continued to do it he didn’t hesitate he kept shooting and his teammates kept finding him so it’s a combination of our guys doing a great job of understanding their defensive

Scheme uh and then doing a great job of recognizing who the hot man is uh JB um with Donovan Al at least for the next three games before you guys evaluate him the expectations were a little bit higher for Darius heading into this match up especially considering the opponent how do you

Think he responded just those extra internal expectations just how he performed overall I mean I thought he did a great job we try our best you know to not pay attention and to not highlight things that aren’t happening in our building so you know I don’t know what outside expectations there are I

Don’t know what uh comments or people are making and those types of things but um you know we expect Darius to try to be his best every night and we know how good he is excuse me we know how much he means to us um so every night that he’s

On the floor we want him to be his best and looking at the broadcast like Evan awkwardly landed in the third quarter do you have is that what happened you tweak his ankle and do you have any updates on yeah from again from what I saw in the

Replay quickly uh he landed funny after the dunk and kind of stumbled and twisted his ankle um I haven’t heard anything about x-rays or anything like that yet but I’m sure they’ll keep you guys posted as soon as we hear something anything El

Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach J.B. Bickerstaff spoke to the media following a 105-104 victory the Boston Celtics on March 5, 2024 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.