Game Quotes: Cavaliers vs. Indiana Pacers - March 20

(On Matthew Dellavedova): "True story, I came in early to the gym today, about a quarter to nine. Practice wasn't until 10 o'clock and Matty Dellavedova was out shooting. (He was) working though and not just standing. Working, working, working. I come to the game tonight, guys got big shots to try and make and he makes them. One plus one equals two, I really believe that. Unbelievable kid, unbelievable work ethic. Every good thing that happens to that guy, he deserves."

(On LeBron James): "We had an event last night and I know he wasn't feeling well there. (We) sent him home with some medication. Early this morning when we came in for our coaches meeting, our trainer Stephen Spiro told me LeBron was staying at home because he felt ill and he was trying to get some extra sleep…We agreed that we would monitor him throughout the day and Stephen will let me know close to game-time if he was going to try to go or not. Now LeBron does a lot of great things and we all know that. One of those things is he comes to play. He was sick and certainly could have made an excuse but did not. He wanted to play and we let him go. I thought that he did a terrific job tonight, both under the circumstances and normally…He's pretty smart about the way he does things. I think he recognized where in the game he can conserve some (energy) but for the most part I thought he layed it out there pretty good. You can certainly see and feel his presence when we needed him."

(On Indiana's style of play): "They recognized that George (Hill) had it going and they took advantage of the matchup during those moments and he made plays. We changed the matchup temporarily and we tried to slow him down. He played a great game and I thought Indiana (as a team) played a great game. The game tonight was more their kind of game than our kind of game. It was pretty much that type of game from start to finish which is to their credit. On the other hand, it's also to our credit that we won a game that was not played in our style against a good team. Indiana for the last few months has been a very good team and that was a good game for us, testing ourselves in that way."

(On his team's offense down the stretch): "I liked it. I thought we did the right things. Got the ball in the guys' hands that we wanted to and for the most part we functioned and we executed. What I didn't like was our third quarter defense. That's what I didn't like but it's an NBA game and you're not going to be great (all the time). First half, they had 41 points, 20 (in the first quarter) and 21 (in the second quarter). Those are great defensive quarters. In the third quarter we didn't defend at the level that we should (but) we got back to ourselves in the fourth quarter. I thought we functioned pretty well in the end."

(On playing through illness): "Throughout the game, my wind wasn't as I would like it to be when I'm 100%. I was just glad I was able to be out on the floor with my guys to make a few plays to help us win."

(On how it feels to make the playoffs): "It's a huge accomplishment for our team. For me, I don't look too far into it. But for our team, for the guys that have never been in the postseason, we have a few guys - looking around I know Double T (Tristan Thompson), Kev (Kevin Love) and Kyrie (Irving) have never been in the playoffs and I don't think they should take that for granted and just overlook that. It's a huge thing for those guys. I'm happy I was able to be a part of their first clinch for the postseason."

(On the possibility of facing Indiana in the first round affecting play): "I don't see it that way. I think in the sense of we got better tonight, that's why it meant more for us. We have to continue to get better. That's a very, very good team over there. We're just trying to get as good as we can going down the stretch."

(On how it feels to make the playoffs): "It feels amazing, it's an exciting moment. It's been four years. I was just talking to K-Love (Kevin Love), all of us coming together as a team and us making the playoffs for the first time is an awesome thing. I can't wait for them, but we just have to take it still as regular season, one game at a time and finish up strong."

(On the game tonight having a playoff feel): "I feel like it did. We faced some adversity. Delly (Matthew Dellavedova) did a heck of a job coming in, as well as our bench. They picked me up. LeBron just did what he did, especially in the fourth quarter when he was just taking over making plays. For me, I just have to be better offensively and defensively, more importantly for our team. At the end of the game, we got a big stop and the guys that were in did a heck of a job in closing out the game."

(On the physicality of the game): "We were tested tonight, but we've been tested all season. For us, it's just about sticking together. When it gets tough like that, 'tough times don't last, tough people do'. (For) us as a team, we've tried to have that confidence and toughness going into the fourth quarter when we need stops."

(On the team having fun together): "I think you see it on the bench how much fun we're having. I'm on Instagram, but I'm not on social media too much so I didn't see his (J.R. Smith) post. A perfect example is tonight when Delly got rolling, hit a few in a row – I don't know if it was his third or fourth three that kept us in the game and got us on a good run, but we were up there having fun cheering him along. That's the kind of team this is."

(On how it feels to make the playoffs): "It feels good. We still have a lot of work to do. I was told out there on the floor when we finished that tonight we had clinched the playoff spot. It feels good. I'm sure Ky (Kyrie Irving) and Delly and Tristan (Thompson), all those guys said the same thing."

(On tonight's game): "I liked the way we played. I liked the way we guarded. I liked the way we shared the basketball and I liked our competitive spirit. (It) just got undone by a great performance by the best player in the game."

(On guarding LeBron James): "They limit your ability to do more. You can't just run two guys at him with the weapons that they have out there. So we competed. I thought we made most of his shots really tough shots. That's all you can ask."

(On his team's play in the fourth quarter): "We were just making shots. I think we made everything on the defensive end tough for them in terms of making more tough shots – no easy layups, no more dunks and half-court defense. I think we were really efficient on the offensive end. I think we were just one rebound away from having the chance to either tie it or to win the game."

(On what went wrong): "I think it was like a scramble situation. They beat us to the loose ball, so I'm sure we're going to hear all about that tomorrow."

(On if tonight's game was how the Pacers need to play to be effective): "Definitely. We were so close. This was going to be a great win for us. But it's encouraging. If we play this way, we're going to win a lot of games and we're going to be in the playoffs. We've known that all year long. If you play this way, things are going to be ok. When we did, things were ok. We won a lot of games and we came back to a playoff spot."

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