 Steve can you talk about the total effort in that first quarter and how maybe Blake's follow-up champs set the tone for the whole game but how you came out of the gate tonight. Yeah great start guys who are prepared and hungry and you know not only played well but you know just battled and fought and scrapped you know did the did the little things that it takes to win. Greg Logan with Newsday. Steve what the decision to start Brown was that basically to get your best defensive lineup out there and how do you feel like he and Griffin set the tone against Middleton and Giannis in the first half. Yeah like I said you know they really came out and played well to start the game a lot of energy a lot of fight and you know Blake's been playing very well and doing all the little things and we know Bruce does that as well. So just their energy and fight I think was fantastic it's contagious and I thought the whole group really performed well at the gates. Alex Schiffer with The Athletic. Hey Steve you said a couple months ago how there are certain guards that would laugh you out of the gym if you asked them to screen the way Bruce does for you guys. I mean you seem to cause the books defense a lot of problems with with that just can you kind of speak to what what his impact was offensively with that tonight. Yeah you know I mean it's it's a it's a rare skill for a guard to screen a role like that you know he's he's he's quick. He's smart he screens and he also gets in and out quickly so he makes it very difficult to defend because of his his pace and then when he does get the ball you know he's really skilled at rolling and making a play or drawing the defense and passing to his teammates so he's he's it's really unique to have a guard be able to pick that up and do it so well and you know almost seamlessly. You know he did it from day one when we asked him to do that almost naturally so it's very I mean it's it's valuable and it's impressive and he's just he's just been a really great piece for us. Christian Winfield with New York Daily News. Coach when when you think of the teams most likely to come out of the East there's obviously you guys there's Philly and there's Milwaukee to beat another team that is obviously hoping to compete for a championship to beat them by what 39 tonight. Do you bask in that satisfaction at all or do you balance that by remembering that you guys have to go on the road and win two there as well. And I mean it's it's whether you win by two or you win by 25 it's just one game. We held home court we performed well in the two games for our group we want to keep growing keep getting better you know we're still very new to one another and so there's a lot of things that we can continue to refine and improve. You know and we'll we'll we'll go and try to keep improving in Milwaukee. Ryan Lewis with the New York Post. Hey Steve. Giannis average almost 40 against you in the regular season. I'm curious in your mind the two or three biggest factors in being able to hold them defensively and not let him basically break the whole game plan. Well I think we've just competed you know you can talk about schemes and all that stuff but really I just our fight and our level of competition. Guys being locked in being aware of the game plan and and being able to take care of details has been outstanding and it's got to continue. It's even got to improve. You know they're going to they're going to raise their level and we got to raise ours as well. Steve Liechtenstein of WFN. Hey Steve that ferocity that you just mentioned. Was that just a matter of turning on the switch knowing the opponent or is you think it's a little bit about continuity playing together. I think a bit of both. I mean I think we recognize you know that they're a very good team and we have to bring everything we have. And then I think continuity and confidence is growing. So I think we're more aware of what we're trying to accomplish in more scenarios and that's helping us you know feel free to really go for it. Play hard compete. Be willing and OK to make mistakes but try to do the right things about this. Mike the car with the New York Post. Mike you're a mute. You're now sorry. Yeah. Steve obviously you went to you sat here and answered a thousand questions for us about defense all all season long. I mean what is it. What does it mean to you to walk off the court and see that number on you know under the books. I mean I realize there's a lot of mitigating circumstances to why it's that number to blow out. But I mean that's got to be satisfying to you. I would think. Yeah. Of course. The guys have worked hard at it this year trying to find our best kind of level defensively what works for us how we can refine and improve it. Tonight was exceptional but our defense been pretty solid throughout the playoffs. Yeah. So it's something though that we're proud of but we got always feel like underdogs down there and play with that heart and connectivity to do everything we can to kind of overcome some of the disadvantages we have in size and what not. So great effort tonight. We're growing. We're improving at that end of the floor. It's important for us to continue to feel the need for growth down there. Sir. So he with the ringer. Steve. I was just wondering what your thoughts on were on why you know your guys's offense seems like it is chugging along no matter who it is. It's on the court. Yeah. Well, you know it's I mean I don't want to overstate why that's happening right now. But I think we've just tried to preach a philosophy. You know we have our sets. We have our actions. But really more than anything try to preach a way of playing and that is to make quick decisions move the ball space the floor play off one another in an intelligent way. And just I think the cohesion and feel for one another's grown. I think we understand the way or increasingly understanding the way the different lineups you to play with one another. And trying to be as you know philosophical philosophical in our approach as much as anything rather than being too scripted. And so they've grown into that. I think that right now you're seeing a team that's just starting to find that cohesion no matter who's on the floor. Stephen Bondi with the New York Daily News. Hey coach you obviously saw a lot of KD in Golden State and even before that. OKC. And I'm thinking about that play at the end of the third quarter when he blew past Yanis. I mean how close is he physically to what he was back then you know even post the killing surgery. Yeah I mean it's it's really hard to tell a difference. You know he's he's not only executing at that level but he's you know able to play the minutes and able to sustain such a high level of efficiency. So it's hard to say that he has any depth at this point you know. You know in his games picked up as we go. You know he's gotten I think more reps more comfort and especially defensively and on the boards and some of the things that you know when you're a player that's played for a long time and you're you're a score like that. You're going to focus on trying to get that back first. And so he did that and then he started to pick up the other parts of his game. You know it's very difficult to distinguish you know him now opposed to before the surgery.