Mark Daigneault | Boston Celtics | Mar. 21, 2022
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00:00 Mark, can you just describe the emotions in the game in late in the fourth quarter as you all are making that comeback and clawing to within single digits?
00:10 Yeah, I thought we hung in there. Obviously, that was we took a pretty hard punch early and, you know, it took us a minute to like stabilize the game.
00:19 And even then, it was hard for us to get close. I thought, you know, they were really good again the third quarter.
00:24 And I give our guys credit. I thought the group that started the fourth quarter got us off to a nice start, got the game in enough of a striking distance that we could get
00:32 Shea back out there and some of the other guys back out there. And, you know, we ran through the finish line.
00:37 I thought we really, really competed tonight against obviously a very good team.
00:41 So, things we can improve on, but I'm pretty pleased with the competitive level.
00:47 There's kind of a magic that can happen in an NBA arena like we saw with Trey. It's one of the reasons why fans have to be in the building.
00:55 Will you just kind of describe the magic of that six minute flurry?
01:00 Yeah, he got it going, man. He got it going. And he got it going against Miami the other night.
01:05 And one of the things that we're always trying to figure out is, you know, like what's scalable and what's sustainable.
01:13 And the best thing about going against elite teams, and these are elite teams, Boston's an elite team, they're especially an elite defense.
01:20 One of the best things about going against elite teams is that everything's relevant. I've said that before.
01:25 And so the fact that he can kind of wiggle around like that against these types of teams is really encouraging.
01:34 And now, you know, I was just talking to Sam. Sam made a really good point.
01:37 He said, you know, offensively, the hard part's like over for him. He's got the hard part down.
01:43 We got to help him with the easy part, which is like cleaner catch and shoots, deeper finishes, stuff like that.
01:49 And so he's still got a ways to go and needs to continue to improve.
01:53 But it was a fun night for him. He was great in the first half, especially.
01:57 Paris, also know Casey Thunder dot com wanted to go back to the fourth quarter and what you saw specifically in that that starting group in that fourth quarter that allowed them to kind of get that rhythm going for you guys.
02:07 Yeah, I mean, we just kept playing. You know, I thought, you know, we want to be a 48 minute team.
02:13 We got to remember that when we're kind of taking punches like that early, you know, like, the sooner you can just kind of turn the page and just get the game under control and get your feet back on the ground, the better.
02:23 But we played through the 48 minutes tonight. I thought the ball movement was really good. We generated really good shots tonight. Obviously shot the ball really well.
02:31 All the guys that had big scoring nights did so efficiently, which is a very positive thing. So, you know, credit to the way the guys played.
02:40 Yeah, one of those guys, Poku, a season high for him. Just what stood out to you about his offensive game and how he was able to generate those looks.
02:48 A couple things, you know, it was overall efficient. Started, I didn't think, great, you know, he missed some shots and I thought was frustrated because he obviously shot the ball really poorly in Orlando.
02:58 And so I thought he showed some fortitude after halftime to kind of get himself back to square zero and just kind of play the next play and get himself kind of grounded because the first half was not, it was kind of a continuation of Orlando.
03:13 Missed some tough shots and didn't play particularly well. So, you know, he's just got to keep working.
03:20 And just like to the athletic, I want to ask more about Trey. Started kind of had a rough summer league, came into the season, had a hard time getting his shots off against the length of NBA defenders.
03:30 And now he has the second highest scoring game for a rookie. Just take me through just like the progression that he's had offensively.
03:39 I think, you know, the things that the speed of the game is different for all these guys.
03:47 It shows up in different ways for different guys but the speed of the game is different. And then for a guy his size, the athleticism and length is different too, you know, especially for him, Josh, not so much.
03:58 Jeremiah, Trey, Wiggins, like, you're going to feel the size and athleticism of the NBA. And I think that takes some time and everybody paces, you know, through that at a different rate.
04:12 I think the thing that has kind of triggered his growth and kind of like had a spike in his growth is he went to the G League games with a growth mindset, you know, and did not look at that as a demotion.
04:27 He's taken all of his developmental steps in stride. He's, you know, played only in the first half early in the season and then didn't play in the second half.
04:35 He played short minutes, he played obviously G League minutes, and then, you know, has gotten more and more opportunities lately, and yet, no matter what situation we've put him in, he's kind of just leaned into it.
04:47 And I think that's the mindset that will allow a player to grow and allow him to catch up to the speed and catch up to the length and athleticism and so it's a credit to him as a person really he's a really really high character guy that now that he's
05:02 tasting some success he's got to like get back to the lab and stay just as motivated through success as he does through adversity and struggle.
05:10 And then is she considered day to day with his ankle. How's he feeling.
05:15 He's feeling good and motivated to get himself ready but not responding like great after every game and so we have to kind of reevaluate them day by day, you know, but like that's why he's questionable for all these games because we just were obviously he wants
05:30 to play, we want them to play but you know we have to be cautious to and so we got to see him tomorrow morning and see kind of where he's at.
05:43 Hello coach hope you're doing well. How many good, good things you saw from your players from tonight's game, especially on the way that you fought until the end of the game.
05:52 And what do you see on selection of Alexey Pokusevsky on tonight's game.
05:57 Yeah, like I said I thought pokers was really sound and battled through kind of a rough start, you know, which is a good thing, you know, it's, it's not easy it's never easy no matter what.
06:10 And you've got to have the fortitude to stay with it and I thought he showed that he displayed that tonight and then, you know, really pleased just with the effort I thought, you know, execution wise, there's things we could have done better.
06:23 But a baseline, you know, for our team is we want to compete together and I thought we competed together tonight and that's, I never want to take that for granted and I never want to not acknowledge that I just thought we had some guys
06:35 basically really stood out to me is being lost in the game tonight. You know, he just was lost in the competition he leaned right into the challenge of guarding those guys.
06:46 He kind of had a look in his eyes and did so. That was just defensively, the block he had on Brown was a ridiculous play and offensively complimented that type of night with a very efficient and kind of quiet 22 again so and poke tray Shay, you know,
07:05 and then the guys off the bench and I thought everybody kind of competed and was willing to do so as a team.
07:11 Yep, thank you guys.