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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND TWO: CLIPPERS v ROCKETSMay 14, 2015Kevin McHaleLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Six Rockets – 119 Q. Coach, what did your team do in the last quarter that allowed you to come back the way you did when it looked so bleak for so long? KEVIN McHALE: We defended and we ran. We got stops. We got out and we ran the ball and we played downhill. Bruce started turning the corner, getting fouled, attacking. Josh got a lay‑up late when we needed it and Josh made a couple big shots. Terrence Jones kept us around, at least in the third when it was really stumbling bad, and then we just kept attacking. I thought Dwight did a great job on the boards, had seven offensive rebounds, we had 15 as a team, and the guys just kept attacking. That group just went out there and they just scrambled, they fought, and they played their tails off on defense. Q. What did you see in Josh Smith, especially in that fourth quarter that kind of sparked it? KEVIN McHALE: Well, TJ was playing really well, and you know, we were thinking about going back to him. He needed a blow. Then Josh came in and Josh just played lights out. A couple big blocks. Those guys, their energy level on the defensive end just was huge for us, and they just kept‑‑ like I said, they kept grinding and Brew was attacking and Josh made a couple big shots. Dwight was getting the ball down, Dwight was rebounding, and that group was just‑‑ that group was very dynamic on the defensive end and we were able to run off it. Q. Harden sitting on the bench in that fourth‑quarter run, were you tempted at all to put him back in the game? KEVIN McHALE: Yeah, I was thinking about putting him back in the game, but those guys earned the right to finish that game, one way or the other. After a while, he had sat there long enough and those guys had a good rhythm and they kept getting stops and I'm like, I'm just going to let them go. Hey, James got a lot of rest, so on Sunday he'll be ready to come out and rock and roll for us. Q. Speaking of Sunday, talk about the momentum you guys have and the challenge of a Game 7 now. KEVIN McHALE: Well, momentum is all a relative thing. We've got to do‑‑ we had to win this game today to get back to Houston, and in Houston we've just got to take care of business. We have to play how we have to play. The team that plays the best, the cleanest, that rebounds the best, and I said it, we didn't win the paint game today, but we attacked more in that fourth quarter, but the team that‑‑ we did win the rebounding battle, which is the thing that we had to do. And the team that rebounds the ball the best, takes care of it, and defends is going to win. Q. When did you sense it was turning? Was it somewhere near the end of the third, early in the fourth? KEVIN McHALE: I thought in the third we gave ourselves a chance. We made a three, I think maybe‑‑ I think Crawford made another three, someone made a three in the left corner, we scrambled around, but then we came down and scored again, and I just sensed that TJ made a couple big plays for us, and the offensive rebound and stuff, that just kept us around, and once we got it to five, got a run out and got a lay‑up, you know, you could really sense it turning in our way. And the guys' defense just got better and better and better. I mean, they fought their tails off, man. That group, Jet, I thought did a great job of chasing a guy who's very, very hard to guard in Chris Paul around, and we were able to, like I say, run off our defense. Q. You said before the game that you guys would go as far as James and Dwight take you and they would lead you, and you were led by a lot of guys there in the fourth quarter. KEVIN McHALE: Yeah. Q. Just the balance of this team that you've seen throughout the season but not as much here of late. KEVIN McHALE: I mean, you know, we got 35 points from Terrence and Corey together off the bench. That was huge for us, and we needed all those. Brew went in and got seven defensive rebounds, 10 total, along with 19 points. That was just huge. We need everybody, and like I say, we need everybody playing well. I thought in the third quarter‑‑ actually at the end of the second quarter, I decided to try to follow DeAndre Jordan and our momentum kind of slid from us there. That was on me and I told the team that we'd be a little more selective with that. To start the third miss some lay‑ups and then they started making shots and I thought we really lost our composure for a while. We started gaining it towards the end of the third, and again, that group came out, and I've seen that group do that before where they can take a seven, eight, nine‑point deficit and turn it into a close game. I didn't think we'd end up winning by 12, but I thought let's get it down to a one or two‑possession game after being down 19 points I think in the third, and we were able to do that, but we not only did that, but we stretched it out, and our guys just made tremendous plays. Q. What was behind your decision to foul Jordan when you did with 1:59 left in the second quarter? KEVIN McHALE: Well, you know what, we were on a little bit of a roll, and we've done it before, and I just thought, well, let's not let him run a play, let's just see if he can make two free throws, and he did. They fouled us, we missed a couple, and that didn't help our team at all. That's one of those ones where you look back on it. You know, I was going to do it one time to see if we could get a little ‑‑ does he miss one, make one, miss two ‑‑ but needless to say, but I tell our players all the time, coaches make mistakes, too. Some of these coaches don't tell you that, but coaches make mistakes too, but that was a mistake. That kind of took our rhythm out of the game a little bit, but my thoughts were good. Q. With a win like this, what does it say about the tenacity and determination of the team? KEVIN McHALE: Well, I'll tell you what, it says a lot. Trevor, Josh, Dwight, Jet and Brew went out there and really, really got after it, and those guys, you could just sense it, the bench could feel it. I could feel it. I could see it in their eyes. I could see that they caught a rhythm. I could see they were feeling good about themselves. They earned the right to finish that game out, and they did a tremendous job, and like I say, Brew coming off the bench having a double‑double with 19 and 10, Dwight was huge, 20 points, 21 rebounds is big on the board. All those guys played well. Josh played just fantastic. We don't win that game without Josh Smith, and I've said that before. We don't win 56 games, we don't win our division, if we don't have Corey Brewer and Josh Smith. Those guys have made a big difference for this team. But those guys fought hard. Hey, enjoy tonight. Thank goodness we're not playing until Sunday. They can enjoy tonight and we'll get back in the gym on Saturday. We'll take tomorrow off after we travel, get back in the gym on Saturday and get prepared for a dogfight on Sunday. Q. You've certainly seen a lot. Just how remarkable what your team was able to do, when you're down 19 and nothing is going your way. KEVIN McHALE: Well, the one thing we kept on saying is there's no 15‑point play and sometimes all year long we've had that. When teams make a run on us, we'll start taking threes and just start playing home‑run basketball, and I said we've got to do it on the defensive end. We had breaks during that‑‑ we missed lay‑ups during that stretch in the third, we had breaks where they turned them over, we had turnovers that we ran off of. We just kind of had to get ourselves composed, and the guys just kept fighting. As I said, that group that was out there in the fourth quarter just had great composure, they had a great sense that they were really able‑‑ they had a great sense about them that they were going to accomplish something. They were going to make it a game. They weren't going to go down without making it a game, not only made it a game, we actually ended up winning by 12, which I never would have guessed that going into the fourth, but I was just proud of that group and how they played. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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