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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: GRIZZLIES v SPURSMay 27, 2013Lionel HollinsMEMPHIS, TENNESSEE: Game Four Q. Do you sense the same belief, conviction from your team given the situation going into this game? LIONEL HOLLINS: We'll find out when we start. I'm not going to try to get a feel for the team before the game because sometimes they're joking, sometimes they're quiet, and you never know how that translates out there on the court. Q. Earlier today Zach referred to himself as being a bit of a decoy out there. Can you win a basketball game without him being more than a decoy? LIONEL HOLLINS: Well, I don't know what decoy means. I mean, if they come and take the ball away from you, you have to give it up. I don't know about being a decoy. Maybe he sees it that way in terms of the way they've done that, but you've still got to be aggressive, still try to get the ball, and when it's time to pass, pass, and when it's time to shoot, shoot. Q. Given the situation, is there a temptation to go to things that maybe you've considered and decided against? LIONEL HOLLINS: I've never considered nothing and decided against. I told them we'd go back to what we did when we started in October and stay with it. I mean, we are who we are, and if it's not good enough, it won't be good enough, but we're not going to go and try to do something else. Q. Any little match‑up things we should watch for today, more of this guy guarding that guy or anything like that? LIONEL HOLLINS: Same as it's been every game. There's not much change or whatever you want to see. Tony Parker will be guarded by Tony Allen, but he'll be guarded by Jerryd Bayless and he'll be guarded by Mike. That's the way we've done it all series and every series we've been in. We just change up when we‑‑ sometimes they change up on their own, but at this point it's just believing that you can do it and going out and doing it. Q. Is Jon Leuer okay? LIONEL HOLLINS: No, he's not playing tonight. Sprained his ankle yesterday in practice. Q. Tayshaun's ankle limiting him at all? LIONEL HOLLINS: I'm sure it's limiting him. It hurts, so that keeps you from being full bore, but he'll play. I'm sorry I don't have anything special to say. Q. Everybody else healthy? LIONEL HOLLINS: Everybody else is healthy, Mike is healthy. I was just driving in and somebody on ESPN says, talking about Indiana and winning this game and the series could go seven, and that western thing is all‑‑ (inaudible) we have to as a team shut all that out and just be focused on winning and winning tonight because all we have is tonight. We've got to win tonight and keep playing. But you've got to believe it and you've got to go do it. Q. Do you use that as motivation people dismissing‑‑ LIONEL HOLLINS: No, I don't use it as motivation. When it's never been done in history, how are you going to be extra motivated by somebody saying it's not going to happen now? What you have to do is go in and just believe that you can play better and will play better and then go out there and do it one game at a time. Tonight is the one game. Q. Kind of going all the way back to when Allen Iverson was here, something about the art of holding players accountable and‑‑ LIONEL HOLLINS: It's a part of coaching, it's a part of managing, it's a part of leadership. That's what leaders do, they hold their men accountable and tell them they have responsibilities and you have to do it, and if you don't have accountability you're going to have chaos, if you don't have guys that step up and be counted on by their teammates, you're not going to win, you're not going to be successful. That's part of building any successful organization, whether it be a radio show, newspaper, some kind of business, basketball. That's why sports are so beautiful; it teaches these guys at a young age how to get into that mode of having a plan, preparing, and persevering, making sacrifices and all those things. Q. Did you have to kind of put your foot down when you got here to show that? LIONEL HOLLINS: Of course, of course. I think every coach who takes over a losing situation, that's the one thing that they don't have. They don't have a work ethic, they don't have discipline, they don't have the accountability, chemistry, all those things come with building a team from the bottom up. You go in there and you say, this is how it's going to be done, and you don't like it, you don't like it. Either you want to get with the program or somebody else will be in your spot. I came in here and fortunately we had a team that hadn't established stars yet, so I was able to run roughshod over everybody. You go in and you take over with stars it's a little bit different because they just go to management or they go to media. It's like in college when a coach gets on a guy too much, what does he do, transfer. You go to AAU, coach gets on you too much he just goes on and plays on a different team, and there's always somebody willing to take his talent and deal with all the other issues as it comes. Q. How did you deal with the Iverson thing? LIONEL HOLLINS: Spoke the truth. I really don't want to talk about Allen Iverson tonight. That's two years ago in history, and it is what it was, and we're past it. Q. The fact that as you were saying when you came here there were no stars, you kind of put your stamp on this team, all these years later, does this team have an identity that's really unmistakable? LIONEL HOLLINS: Well, that's part of building a team as well as establishing an identity, and every coach eventually tries to establish one and gets the team to buy into it. What I'm proud of is that I was blessed to have a group that wanted to win. They didn't know how, they were young, and they didn't know how to work hard because they never had to, and I just tried to show them the way and put them in an environment that they could be successful. They didn't come smiling and saying that's great. They were kicking and scratching not to do it because it's easy to try to do it in a different manner which is easier. And just like the series, in order for us to win it, it's going to be extremely hard, and it's going to be where you have to go where you haven't gone before, and everybody isn't always ready to do that. But the majority of them are, and everybody talks about it but everybody has to go do it in order to get it done, and that's part of‑‑ so I'm not proud of me, I'm proud of them because they wanted it and they went and did everything that I pushed them to do. But they could have quit, as well, but they chose to fight, and they're reaping the rewards for us right now. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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