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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND TWO: GRIZZLIES v WARRIORSMay 5, 2015David JoergerOAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Game Two Grizzlies – 97 COACH JOERGER: Good game, competitive game. You know, a little more physical than the first one. They'll continue to get more physical as the series goes on. I thought Mike Conley had tremendous heart, and took him out and gave us what he's got. Day‑in and day‑out he's gotten a little better. But you never have an expectation that he's going to come out and go back to being who he was two weeks ago right away the first night out. But he gave us an extra element, the pick‑and‑rolls were tremendous. The big three at the end. They're a great team, they really are. So it's going to be really fun to go back to Memphis. We're fired up to be back in front of the home crowd. Q. Dave, how important is Mike Conley to what you were able to do tonight? And were you able to speak with him throughout the game and how was he feeling? COACH JOERGER: Probably not very good. I couldn't tell you on the record. It's painful. You know, he's going through some pain. But also it can be a little bit of a conditioning issue too. There is only so much stuff you can do on the exercise bike or whatever where you get your blood pressure really high and it's like your head wants to explode. So he hasn't been able to do a lot of conditioning. So just to get his legs underneath him will be important in the next four days. Q. How would you describe the energy and the physical play in this game compared to game one? Is this more like you've been used to seeing your team in that regard? COACH JOERGER: We'll get more physical. Tonight was pretty good screening and boxing out. But our guards did a tremendous job coming down to get defensive rebounds tonight. Beno ended up with five, Jeff Green gets a couple, Vince Carter ends up with six defensive rebounds. Tonight we got a lot of loose balls we didn't get in game one. Balls that were bouncing on the floor, we went and got them. Balls generally off the glass. They got a bunch of them late. But by and large they shoot a lot of shots from the perimeter. There are going to be some long bounces. We chased them down I think much better tonight than we did in game one. Q. Conley goes down. What is your gut reaction to that? COACH JOERGER: I hope he's not hurt. You know, I mean, I have to play for the next play, and I have to coach for the next play. You deal with your feelings and what happens after the game. Q. Talk about how successfully aggressive Mike was at the beginning of the game and how big of a spark that was? COACH JOERGER: It was good for us just to put a lot of pressure on their defense, him darting in there with the basketball, it helped to open up Marc and Zach in later spots. It opened up Kosta Koufos a couple times even though they didn't play at the same time. It puts them on notice that there is somebody that can break the defense down and get inside the paint whether it be off the pick‑and‑roll or off a catch. Q. So what are your feelings on that play with Mike on the ground? COACH JOERGER: I was ready for the next play. I was hoping that nothing happened, but I can't deal with it until after the game, and since nothing happened, I did watch the play at halftime, yes. Q. What did you think? COACH JOERGER: I'm not going to answer that. I didn't get a chance to say I wasn't going to answer it before you got yours out. Stuff happens. It's a competitive and an emotional game. Q. Talk about the difference Mike brings from one game to the next? COACH JOERGER: He's a great player, great human being. He's got high character. He's the best. I think it's just things in the NBA that we want to promote as a league. He's a high‑character guy. He plays the right way, doesn't flop around, flail around and complain around. He just plays. Just a high amount of respect for how classy he carries himself. Q. At what point did you say okay, he can play? What was the determining factor? COACH JOERGER: After he won‑‑ he didn't feel very good after he warmed up the other night. He had a good workout yesterday. He felt pretty good. After the workout, and then tonight was more like a confirmation, just getting your adrenalines all fired up and you get out there and you bounce around and get jump shots, and there was no contact before the game. It's just a confirmation of how he felt yesterday and being in practice. Q. So when you were on the floor, pregame, that's when you felt? COACH JOERGER: Yeah, but we did meet back here too. Q. Coach, Steph and Klay combined to go 13 of 34, do you think that was your defense or they just had an off night combined? COACH JOERGER: We did a good job, I thought, chasing them around and trying to make stuff tough. Make stuff tough for Steph. Try saying that ten times fast. He makes tough shots and he's a heck of a player, man. The other night he had three really difficult shots. So is that a shot that normally goes in? Then what can you do about it? If that's a good shot, he's a tough player, and just trying to make it hard for him. Q. How do you feel about how your two big guys were playing? Do you feel like you're winning that battle right now? COACH JOERGER: Well, it's interesting, the dynamic of them playing five smalls. It's good for us to be playing from a position of strength, playing from a league where we're able to continue to control the tempo a little bit, keep going inside. We'll do a better job of executing and probably be a little more prepared for it. Not that you don't prepare for something like that, but I'll do a better job of getting us in spots quicker, because we've gotten really slow in the fourth quarter. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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