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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v SPURSMay 31, 2012Scott BrooksOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA: Game Three Oklahoma City – 102 COACH BROOKS: I thought we played great defense from the start. Everybody was engaged. Everybody was in the stands and our hands were active. We contested shots. We rebounded the basketball. Defensively that was as well as you can play against the best team in basketball. Everybody did it throughout every possession. Q. Had you done much on Tony before, and how do you think that impacted the game tonight? COACH BROOKS: Well, Thabo, as we all know Thabo's one of the best defenders in the game. We've had him on point guards before, not a lot, but I thought he did a great job of really staying active, pursuing, and our bigs did a good job tonight. They were into the pick‑and‑rolls. It wasn't anything that Russell did the last two games. I thought our bigs did a good job of getting up on the screens and not allowing his angles to delay him to the basket. I thought Thabo did a good job; but I thought the biggest adjustment, we played better. We played better basketball. That was the game plan going in is to play much better basketball. Q. Coach, all your guys' effort tonight, particularly closeouts and second and third efforts, how big was that in just the overall defensive scheme? COACH BROOKS: Well, you're not going to beat this team by playing one‑effort basketball. You're going to have to have two, three, four and even five. They make you do that because they pass the ball so well, and spread the floor so well. They have an amazing big, they have some amazing players. If you're going to play one possession, two possessions with energy, you've got to have multiple efforts, and I thought we did that tonight throughout the game. Q. How much did your bigs. In particular Kendrick and Serge, take it upon themselves as a personal deal when they switched on Tony Parker to not get beat. They seemed to bear down defensively tonight for you? COACH BROOKS: Guys played well. Our bigs did a good job, Serge, Perk, Nick was in there. They did a good job. But the way we defend, all five guys have to be participating, and we had that tonight. We had it on just about every possession. I can't think of a possession going back. Just tomorrow over film, I'll be shocked if there are possessions we didn't play hard. We played a good basketball game. We played with a lost force, good energy, we played defensive minded basketball. That's who we are, and that's how we win. Q. A friend showed me a note or a tweet where someone said I don't know whether to give Oklahoma City credit, that they played that well, or it's just bad basketball from the Spurs. How do you respond to that? COACH BROOKS: The thing that I talked to our guys, it's always about us against them. It's not Tony, Russell match‑up, Kevin, Ginobili, it's not about that. It's about the Spurs versus the Thunder. We did that tonight. They played better than us the first two games. We played better than them. That's all that was. If they played a bad game, I think we did our part of helping them play a bad game. But they did their part of helping us play bad games. The last two games they outplayed us we outplayed them tonight. Q. What role does emotion play with your team? COACH BROOKS: As everybody knows, we have one of the best basketball arena in the league. Our fans come out, and we know that. Every night we know that they're going to give everything they have, and they know, vice versa, our players are going to give everything they have. We're a prideful team. It's no fun being down 0‑2. It's no fun. But we weren't looking at the game thinking oh, my gosh, we have a chance to be down 0‑3. We were looking at the game that we have a chance to be 1‑2 after this game. I give our guys a lot of credit. They believed in each other, and they always play hard for each other. They are getting better. We've seen it the last four years that we are improving because our guys do all the work, and they put time in. They did a great job of playing the game the right way tonight. Q. You said your guys played better basketball. Did they play nastier basketball? Was that borne out of your meeting yesterday? COACH BROOKS: Well, it's important to play tough basketball. It's what we're about. It's what we're built on toughness. I give Thabo, Russell‑‑ I mean, Russell had an amazing game. Just look at his line, ten points, almost ten assists, rebounds, just running the floor, playing the game, defending his man. Perk didn't play well last game. The decision was not play him. The guy has won so many games further. I just needed him to play better. He stepped up and played better tonight. I'm proud of him and all of our guys. That's what we do, and what we have to continue to do. We've done nothing but won our home game, and we have a tough one Saturday night. Thank you, everybody. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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