Mark Daigneault | Rockets Post-Game | Nov. 29, 2021
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:05 >> All right, we'll go questions in the room and then take it soon.
00:08 Go ahead, in the room with questions.
00:12 >> Mark, did you feel like you were able to generate types of shots that you
00:16 wanted to and just they were falling tonight?
00:18 Or how would you feel in general about the offense?
00:22 >> I mean, it's a slippery slope cuz I thought a lot of the threes were pretty
00:26 high quality.
00:27 But I do think there's a certain point.
00:29 We talked about this and our game at Golden State.
00:32 There's a certain point where if it's not your night and
00:35 that source of offense is turned off.
00:37 For whatever reason, you gotta kind of get grimy and
00:41 figure out different ways to generate points.
00:44 And I thought in the second half, we actually did a decent job of that.
00:46 We got the line a lot tonight.
00:49 I thought we really tried to run.
00:51 There were some conversion plays and transition that weren't great, but
00:54 not by a fault of ours.
00:55 It was just like, that's how the game broke.
00:58 But an open three, I think you have to be okay with.
01:02 And obviously, tonight was a tough shooting night.
01:04 But we can't let it drain our energy.
01:07 We can't let it dip into the things we can control.
01:10 And like I said in the second half, I thought we were a little better there.
01:13 >> 17 points for Isaiah and Trey off the bench tonight.
01:16 We talked about Trey before the game, but for
01:17 Isaiah specifically, having been out of the rotation for the past couple of games.
01:20 What did you like about his performance tonight?
01:22 >> Just his readiness.
01:25 Favors was in film today, and then developed pretty flu-like symptoms.
01:31 And so Roby didn't know he was playing tonight until late afternoon,
01:36 probably like three o'clock.
01:38 And so for him to be able to figure that out and then go out and
01:41 play the way he did is just simply a byproduct of just staying ready.
01:45 And it's a credit to the work that he's done up until this point to keep himself
01:49 ready.
01:51 Obviously, his role as other guys have been, he's inconsistent right now.
01:55 And I give him a lot of credit for his ability to kind of stay focused
01:59 through the ups and downs of his role and really get himself ready to play tonight.
02:03 >> Mark, what are some of the things that you've wanted to see from Isaiah to get
02:08 back in the rotation this season like he was last season?
02:11 Like where does he need to improve?
02:13 >> The things we've talked about is his rim protection and pick and
02:17 roll coverage, which I thought was good at times tonight.
02:21 And then offensively just kind of being a floor spacing ball moving,
02:25 driving kick player.
02:27 His lack of role or playing time has not been really an indictment on him.
02:32 It's been more, I think Miskolc obviously gives us a really good dynamic when he's
02:37 out there, favors when you're playing younger players, especially in the second
02:41 unit, he gives you some muscle and physicality that I think kind of roots that
02:45 team.
02:46 And Jeremiah has done a really good job in those minutes up until this point.
02:49 So it hasn't been necessarily anything against what Isaiah has done.
02:54 But when he goes out and plays like he did tonight with this type of opportunity,
02:58 and he shows up the way he did,
03:00 puts a lot of pressure on us to try to find cracks for him.
03:03 And so we'll see what that looks like moving forward.
03:06 But again, I give him a lot of credit for how ready he stayed and
03:09 then the way he went out and played tonight.
03:12 >> Trey gets 30 minutes, 17 points career high.
03:15 What do you like about his game?
03:17 >> He's coming along, gaining confidence.
03:21 I think same thing, we've shuttled him back and forth with the blue.
03:26 It's been by design, but it doesn't make it any easier for
03:29 him with the change of scenery, change of role.
03:33 And like I said the other night, we're gonna give him a little bit of a sustained
03:36 look here cuz we wanna kind of check in with him and see where he's at.
03:39 And obviously tonight, he got it going again scoring wise, but
03:42 he also was on the glass.
03:44 I thought he defended pretty hard, his closeouts were strong.
03:46 And ultimately long term with him, that's gonna be the thing.
03:51 He's gonna be able to score in the NBA.
03:52 He's got that walking in the door.
03:55 But we want him to be a two end player and
03:57 someone that you don't have to hide to get the offense.
03:59 And to his credit to this point, he's geared it up defensively.
04:03 I thought he did that again tonight.
04:04 I need to see the film, but I thought he was pretty good on that end too.
04:07 >> Outside of Shea, four starters didn't get double figures tonight and get to it.
04:13 Was it something just an off night for them or something Houston was doing?
04:16 >> I don't know.
04:18 I mean, I credit Houston cuz the last time we saw them,
04:20 there was a rainy cloud over their head.
04:24 And it's an 82 game season and I give them credit for
04:27 kind of working themselves through that.
04:29 And getting themselves kind of back on track in these last three games.
04:33 And I thought Houston came up, played well again tonight,
04:35 especially to start the game.
04:37 And we're now, we've lost a certain amount of games in a row, whatever it is.
04:44 And we need to kind of do that too.
04:46 We've played some quality teams, we've played them tough.
04:49 But these last couple games have been games where I thought we left something to
04:52 be desired in terms of the things we can control.
04:54 And it's a lesson we have to learn and we have to keep grinding it out and
04:58 getting ourselves back on track.
04:59 So, but I credit Houston tonight that they outplayed us obviously.
05:03 >> The getting back on track, is that a focus on small details?
05:08 As an example, I noticed a few kind of sloppy closeouts tonight or
05:13 not on point closeouts like you've had in the past few games.
05:17 Is that an example of something you just try to focus on?
05:21 >> Yeah, I mean, we try to every game, you're never gonna play a perfect game.
05:24 You're never, your closeouts aren't always gonna be perfect.
05:27 Your offense isn't always gonna be perfect.
05:29 Even in your best games,
05:30 there's always room to improve and little details you can clean up.
05:33 I think there's just there's certain stretches of seasons where,
05:37 things don't seem to go your way.
05:38 In tonight's case, obviously we didn't shoot the ball well.
05:41 And you just have to some of them you just have to endure.
05:43 You just can't lay down, you can't stay on the mat.
05:46 You gotta just get back up and get back up and get back up.
05:49 And if you do that enough, then things will turn.
05:52 But if you stay down, then you don't give yourself any chance.
05:54 This is a team that traditionally has gotten back up.
05:58 You've done it already this year.
06:00 I expect us to, but it doesn't happen on its own.
06:03 We've got to dust ourselves off and go right now.
06:05 >> Sorry, talking about getting right back up.
06:08 You're facing again on Wednesday, don't have to tell us who this group is.
06:11 I know you wanna get back to zero and zero, but
06:13 is there kind of looking forward to the opportunity to play them again?
06:16 >> Yeah, looking forward to opportunity to play any game again.
06:19 There's a bad taste in your mouth when you have a rough night like we did tonight.
06:23 And the fact that it's against the same team is obviously an opportunity.
06:26 So we're zero and zero when we wake up on Wednesday, so
06:29 are they and the better team on Wednesday night's gonna win.
06:31 That's our opportunity.
06:33 >> Mike and Karrion should have been such good stabilizers.
06:38 >> Yeah.
06:39 >> For you just as solid.
06:40 That's like, where do you miss them the most on that play tonight?
06:44 >> I think just their consistency, their toughness,
06:47 their intelligence to the game plan.
06:49 Mike and Kamarich do a great job of that for us.
06:52 And obviously our team needs that.
06:54 But anytime you're missing anybody, it's an opportunity.
06:59 And it's an opportunity for us to have other guys step in.
07:03 And tonight I didn't think it was a Mike and
07:05 Kamarich issue cuz our bench played well enough tonight.
07:08 Our starting group got outplayed by their starting group.
07:11 That was the difference in the game.
07:12 But we got lifts out of the guys we needed to get lifts out of off the bench.
07:16 And so I thought our guys did that.
07:17 But yeah, I mean, we miss Kamarich and Mike.
07:19 We want them out there every night, favors as well.
07:21 We wanna have all 17 guys healthy.
07:24 >> All right, we're gonna take a zoom.
07:25 We got two questions on the zoom tonight.
07:27 Go to Jerry Rangy first.
07:28 Go ahead, Jerry, with your question.
07:30 >> All right, coach, I'll bite.
07:32 Joe Masato put out on Twitter that you had to do push ups because you thought
07:35 somebody was gonna ask you about Lincoln Riley.
07:38 I don't necessarily wanna ask you about Lincoln Riley, but
07:40 you are a coach in Oklahoma.
07:42 And I sort of separate you guys like I do Marvel and DC and those universes.
07:47 But this does spark a curiosity to me.
07:50 When something like that happens in the movement in the sports world in Oklahoma,
07:53 and obviously you pay attention to these guys and how to win and
07:57 how you react with fans in Oklahoma.
07:59 I mean, do you pay attention to stuff like that or
08:01 do you just sit and watch it like we do?
08:03 >> [LAUGH] You really know how to lift the spirits, huh?
08:08 >> [LAUGH] >> In the season,
08:12 I don't pay a ton of attention to really anything other than our team.
08:15 I mean, the season is just such a gauntlet.
08:17 And I think I owe that to our team to make sure that I'm laser focused on that.
08:24 So, I mean, I obviously am not unaware.
08:27 I'm not oblivious to everything else going on in the world, but
08:30 I'm pretty focused on us, to be honest with you.
08:33 >> And the last question, we'll go to Daniel Bell.
08:35 Go ahead with your question, Daniel.
08:36 >> Yeah, Coach, last year you talked about how much you like these sort of
08:42 baseball series type deals.
08:46 How beneficial is it from a development standpoint to play the same team
08:51 back to back like this?
08:52 >> Well, it's an opportunity to certainly, you've just played Washington and
08:59 you come out of that game.
09:00 And there's things that you have to clean up from that game and
09:04 lessons you have to learn from that game.
09:05 But it's not a guarantee that those particular lessons are gonna show up
09:08 immediately the next time out on the floor.
09:11 And so there's stuff Washington did, for example, that we certainly wanted to learn
09:15 the lessons, but that didn't show up in tonight's game.
09:18 When you play the same opponent, that's negated.
09:21 You get to really take all the lessons and apply it directly to your opponent.
09:26 But there's no advantage for us cuz they get to do the same thing.
09:29 But it is a unique opportunity.
09:31 And we're hoping that we're a better team when we take the floor on Wednesday than
09:36 we were tonight.
09:36 And there'll be some tangible things that we need to do in order for
09:39 that to happen.
09:39 And we're gonna get to work on them tomorrow.
09:41 >> Thank you, Coach.
09:43 >> Thanks, guys.
09:44 >> Yeah.
09:44 >> [INAUDIBLE]
09:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]