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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HEAT v PACERSMay 25, 2014Frank VogelMIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q. The day after, what kind of stuck out to you about last night's loss? COACH FRANK VOGEL: I think we're bringing out best in them. They're playing at an extremely high level, and we haven't toward the end of Game 2 and the second half of last night's game. So we've got to elevate our play and try to get Game 4. Q. Where do you see the issues with the turnovers, the mental lapses? Where does that begin, and how do you all fight it? COACH FRANK VOGEL: I think it all starts with building a 15‑point lead against the world champs. That sort of woke them up, increased their level of desperation, and they came after us. We've got to handle it better. Q. What does Paul George need to do the last couple of games? He seemed to be struggling from the field. Does he need to be more efficient? Is it something they're doing defensively? COACH FRANK VOGEL: Yeah, they're double‑teaming him every time he touches the ball. They're turning him into more of a facilitator, and he's getting other guys involved, which is good. We've got to make sure that we're being creative in ways where he can be a scorer too. Q. You told your guys foul trouble was huge in Game 3 last night. Going into Game 4, how have you talked to them about defending without getting a foul? COACH FRANK VOGEL: It's just something we talk about all year. We've got to move our feet. We've got to earn no calls. That's what we've got to do‑‑ play with great body position, use our length, keep our hands out of the cookie jar, so to speak, and keep them off the line and keep ourselves on the court. Q. Frank, you guys have foul trouble, the Heat have foul trouble also, obviously. How tough is it to kind of manufacture rhythm when the opportunity for rhythm really isn't always there? COACH FRANK VOGEL: It's which guys are having foul trouble. That's the difference between them and us last night. We're struggling defensively, and you look at it, our two best perimeter defenders are on the bench for extended periods. We've got to make sure those guys are on the court. Q. Frank, you've been around a lot of different teams. How does a team evolve from year to year to being the team that can learn how to close out the biggest games in the biggest moments? COACH FRANK VOGEL: They've just got to rely on their experience. They've been here in this round against this opponent last year. We faced some of the things we're facing right now. It's a heck of a battle, and we see the champs raising their game. It's time for us to raise our game. Q. People talk about in the NBA, hey, the Chicago Bulls have to learn how to be this and that ‑‑ COACH FRANK VOGEL: Kind of like a big brother/little brother type of deal, we talked about this morning. The little brother spends his whole life getting beat by the big brother, getting beat in sports, one‑on‑one basketball, and whatnot, and all those years of getting beat up builds them up to the point where they ultimately take on the big brother. So that's what we're hoping to do. Q. That's exactly the analogy you used earlier. Are you speaking from personal experience? I don't know if you have an older brother. COACH FRANK VOGEL: Yes, I have an older brother. He used to kick my butt in one‑on‑one all the time. Q. In the driveway? COACH FRANK VOGEL: No longer, though. Q. No longer? COACH FRANK VOGEL: In the driveway, yes. Q. When did you start getting over on him? COACH FRANK VOGEL: Once he went to college and stopped playing basketball. Q. How old were you? COACH FRANK VOGEL: I was a junior, two‑year difference. Q. How do you get these guys to keep their focus late in the game so that turnovers don't keep costing them these wins? COACH FRANK VOGEL: Well, they've just got to handle the pressure. They've got to understand where the traps are coming from, understand where the rotations are coming from, and make sure we're appropriately spaced. We execute those fundamentals, add ball toughness, and we should be able to keep it under control. We've kept it under control most of this postseason. We had one bad game in the Washington series, and hopefully one bad game only in this series. Q. How detrimental do you think that it was that Paul was only able to play 32 minutes last night? COACH FRANK VOGEL: We were just talking about that. It severely impacts us. He's probably our most important player. A lot of our guys are important, but for what he gives us on both end of the court with the scoring‑‑ not just his defense, but the primary matchup on LeBron James, to have him on the bench certainly limits us. So we've got to make sure we're guarding with great body position, keep our hands out of the cookie jar, and keep ourselves on the court. Q. Frank, beyond the fact of the foul trouble and what have you, does he need to take it to another level in terms of the star production you would expect to kind of balance out what the Heat are getting from LeBron and Dwyane? COACH FRANK VOGEL: Yeah, and look, he can't force. They're making a conscious effort to double‑team every kind of screen that we throw at them. So he becomes a facilitator, and that's okay. We don't want him forcing action. Certainly, we want to be more creative in terms of putting him in positions where he's going to be the scorer, or the recipient. But if he's getting double‑teamed, he's got to share it. He's got to make the right basketball play. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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