TNT, in its 31st consecutive year of NBA coverage, will be the exclusive home of the 2015 NBA Eastern Conference Finals when the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James meet the Atlanta Hawks and its four All-Stars (Jeff Teague, Paul Millsap, Al Horford and Kyle Korver) beginning with Game 1 on Wednesday, May 20, at 8:30 p.m. ET. Marv Albert will call the best-of-seven series with analysts Reggie Miller and Chris Webber and reporters David Aldridge and Rachel Nichols.
TNT’s Sports Emmy® Award winning NBA Playoffs coverage will open with a 30-minute NBA Tip-Off presented by Autotrader pre-game show at 8 p.m., with host Ernie Johnson and analysts Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith on site throughout the series. The studio team will also provide halftime coverage and a recap each night’s action via TNT’s Inside the NBA presented by Kia post-game show.
Notes from today’s media conference call featuring TNT NBA analysts Chris Webber and Reggie Miller:
Reggie Miller on the prevalence of three-point shooting among the conference finalists: “I think this is a game for shooters. The four teams remaining, all of them live from behind the arc. If you’re a shooter, if you’re in high school or college, start working on your form, because you have a job at the next level.”
Miller on not overlooking the importance of big men on these “jump shooting” teams: “The bigs are going to have a huge imprint on rebounding and points in the paint in both series.”
Chris Webber on how the four remaining teams are so similarly multi-faceted: “If you look at these last teams in, what’s unique is that on everyone but Houston, you have big guys that can step out and shoot…If they can’t shoot, other teams can switch their lineups and have a mismatch defensively. If you’re not holding your weight offensively and defensively equally, I think you’ll be out.”
Miller on the impact of injuries this time of year: “There [are] no back-to-back games, so there’s a lot of time for maintenance to the body. I think this little break that Cleveland and Atlanta have had is going to do both teams well because you get a chance to get your mind and body right. To win championships, you need talent and good coaching, but a lot of luck goes into it as well. That luck is staying healthy. It’s a slight margin of error in terms of being lucky to win a championship. It’s grueling and health will play a huge factor here.”
Webber on the idea of parity and how close the playoffs have been: “It shows how competitive guys are and I think it shows how much talent we have in the league right now… I have to give credit to players and coaches for putting out their best. I hope this will become a trend.”
Webber on the results of these teams playing in the regular season and its impact on the playoffs: “I don’t count what happened during the regular season…I don’t think you can take anything from it except for looking at tape and exploring tendencies.”
Miller on regular season vs. playoffs: “It’s a brand new series in the playoffs. You can kind of throw out regular season games because you’re not game planning for a series, you play one game and move on.”
Webber on the Western Conference Finals: “Both teams are right where they want to be and should be happy they are coming into [the series] playing well.”
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Webber on the impact of Thabo Sefolosha’s absence: “I think he will definitely be missed, with his experience in these types of situations. He will also not be there to give [Kyle] Korver and whoever plays [small forward] a rest, defensively. His presence is going to be missed. You will miss him, but these guys are used to playing as a unit.”
Miller on how Atlanta will defend LeBron James: “The loss of Sefolosha is going to be huge. He has NBA Finals pedigree with Oklahoma City and is familiar with guarding LeBron. Coach Budenholzer has enough guys to guard LeBron and I expect that DeMarre Carroll will start on him and Paul Millsap has a little more size to go against LeBron. It would [have been] nice to have the three-headed monster.”
Webber on the all-around game of All-Stars Paul Millsap and Al Horford: “They can post up inside but also hit the 15 footers. With these big guys, they’re going to have a very big impact. Millsap can lead the break sometimes…and make jump shots off penetration.”
Miller on how aggressive the Hawks guards should be against a less than 100% healthy Kyrie Irving: “If I’m Jeff Teague, I’m going to attack this kid and get after him right from the jump.”
Webber on Atlanta’s offensive execution: “[The opponent has] to worry about movement. When Horford catches it, he’s such a good passer, the opposite corner is wide open and he’ll see that…Atlanta seems to have the big guys that can pass and play in a fluid offense which is why it’s so hard to check their team and they get so many easy buckets.”
Webber on the difficulty Cleveland will face against Atlanta’s offense: “When you have a big guy that can shoot, it frees up the point guard in a pick-and-roll and it’s much tougher to get out and make a split-second decision.”
Miller on how Cleveland can best use their personnel: “I would not be surprised if the Cavaliers play small ball. The injury to Kevin Love affects them.”
Webber on how effective Kyrie Irving can be playing through injuries: “He’s unique in that he can catch and shoot, he can shoot off the dribble, he can post up and he can drive. When he gets hurt, he has more of a luxury than other players that are one or two-dimensional…Even though he’s hurt, I expect him to find ways to fit in because his skills allow him to play [multiple positions].”
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Webber on momentum coming into the Western Conference Finals: “If you’re Golden State, winning Games 3 and 4 on the road in Memphis, you take more solace in that, how you have played lately and how you played collectively over the year.”
Miller on the Warriors sweeping the regular season series, four games to none: “If you’re Golden State, you take some solace. If you’re Houston, so what, we’re 0-0…It could almost be a detriment to Golden State, if they think it’s going to be a cake walk, it could be trouble. You need a little bit of fear; confidence, but also a little bit of fear. This [Rockets] team just became the ninth team to come back from down 3-1 in NBA history.”
Webber on problems Golden State’s offense causes for opposing defenses: “It is a shooting man’s game, but the thing about Golden State is they have [interior] guys that can stretch the floor, big guys that can knock down that 15-footer. When you have those type of guys, but also have to get to Curry and get back to a shooter; it’s very tough.”
Miller on how Houston made coaching and personnel adjustments against the Clippers and how it will carry over into this round: “When you get locked in and you are watching tape on the specific personnel and the schemes that a team is going to play, things change. As we saw throughout the Clippers series, each game took on a life of its own. Each game will be totally different with different match-ups.”
Miller on Houston’s interior offensive dominance: “Houston was leading all teams obviously because of the dribble penetration of James Harden and more importantly, Dwight Howard and the alley-oops and the finishing in the paint.”
Miller on the Rockets’ philosophy and their advantage inside: “Yes it’s a shooter’s league and you have bigs that can stretch the floor…but at the end of the day, if you can get lay-ins and dunks, that’s Houston’s model. They want threes, free throws and points in the paint.”
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