What the Cavs had to say about winning Game 7 at TD Garden
The Cleveland Cavaliers advance to their fourth-straight NBA Finals with an 87-79 win over the Celtics on Sunday night. For the superstar who led them there, it will be eight Finals appearances on the trot. After the victory, LeBron James and his teammates acknowledged their opponents and the difficulty of winning a series decider at the TD Garden.
James said that he’d hardly even processed the Cavaliers’ accomplishment yet. For Kyle Korver, the sound of silence was sweeter than any other as Cleveland’s play shushed the Boston crowd. Jeff Green, who used to play in front of that crowd in green-and-white, a dream has been realized.
Here’s what the Cavaliers had to say about their Game 7 victory:
George Hill
That’s a tough team over there. They’re going to be a good team for many years. I think they have a great core, even with their main guys out. Great coaching staff. To come into the Garden, with all the history that’s here, to win on their floor Game 7, to go to a Finals, couldn’t be better. You got to tip your hat off to those guys over there. It wasn’t an easy fight.
Tonight reminded me of old school basketball where home court really mattered. Back in the day, it was hard to win on the road. Boston made it tough to come here and win. The feeling is awesome…I have to tip my ht off to every guy on this team for really making an imprint on this game and making it tough for Boston to get comfortable.
Kyle Korver
To silence a great crowd — this is a great crowd, the fans here are really amazing — to hear them quiet down, there’s nothing quite like it in the world. Sports is so special in so many ways, to take a really good crowd out of it is really fun.
Tyronn Lue
The bigger the stage, the bigger the player, and [LeBron James] has been doing it for us since we’ve been here. The great quote from the great Doc Rivers is you always want to go into the Game 7 with the best player, and we have the best player on our team going into a Game 7. I like our chances. And he delivered again.
When you’re playing a team like [the Celtics], it’s hard to really game plan who you want to take away because the other guy can hurt you. So that’s a problem we had. But I thought our guys did a great job of adjusting in that second quarter of going to our switches, double-teaming the post-ups. But when you have five guys on the floor that can dribble, pass, and shoot, it’s tough to defend. And that’s what they have.
LeBron James
To be honest, I haven’t even really processed it. It was a great atmosphere tonight to be a part of that, be a part of another Game 7 on the road. Those are things, like I said, when you’re done playing the game, you can only dream and wish that you could be a part of that once again.
I think defensively we were just very, very sharp. Very, very sharp. We were flying around. We were moving around and that continued to just keep us into the game. Even with some of the plays that we made in the first half where we weren’t knocking down shots. I always kept my confidence in my teammates and I know that if we had the same opportunity in the second half they were going to knock them down. And they did just that.
Jeff Green
We stuck together. They made runs, and we stuck together and we just continued to play hard. I mean, it’s hard to put into words because you always dreamed of going to The Finals, and now that dream of mine is there.
I’m in the moment. This is the moment. It’s the moment. I mean, I give everything to this game. To have the opportunity, playing a Game 7, go to the Finals in the Garden. I spent four years here, and the opportunity was right there, and I wanted it bad.
