James Jones, the Wine and Gold’s sharpshooting reserve has played in numerous postseason games over the course of his 12-year career – winning a pair of NBA titles among his six straight trips to the NBA Finals.
As the Cavaliers try to make history – Cavs.com asked the savvy vet to share his thoughts following Thursday's shootaround in preparation for Game 6 …
Right now, we feel great. We’re back home. We did what we needed to do – going in and getting a victory on the road on Monday night.
Tonight, we have to come back and protect home court, which we didn’t do last time. So, we’re motivated to come home and show what we’re about.
All the pundits are trying to figure out which team the pressure is on. I think the real pressure’s on those who’re picking us to lose.
For us, we play the game of basketball. There are pressure points in every game. And those pressure points are, by and large, created during the game. The stuff that happens before tip-off is all chatter and noise. None of that stuff matters.
When you get down to it, it’s five guys on each team, coaches and reserves trying to win a chess match until the final buzzer sounds. It’s that simple.
Right now, we know what we have to do.
"Defend The Land"
"Setting the Stage"
"Going Next Level"
"Staying Sharp"
"Coat of Armor"
"Youth Movement"
We have to continue to be physical. We have to continue to be aggressive defensively without fouling and we have to play until the tank’s empty. We have to make tough plays, we have to make big shots and we have to get the 50-50 balls. We have to get out in transition because we have an advantage in transition.
They’re a good defensive team in the halfcourt, and they switch a lot to eliminate your triggers. So for us, if we have a greater pace and have a better motor and play as hard as we can, that’s our type of basketball – and we’re very, very good at that.
Coach Lue said it best: ‘You don’t play Golden State, you attack them.'
You can’t play their game; you can’t sit back and try to absorb their best shots. You can’t sit back and try to figure out how to play within their defensive scheme. You have to attack them.
They’re very good on the offensive end and the only way to slow them down or to have success is to attack them on their other end. You have to make them work on both ends of the court – something that’s extremely tough to do when you play at the pace that they do.
We’d love to see Kevin Love get back into his rhythm and we feel like he will.
The cure for lack of rhythm – when you’re struggling, trying to find your way – is excess effort. Teams get a read on you, they get a bead on you, they know your spots, they’ve scouted you. Over a series, they know your strengths and weaknesses.
So for Kevin, if he can get out in transition and get some easy ones, if he can sprint the lane and get a dunk or play with force down low, get a couple shots on the inside, get a couple forceful post-ups. Just attack the game.
When you’re a rhythm player, you’re accustomed to the ball finding you and the shots being there. But with the different matchups, the different lineups, the way Golden State plays – combined with LeBron and Kyrie having great individual performances – the offense isn’t going to be predictable, the offense isn’t going to be consistent, based on what they’re doing to us and based on how we’re trying to attack them.
So, like I preach to all our guys, it doesn’t matter who you are, star player or not. If you’re away from the ball, you have to create your own rhythm, you have to create your own momentum. Because in an ideal world, they’d love for our guys to go one-on-one and stay home on our shooters.
So in order to get yourself going, you have to find ways to beat their scheme. And usually that means either very early in the shot-clock or near the end of the shot-clock, you have to be aggressive, you have to move with force, you have to attack.
And so, for Kevin, it’s just continue to grind, continue to work and try to win every moment of the game – every possession, every action, every cut. Because over time, we’ve seen it time and time again, it’s not how you start the game, it’s how you finish.
In the Playoffs, a six-point, six-rebound burst might mean more to you than a 20-point, 10-rebound effort that really doesn’t impact the flow of the game.
I know some media members wrote about Coach Lue reading an inspirational message by Mark Twain in the pregame locker room the other night. That’s not something he does a lot of.
A lot of coaches do it. It depends on the coach’s personality.
Coach Lue is extremely perceptive. And my thing is to always give context.
And the context for us is that this game has given us everything. A lot of us, we define our lives by what we do in this game.
But outside the game, life still goes on. There are real world issues, there are things that are so much bigger than basketball. And the good coaches have a way of giving you context – not just about the moment, not just about the game, but overall – your purpose in life, where you fit in the world.
So, a lot of coaches do it. Every coach isn’t effective with it and every group isn’t receptive.
This group is receptive because we understand that we’re playing for something that’s so much bigger than ourselves, so much bigger than basketball. To be able to reach the heights we’ve reached, we’ve had to sacrifice a lot and a lot of people have given and poured a lot into us.
Coach Lue reminds us, and we all understand that this is life-changing – not only for us, but for others. It’s an opportunity we can’t miss.