|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v SPURSJune 3, 2012Scott BrooksSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Practice Day Q. Talk about trust among the guys. What have you done all year to build that faith and that confidence? COACH BROOKS: Well, trust is the most important word in basketball. If you don't have trust, you don't have a good team. We have a very good team that trusts one another. Trust is not just passing and sharing the basketball. Trust means believing that you're always going to do the right thing at all times, and not just when it feels good and things are going well for you. You have to do it when things aren't going well for you, because that's when you can build stronger trust on offense and defense also. If you're not doing your job, your teammate may not want to do his job. But if everybody's doing a good job, you put yourself in a good position to win. Q. Is this exciting for you? COACH BROOKS: I keep hearing about that, but I'm not looking at this game or this series about Pop and me. Pop was a heck of a player. He led his college team in scoring. He was on the '72 Olympic team. I was probably a better shooter than him, but he was a better play maker. So it's not about Pop and I, and I don't think it ever will be. It's about the Spurs. It's about the Thunder. I'm excited to coach our team. I know we have a great opportunity to go down there and win a game and a chess match. It's just coaching. You have a job to do. He has a job to do, and we just do it. I'm not trying to look to one up on him. I'm not trying to trick him into anything, because they're not going to trick us, and we're not going to trick them. It's about players playing well, and putting themselves in position to win. My job is to coach our team and continue to motivate our guys to be a good basketball team and a team that believes in each other. We've done a good job with that, but they've done a good job. Q. (No microphone). COACH BROOKS: Well, you have to understand that you have to live in the moment, and we all do that. We all see what Kevin does on a day‑to‑day basis, and it's pretty incredible the work he puts in. But he deserves the success that he has, because he tackles every day with a lot of work and a lot of effort. For him to make 16 straight, 18 in the fourth quarter, it is pretty amazing. You don't take it for granted, because it's not easy to do. It's not easy to score two points in this league. A lot of things have to go well, and he has the ability to score, and he has the ability to help his team score. But we're very fortunate to have him. He's a high‑character guy. He believes in what we do. He's coachable. We get on him all the time. He wants more. He doesn't back away from any of that. For him to make 16 straight points, it's not coaching. Kevin did a great job. The thing that we also forget about is his ability to score those points. Russell's had great screens. When they switch off on Parker on James, we had James at the screen. So we did a good job of executing the play and passing. Just making the passes on target, and it allowed him to do a good job of making the shots. And Serge hit a good flair screen for James to hit that three, and he had a chance to hit the second one too, but everybody did their job in that play. Q. There is talk now about him coming (No microphone) locally we've seen him sort of gravitate to that point and work to get here. What's been the biggest key for him to get to the point where he is now? COACH BROOKS: Well, I don't think it just happens overnight, but he works at it. He's a talented kid. He's a determined player. He's very aggressive in his work. He doesn't back down any day of the week. He goes after it every day. But his ability to make shots under pressure is great. I like the fact that this year he's really stepped up and making plays, making the right play. If the play deserves to shoot it, shoot it, and we live with that shot. If he has to pass t he has to pass it. I thought he did that last night. Even when he had it going there, he made two passes to James, and he could have easily made that shot. When he has it going like that, and he's 6'10" and he has a great touch, it's hard to get that shot. I'm more concerned and he's more concerned. You see it this year. He wants to make the right plays. The right play is to shoot it, shoot it. All of our team, our staff, and he knows he has that. But it's fun to see all the work is paying off for him. Q. You talk about Russell. When you see him setting big key screens and chasing guys down to knock the ball out of bounds, what's that mean to you? COACH BROOKS: I'm happy with Russ the last two games. His numbers don't stand down and say, wow, he had a major impact on the offensive end. But he did. He made timely passes. He set incredible screens. He chased down a couple of plays that probably only Russell could do in the NBA. There's not a lot of guys that can do what he did, chase down Parker and catch him and deflect the ball. He has a lot of skill and a lot of determination. But I thought the screens to get those shots open for Kevin were just as important as Kevin making them. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|