Rip has become 6-7, 250 pounds. |
Same thing. We don't want to get anybody hurt. Just let guys get a sweat and give some of our young players an opportunity. |
Simmons is their second-best scorer, and he's got the ability to post up. If you take your three-man off of him, now all of a sudden, you've got Rip guarding somebody down in the block a lot. |
So what happens is, it eats up some of those minutes and the other guys have to play a bit more. |
So with different personnel, you can run the same play, but your option that might be one of your main options for one team, for the other team, it might be a whole totally different option. So they have a familiarity in knowing some things you want to run, some tendencies as far as what you're going to do. But we're kind of a counter puncher. You come out, we jab, we jab, we see what you're going to throw, and then we counter-punch that. |
So your whole day is a preparation, really, for that game, as far as the night. The nice thing about afternoon games is you get up, go to the game and you're done. |
Sometimes in these types of situations, you want to get some organization. I thought that the way these guys play together, they can get some organization. We went through some stuff with Paul (Pierce) and he seemed to pick things up and play well off those guys. |
Sometimes it's natural to take a step back a bit. It just depends on the flow of the game. But the one thing he does - and a lot of our other guys do - when it comes time to clamp down, he has the ability to do that. |
Sometimes it's natural to take a step back a bit. It just depends on the flow of the game. But the one thing he does -- and a lot of our other guys do -- when it comes time to clamp down, he has the ability to do that. |
Sometimes, I think, when you're fired, you have a tendency to maybe question things that you do. For me, the firing almost entrenched me more in believing that philosophically, from a coaching standpoint, that this was the right way of going about doing it. |
Tay had an unbelievable game. He was all over the place. |
Tay had an unbelievable game. Not only did he shoot 10-for-15, but he did all the rest. He was all over the place. |
Teams are waiting for us to get things turned up. When that happens, that's when we go on our little runs. |
That I liken to players that are extremely disciplined and players who know their roles. They don't try to play out of character. That shows something from Day One about the basketball intelligence of the whole team. |
That was as good of a job as I have seen against him. I don't think our defense has slipped. We're there. |