00:00Is it just too simple to say start the game tomorrow,
00:02one to play where Jalen gets one-on-one with Harden?
00:06Well, that's just the action we went to at the time.
00:09But we have a lot of other stuff,
00:12and we didn't execute well throughout the course of the game.
00:16And we have to do a better job of it.
00:19We tried to clean a lot of it up today
00:20and hopefully it'll translate to the game tomorrow
00:25because, you know, I feel like everybody we have on the floor is dynamic.
00:30Our offense has been dynamic, and we don't want to lose sight of that.
00:33With that, you know, obviously the second game winning streak,
00:40a lot of it was, you know, playing through cat.
00:42We talked about the change, you know, playing through cat at the elbows and stuff.
00:45The fourth quarter overtime is a lot of the ball in Jalen's hands,
00:48spreading it out of an attacking heart.
00:49Is it good to have, you know, multiple options, different systems,
00:52different ways to attack an opponent?
00:54Yeah, yeah, that's â oh, yeah, sorry.
00:57Yeah, that's what I alluded to earlier.
01:00You know, trying to show the diversity that our group has,
01:05not just with the actions that we try to execute,
01:09but also with the players involved in it.
01:12You know, I've got to try to do a better job of helping with that diversity
01:16throughout the course of the game
01:17so that down the stretch we have a few more things that we can go to.
01:20That's good.
01:21Mike, I think you talked a lot about the year
01:23about players having accountability.
01:25When you see Jalen up in the huddle and kind of taken farther a couple times
01:31when you guys were down,
01:32how much of that do you appreciate seeing not a lot of teams have a captain
01:35and a guy whose voice can be heard there?
01:38I love it.
01:39You know, the teams I've been around that have â
01:42that have had a lot of success,
01:46you know, they usually have accountability within their group
01:51because that goes a lot further than me yelling or saying stuff at times.
01:57Christian?
01:57Mike, I've got two quick ones to speak on that accountability.
02:00How much has Jose brought just as a voice,
02:02whether he's on the floor or off the floor to the group?
02:05Jose's been tremendous.
02:06You know, our bench, I would have to say it starts with Jose.
02:10When you watch the game, when you go back and watch the game,
02:13you know, I'm up a lot so I don't see it all the time,
02:16but I hear from my coaches how good Jose is.
02:18And when I go back and watch the game, I mean, he is into it.
02:22He's cheering.
02:23He's trying to help coach.
02:25He's doing whatever he can to uplift whoever's on the floor
02:29or transmit that energy that he has with inside of him to get our guys going.
02:36And because of that, our bench has kind of followed suit.
02:40You know, we have some young guys on the bench that really don't know what to do.
02:43When you're talking about Mo and Pac and to a certain degree Tyler and Ariel,
02:47but those guys have seen Jose and they've kind of followed his lead.
02:51And our bench has been tremendous throughout the course of this playoff run.
02:56And second, just with McHale, those two shots that he hit in crunch time,
03:00I mean, just what have you seen from him, late-game situations?
03:03We know what he does on the defensive end, but offensively.
03:06Yeah, they were big.
03:07One, I mean, just to have the awareness of the shot clock on one of them,
03:12every shot down the stretch mattered.
03:15And, you know, that shot clock one was huge
03:20because he didn't necessarily have his feet set.
03:23He was dribbling the basketball,
03:24and sometimes you can kind of get lost within the time on the shot clock,
03:29and he didn't.
03:29His awareness level was out of this world,
03:33and he shot it and buried it.
03:35And then the second one, you know,
03:37obviously Jalen did a nice job of drawing a second defender,
03:41and that's the trust that Jalen has in his teammates.
03:43He kind of got off it,
03:45and McHale buried it right in front of our bench.
03:47So just two huge shots that he hit.
03:50And then he, you know, you can't,
03:54it doesn't show up at the stat sheet,
03:56but McHale, that three that Landry hit in front of our bench,
03:59it's because McHale ran the floor
04:02and took the defense down the floor.
04:04Jalen drove to the middle and sprayed the ball to Landry.
04:08He gets a wide-open three because of McHale's ability to run,
04:11just put his head down and run at a point in the game
04:14when everybody's tired, just to suck the defense in.
04:19As somebody who's been a big proponent of Landry this season,
04:23how good was it for you to see him to have that playoff moment?
04:27And then what were you thinking when he puts up that shot
04:30and hits the back of the rim and the backboard
04:32and it looked like it wasn't going in, to be honest?
04:35You know what's crazy?
04:37I don't know.
04:38I kind of felt it was going in.
04:40I don't know why.
04:42It's just one of those things I was like,
04:45I think that's going to go in.
04:46As crazy as it sounds.
04:48And, you know, just watching Landry, he just plays so hard.
04:53He's tough.
04:54He's going to leave it out on the floor.
04:56He's great getting into the ball.
04:59And then, I mean, if you leave him open,
05:03I mean, he's fantastic the last, you know,
05:05the two games before against Philly.
05:08He was great shooting three.
05:09He was great taking the ball off the dribble.
05:12He was great defensively.
05:13He was great getting out of transition.
05:15And so, for me, watching, when I took the job, watching the film
05:21and seeing him play when I was trying to get the job
05:24and then throughout the course of the year,
05:27not only that, but seeing him step up in big moments.
05:30We don't go to the cup without his performance against Miami
05:35when everybody's out.
05:36And so, to see those things, you know he has that ability.
05:40And so, for me, the confidence is always there.
05:44I just got to try to keep finding minutes for him.
05:47O.G., it looked like he started to get his way back into his NBA.
05:50Did you have a courage in looking for him to get through that game
05:52and show some signs of him getting back to the game?
05:56No, it's good.
05:57You know, he was out for a little bit.
06:01And, you know, the speed of the game
06:03and the competitiveness of the game
06:05when you're talking about the playoffs,
06:07especially the Eastern Conference Finals,
06:09it's a lot different than coming back in the regular season.
06:12And so, to get an opportunity for him to kind of find his way
06:18and still get a win was huge for us
06:21because as the game went along, like you said, he did get better.
06:24He was down the stretch.
06:25He was huge.
06:26You know, we had him on Allen,
06:28and he might not have gotten the rebound all the time,
06:31but he either got the rebound or he kept Allen off the glass,
06:35which is, again, it's probably underrated.
06:38It probably goes under everybody's radar,
06:40but he was huge for us down the stretch
06:43trying to make Allen work
06:46when it came to him offensively down there.
06:48Brian, you obviously know Kenny pretty well.
06:52I mean, with the rampant success that you guys kind of had,
06:55elephant hunting, pardon down the stretch,
06:57what kind of adjustment would you expect to see an inmate tomorrow?
07:01Kenny's a great coach,
07:03and we know that they're going to come out ready to play.
07:07You know, they came to New York to get one game,
07:11and it's still within reach.
07:14And so, you know, Kenny and his staff,
07:17I respect all the guys on his staff.
07:19I know two of them really well,
07:21and Jawad Williams and Mike Garrity.
07:24They have personal relationships with those guys as well.
07:26But they're going to be ready.
07:29They're going to mix it up at the end of the day.
07:32And it's our job to make sure that we're more efficient
07:36and we're more diverse offensively
07:39so that, you know,
07:41nobody can sit on any one action that we're trying to run.
07:44Last one.
07:45Yeah, Mike, in the first round, you know,
07:47you had that game three, I believe,
07:48with McHale when he sat down the stretch,
07:50and he's obviously came through the past six games.
07:52He's been in a great groove.
07:53How do you expect Josh, I guess, to respond after last night,
07:56kind of missing the comeback, watching from the sideline?
07:59Is there a conversation you had with him
08:01or that you had with McHale after a situation like that?
08:05At the end of the day, you know,
08:08I've said this a couple times before,
08:10people have always asked me how I can compare the three teams,
08:14three different teams I went to the finals with
08:16or that I was a part of.
08:18And it's hard because all the teams were different,
08:21you know, just different players.
08:23And all that, and even a different time.
08:26But there are a few things that I can say that they all had,
08:31and that's our standard.
08:33You know, they all sacrificed for one another.
08:36They all had a competitive spirit.
08:38They were all connected,
08:40and they all believed in each other
08:43and in the process while holding each other accountable.
08:47And, you know, that's our standard here.
08:50We have a contract that basically says those things
08:52that we all signed from Mr. Dolan on down.
08:56And, you know, obviously a big one when you're in that situation
08:59that Josh was in last night or McHale was in
09:02in the Atlanta series is sacrifice.
09:06And those guys did.
09:08They sacrificed their minutes willingly, you know, obviously,
09:13and they were great about it while keeping themselves ready.
09:16McHale was fantastic throughout that playoff series.
09:21And I don't see anything different for Josh going forward.
Comments