Mark Diagneault | San Antonio Spurs Post-Game | Feb. 16, 2022
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00:00Mhm. Yeah.
00:04Miguel. Okay. See thunder dot com. Uh, that third quarter, what were kind of
00:08some of your core principles that you were able to get into the game that
00:12period to turn things around? Uh, I thought we were better on the point of
00:16attack. I thought we're better our help. Um, but it was really, I mean,
00:19they had 19 shots uh, in the paint, I think made baskets in the first half
00:24and um, you know, that's just like way too many and a lot of it was just on
00:29the initial action. Uh, and they were like going right through us and then
00:33coming out of halftime. I give our guys credit. We did a much better job
00:35standing in there defensively. They only had 41 points in the second half,
00:38but um, it was one of those games like if we could of course corrected that
00:42earlier in real time, then you know, we would have been better off for it
00:46because we dug ourselves a bit of a hole defensively in the first half
00:51coming into the game. I think Isaiah had only played around 100 minutes with
00:55josh all season long. Yet those two were able to find connections. The
01:00offense seemed to flow. Just your thoughts on a guy like him stepping in
01:05and the offense sort of working around him. He was good tonight. Um, he's a
01:10good role pop threat, which is helpful against portal. Portal is a really good
01:14room protector obviously. And so if you can mix in some perimeter looks,
01:18that's what we did to Mitchell Robinson the other night too with Isaiah um and
01:22with basically and poku um same thing against Chicago. So we're just trying
01:27to utilize uh those guys skills and try to draw those paint dwellers away from
01:32the rim. And I thought he did a nice job of that. And then obviously mixed
01:35in the roles. Josh did a good job, traded a good job in the pick and roll
01:38game of letting the plays develop and and finding some good options for us.
01:44Paris Lawson. Okay. See thunder dot com tail gave you some pretty efficient
01:47minutes, especially in that first half had 14 points in 13 minutes. Just what
01:51did you like from what you saw from him offensively tonight? Play with good
01:54speed. You know, he played with great pace. I thought he was attacking all
01:58night. Um, you know, and that's how he has to play. You know, he needs to push
02:02the pace of the offense, especially in transition. Um, you know, I just thought
02:06he was really aggressive and that's how he needs to play, you know, and going
02:09back to his blue assignment when he was playing really, really good there.
02:12That's how he was playing. And so he's just going to continue to kind of hit
02:15the gas there and then give us, you know, good effort defensively.
02:21Joe Masato, the Oklahoman Mark Josh. Uh, he joins Oscar Robertson is just the
02:27second rookie in history to have three straight triple doubles without
02:31missioning a certain candy. Just your thoughts on that.
02:35Yeah. Um, I mean, he's a good player. I thought he played a really good floor
02:40game again tonight. Um, you know, the triple double stuff is just a byproduct
02:45of how he's playing. You know, he sniffs rebounds, which is important for guards,
02:49especially when we're undersized, you know, kind of crashing down and getting
02:52those rebounds is huge. He gets on the offensive glass, obviously as well. Uh,
02:57great floor vision. Um, and then, you know, he's playing with great speed
03:01right now. You know, he's getting like one or two layups a game where he just
03:04kind of outruns the coverage and is able to get to the rim. And so you put
03:08all that together and the numbers kind of come together. So then, uh, you had
03:13a group out there together, Teo, Lindy, the Hoku and Roby. All five of those
03:18guys have played with the blue this year and they were all on the floor
03:20together. Just what I'd say about, I guess, using the blue is the
03:24developmental program and those guys how they played tonight. Yeah, I mean,
03:28with those, as I said before, like those minutes are highly relevant. You
03:31know, there's really, there's nothing a guy does in a blue game that he can't
03:35do in an NBA game. You know, the difference is top end talent and size.
03:39That's really the biggest difference in the G League. But stylistically effort,
03:43competitiveness and our schemes are the exact same. And so, you know, we tell
03:47those guys all the time when they're there, you know, those minutes are
03:50relevant and we're going to assume that whatever you do on the court there is
03:52what you're going to do here. And so it gives those guys a great platform to
03:56earn minutes with the thunder while they're with the developmental team.
04:03Well,
04:05Stephen, you news nine Roby pot start today. What do you see from his game
04:09tonight? Yeah, I was happy for him. You know, he did a nice job offensively,
04:13especially I thought he did a nice job of mixing in his roles in his pops. I
04:17thought he got the ball moved from side to side, which in our offense, you know,
04:20for those pop guys, him Robinson, Earl Muskie, those guys getting the ball from
04:24one side to the other is important. I thought he did that for us tonight. And
04:27then I thought he was a big part to start the third quarter, like setting
04:31the tone around the basket on the glass. I thought he scrapped for some rebounds
04:35against portal. And obviously it was an emphasis of ours coming out of halftime
04:38to play better defensively. And I thought he was right in the middle of
04:40that
04:42room.
04:44Well,
04:47yeah, coach, it seems lately that all the players that step on the court are
04:52playing with a lot more confidence than they were at the beginning of the
04:55season. Whether it's josh or trade looking for their shot more, even Roby
04:59or or poke who are Teo. Do you have that same sentiment?
05:04For sure. And that's something that's important. I mean, you're you're it's
05:07really hard to be a good team or a good player in the NBA. If you don't have a
05:11lot of confidence, you know, you just get punched too many times for that not
05:14to be, you know, a really important ingredient for any person or any team.
05:19And I think it's a byproduct of first of all the work, you know, you gain
05:22confidence from the work and I think you gain confidence when you're playing a
05:26predictable game that is catered to your strengths. And I think that takes
05:29some time for guys, especially young players to try to figure out what what
05:33style that is for them that features their strengths and that can plug into
05:37the team. But I think eventually when guys learn kind of that individual style
05:41of play and they put the work in, uh, that those are two major sources of
05:45confidence. And I think a lot of our guys are doing those things. And I
05:48think the confidence that you're pointing out is a byproduct of it.