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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v SPURSMay 20, 2014Derek FisherSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Practice Day DEREK FISHER: I know at some point I won't be able to play, so that's a realistic concept for me every time I step on the court. I've always tried to approach it the same way from the first year to the 18th year: Give everything I have to my teammates. Last night wasn't enough for us to get the win is mostly what I'm concerned about, and hopefully we can come back and be better tomorrow. Q. What did you guys do well in the third quarter, and why did it work and how can you replicate it in Game 2? DEREK FISHER: We were better defensively. We put bodies on people at the right times and really made it difficult for them to score in the third period to start out. They made some lineup adjustments, got a couple different guys in there, but for the most part until the last minute 45, minute 50 seconds of the third quarter, we were great on the defensive end. Only a couple mistakes that cost us baskets. You can't be perfect defensively for 48 minutes, but our overall effort and focus and concentration on that end was the best of the entire game in those eight, nine minutes in the third quarter. Q. Was it as simple as effort and focus, concentration? DEREK FISHER: You know, you can't always win just by playing hard and playing with great effort, but that definitely was a problem for us last night, not because guys didn't want to, but from what we saw, it just wasn't there for long enough periods of time, and that's something that regardless of lineups, who's in, who's out, that has to be consistent in order to win in the Playoffs and in particular in the Conference Finals. Q. Chicken or egg: They got going in a hurry on their offense in the paint. I was talking to Rex at halftime and he said part of that was the fact that your team shot 4 of 15 to start the game so things were kind of out of balance a little bit. DEREK FISHER: Yeah, no question about it. I think you have to be able to defend regardless of whether you're making shots or not, but at the same time it helps if the ball is going in the basket to be able to get your defense back, set, to be confident as a team that you're being effective on the offensive end, and it also helps you to limit some of the tension and stress that starts to build in a big pressure game, trying to get out on the road and win a Game 1. It helps to have some feel‑good early in the game. Last night we didn't do that. I thought we still fought hard, took the lead there in the third quarter. With four minutes to go we were up one. But we can't hope for that type of situation. We have to be better, control the things we can control and give ourselves a chance to win tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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