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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v SPURSMay 29, 2012Scott BrooksSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Game Two Q. Talk about (no microphone) coming back after that injury the other night? COACH BROOKS: He's fine. He was in shoot arounds today, and he's fine, ready to go and no restrictions. Q. Pop used (No microphone). COACH BROOKS: I mean, it's an option that we have. We've thought about it, but not a long time in the game to start the second quarter. If the team's not in the bonus, then hopefully we don't get in the bonus that early. But last night I think he got into the game 30 or 40 seconds left in the first quarter. But he shot the ball well throughout the season. He's a 68, 69% shooter, he's just not shooting the ball well now. Q. Have you used it? COACH BROOKS: I never have. Q. There have been some comments about Serge maybe not playing much in the fourth quarter and helping out with Manu's driving. Just looking back at that, would you have done anything different or have you seen anything different with that? COACH BROOKS: No. It's one of the things that I understand about this business is that it's what we live for. We live for moments that you have to make tough decisions, and the guys that I coach, they all know that I trust them all. I trust all of our players to finish games and we've done it all year long. And if it doesn't work out, it's not like it hasn't happened before that it worked. We play small. But the advantage that we have playing small, Kevin's 6'10", and he's a pretty big small guy. It's not that I don't trust Serge, I don't trust Nick, I don't trust Perk‑‑ we have an opportunity‑‑ that's why we're in this position. We're a good team. San Antonio's in good position because they're a good team. We have opportunities to play different guys. Tonight might be different. But I can't guarantee that. It's a feel thing. At that time we were up 3 and we jumped on to 9 by playing small. A lot of things went bad for us. A lot of it was San Antonio was playing well. They took four charges in the fourth quarter, and that's not good in our court. We have to move the ball better. But Serge is one of the best shot blockers in the league, and we'll see how it goes tonight. Q. How tough is it to prepare for a guy like Manu where he's kind of like in practice you see James, but in a national game, it's like going against James in a way. Is there an advantage there? COACH BROOKS: He's one of the best. He doesn't get enough credit. I'm sure he gets it enough here, but nationally he doesn't. That guy's one of the best players. Just listening to the people that we have that have been around him, his spirit to compete is at the highest anybody's ever seen in practice. If you have that mentality, you're going to help your team win in a certain way in many ways. He's just not scoring points, but he's done so many things. It seems that he always makes the big pass, the big defensive stop, the big rebound. I think that's who he is. He's just a winner, and he's hard to guard. We can throw multiple defenders on him like we did. We can change the coverages up. But he's still hard to guard. And Manu is taking his step‑back three behind the tick twice. When he does that, what are you going to do? He makes maybe two shots in a quarter. But that guy he had a special night. Q. Scott, you outscored them by 15 in the middle two quarters. What did you do best during that time? COACH BROOKS: I thought at that time we were pretty solid defensively, but they also missed some shots, too. Sometimes you can get confused with the shooting percentage. A lot of times a guy will have an open shot and miss. I thought they had some open shots against one. But we did play much better defense. We did a better job of keeping them out of the paint. Then in the fourth quarter, they got to the basket, but that's how they play. It's not like they scored a bunch of paint points against us. That's what makes them a very good team. They can score inside the paint, and they have terrific three‑point shooters. They lead the league in both of those categories. They're top in the league. They average almost nine threes a game, and get 50 points in the paint. I think they had 50 and eight threes. Q. Why has your team been so good in the game after a loss? COACH BROOKS: I don't know. I mean, maybe we play nastier after games. I haven't heard that before. I just made that up. I like to think that they have such an incredible pride and spirit about competing. I've been around for four years, and that's what they do. They love to compete. We can have back‑to‑backs and have a practice the next day. We go hard. The guys just have that burning desire and determination to be a special team. I think that's why it is. We've had great bounce‑back records. Hopefully that continues. Our past doesn't guarantee that we're going to win this game tonight, but I know our guys are going to compete and try their best for 48 minutes. Q. Do the Spurs provide some extra challenges just because their bench is so deep, and they can go so many different ways being as multiple as they are? COACH BROOKS: Yeah, they're a great team. They've won 19 straight, and that's not an easy accomplishment. It's not like teams are giving them the wins. We're all trying to beat them. We're trying to figure out ways to beat them. They've got a great inside player, smart, selfless, a protector at the basket. They've got an incredible 40%, three‑point shooters all throughout the team. They've got two of the best penetrating guards in the league. They're a great team. It's not a good team, it's a great team. Q. With Jackson guarding Durant, he's more physical, the fouls were called. The good thing was from your angle, it kind of went to the free‑throw line and converted most of the time. What was the downside of that for you and for your team? COACH BROOKS: I just think Kevin's a tough guard for anybody in the league. He did a good job, but we have to do a better job of creating opportunities for Kevin to get easier looks and to free him up. I thought Jackson did a good job in forcing him off of his spot. Kevin has to show some more force and not get into that as quickly. We have to do a better job setting screens. We talked about that the last couple of days, and I think our guys are going to do a much better job. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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