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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v MAVERICKSMay 20, 2011Tyson ChandlerOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA: Practice Day Q. What has happened to the defense the last two games? You guys haven't given up 100 points until this series. TYSON CHANDLER: Yeah, I think going into the first two series, we were definitely focused and ready to go. I think having such a long layoff that we did, I think we lost our concentration, how we were winning basketball games. It's just about getting back to it, you know. It's not something I don't think that we can't get back to. We definitely can. Now it's just about doing it. Q. How do you get back to it with an athletic team coming straight at you? TYSON CHANDLER: It's a mental aspect. We were picking guys up full court in both games. We can't be afraid to get into these guys. I think that's the first step of changing things. Q. Do you think you have to do much tactically or strategically different or is it just about effort? TYSON CHANDLER: It's effort. We watched film, we let them dribble where they wanted to. We always were a couple feet off of them, and we didn't make things tough for them. They made shots, but we allowed them to get in such a great rhythm, then everything started falling after that. We've got to make things a lot more difficult for them. Q. Does it surprise you that this team would fall into bad habits like that? TYSON CHANDLER: No, because we had such a great focus during training camp, and with injuries and whatever, we lost that. And then it seemed like at the end of the year start of the Playoffs, we gained that focus right back. So it's almost the same situation. We started the beginning of the Playoffs with a great focus, defensive mindset. We had a tough loss that got us back into our focus, and then we went on to win six games straight or seven games straight, whatever it was. I don't even count the game we won as a good defensive effort, though, so I would say we won six games straight with great defensive effort. You know, we got set up for that last game because we won the game, won here not playing great defense, and I felt like we felt like we can just beat them, come out and outscore them and just beat them. Regardless if we can or not, that's not the type of habits that we need to create. Q. Is tomorrow a must-win? TYSON CHANDLER: We've got to treat it like it. We've got to treat it like it's a must game. Every game from here on out, we've got to treat it like we're in a hole and it's a Game 7. That's the way you should. We've got however many games left from now in this series, so we've got to treat every game as if it's our last. Q. You said last night after the game you thought you guys took it lightly last night. How does that happen at this stage of the Playoffs? TYSON CHANDLER: I think it's because when you think you can beat somebody. Like I said, we fooled ourselves in the first game because we outscored them so much, we felt like we'll just throw the ball in to Dirk and watch. But we can't do that. We've got to play basketball. Q. Rick said you guys were lucky to win one of the two given you didn't play decent defense. Do you agree with that? TYSON CHANDLER: I agree 100 percent. We didn't deserve to win last night. I'm not going to say a loss is ever good because I never like to lose. It doesn't do well for my sleep pattern. (Laughter.) But you know, sometimes you need to get hit on the chin and get woke up, and last night they hit us on the chin, and hopefully that woke us up. Q. When you see a team for four games, a team like LA, is there an adjustment in athleticism from series to series? TYSON CHANDLER: Yeah, every series is different, but we knew that coming into the series. There's no surprises. And I think it's just about us forcing our will on them. They're athletic, but we've got to force our will on them. Q. Is the attitude today guys were upset or just understanding, hey, we -- TYSON CHANDLER: I think it's just more -- we're a veteran team, so we just have a better understanding of what we've got to do and accomplish to win basketball games. It's not going to be a situation where guys are pointing fingers and kicking stuff in the locker room and all that. We've got an understanding of what we need to accomplish. We came in, we broke down tape, and guys were the first to step up and be accountable. Even myself, I saw things on the tape about myself that I don't like defensively. I'm helping a lot, but a couple of times I found myself so far off the screen because I was helping in the paint, and I've got to make it more tough for their guards in the pick-and-roll, and we've got to get the problem solved at the pick-and-roll with the two guys that are in it. We've got to stop committing a third guy. Q. For this team it seems like you kind of embrace going into somebody else's arena and shaking things up. TYSON CHANDLER: Yeah, we're definitely going to embrace these next few games because of what happened last night. We're going to come out and be mentally focused. Not only that, their crowd will make us more focused. That's a young team that gets behind their crowd and the crowd is loud out there, and I think it's only going to tighten up our senses. Q. Is it a different animal talking about just their personnel is completely different from LA and Portland? Do you feel like the game plan you've got to come up with defensively has been sound to defend against a team like Oklahoma City? TYSON CHANDLER: Yeah, I like our game plan, I just think we haven't executed our game plan. We haven't gave it a chance to have to make adjustments. If Coach is telling you to push the screen one way and we're five feet off and we're letting them go that way and cross back over, then we don't know if our scheme is going to work. If Coach is telling a big to get up and I'm laying down in the paint, we don't know if it's going to work. So we've got to trust that the coaches know what they're talking about when they break down film. That's what they get paid for. And we get paid to execute it, so now it's our turn to get out and execute it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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