Keegan Murray, Domantas Sabonis, and Coach Brown | 1.9.24

Keegan Murray, Domantas Sabonis, and Coach Brown | 1.9.24

K obviously guys will take the win but um what’s the level of concern fall early on what did it take to to get out of that R uh I mean obviously human nature to be concerned about the first quarter but I feel like the last three quarters is

What we we know we are and um and that’s just how we’re going to go into the into the next games and into the road trip and just try to build off that and what worked for you you particularly in the second quarter it seemed like a lot of

It was defense turning into offensive yeah I think it was just aggressive um we had nine deflections that quarter and um I feel like that was kind of the Turning Point um kind of getting out of the mindset of last game um or those those last five quarters and I feel like

That’s kind of a turning point for us for sure did you sense U it feeding through the whole team like you know once a couple guys turned it up everybody started getting hungry and getting after it defensively yeah I think uh just I feel like the first

Quarter were soft um and uh the second group I feel like it was a spark um they obviously kept hitting shots but I feel like they gave us the Sparks so we’re were just uh banking on our aggressiveness to take over and um I feel like we did that and Juan did a

Great job coming in and uh being aggressive um kind of setting the tone for us you mentioned playing soft I mean it Mike talks about physicality all the time even even going back to last year just I don’t know what what need to change in terms of the way you guys hear

That messaging to avoid starts like tonight uh I mean it’s just it’s nothing we need to change I mean I feel like we we do a good job in certain aspects just putting four quarters together um there’s games where we put a quarter together we end up wiing in the fourth

Uh we put a half together um and there’s there’s not many times where we put four quarters together so when we do that I feel like we’re just a really good team how would you assess the mood of the team the last 48 or so and you know just

The eagerness to get back to actually playing basketball today yeah I mean with the with the flight uh the road trip things like that I feel like even in practice we had a lot of a lot of players step up and speak um so it

Wasn’t just coach L um and I think that was the biggest thing for us just trying kind of get everything out in the air um and things like that so um just as a team we we still have confidence I mean we’re not going to let one game dictate

The last 50 something games we have left in the season what’s going to have to I mean what what mental adjustment do you guys make knowing you have a back to back tomorrow given this team’s recent history and put back to backs uh I mean

I feel like last time we had back toback we played well um we don’t think about anything like that um and uh we just we know we Charlotte came in our place and beat us so we know that uh we we got to go into another place and beat them and

Uh just put our best foot forward thanks yeah what changed for you guys in the second quarter when you guys started to make a run after falling behind by 20 in the first it was just embarrassing in you know um getting 50 points in the first quarter um was not what we

Expected coming into this game so we just had to turn it around you uh had a dunk in the first quarter flexed a little bit let out a y loud y take me through that play of what going through your mind you know just being aggressive you know um it was dead

In there you know every I felt like everyone was asleep you know um hopefully it woke everyone up well when you come off a game like Sundays um what’s the mindset as as Allstar on this team to you know try to try to get everybody locked in for for a

Game against an opponent like this uh just come out come out aggressive you know um we know it’s our history that we can’t come out to our potential against um teams who don’t have great records and um I got to come out aggressive you know every everyone has to you know and

Um you know that first quarter was frustrating for everyone you guys had 82 points in the paint was that an emphasis tonight did you guys see something um we’re we’re just playing our game you know every game we’re playing it you know um if they would have tagged the

Role or they would have stopped me early I would have just kicked it out to to open shots you know so every day it’s it’s it’s a different scale so we just make reads what happened with your your finger uh I don’t know someone stabbed

Me like I don’t know I don’t know if it was a rim or it was a nail or you know I got caught I don’t know you just looked down and saw was yeah thank God cuz I missed the defense assignment but it was because I saw all the blood I was like

Oh so oh we good thanks okay hey thanks for that one man uh great game after after a slow start I thought uh our defense after that first quarter was fantastic you know we gave up 45 points total in the second half we we gave it

47 points in the first quarter 45 points total in the second half uh 63 points in the last three quarters so it’s a great job defensively um I I thought uh dlas was great coming across and trapping the box and going vertical uh I thought Kevin I

Thought all our guys uh they were proactive with their defense and they were big when they tried to help uh we got a lot of deflections throughout the course of the game um I thought even you know what we call a rear view contest our shrinks were really good uh there

Weren’t many gaps for them to drive and when they did get by us there was somebody there not only contesting in front but some contesting and back a lot of times we got a couple of blocks because of the rear view contests so just just a fantastic defensive

Performance after the first quarter um offensively I thought our guys were really good too I meant we had uh um 39 assists on 54 buckets that’s that’s big time um the guys are are sharing the ball uh they’re not afraid to share the

Ball it was it was a lot of fun to see and and then we had four guys uh with 20 points 20 or more points and so um when you get that type of production offensively and you defend the way you do you can have a chance to win a lot of

Games uh obviously domas was fantastic with his uh ninth triple double I think he’s trailing yic yic may may have 11 and and domas has nine 19th consecutive game with a double double he’s obviously playing at All-Star level but to get the the the scoring that we got from from Keegan uh

Fox and Malik uh with Dom’s triple double was a really big night for uh those four guys but I I tell you we had two guys come off the bench that I thought were Catalyst in in bringing us energy in helping change the tide of the

Game and and the first one is uh Juan Tuscano Anderson I thought he was he was really good he he got after a loose ball one time and got the bench and everybody fired up because he came up with it uh Keegan do on the ground um you know you

Got to get a little dirty when you when you see those 50/50 balls and that was good to see us get after it come up with it and convert it and then other guy is is Trey lyes I thought Trey’s energy uh was really really big for us especially

When we were down he came in and he rebounded his tail off he even uh crashed crashed the offensive glass in what we call our crash Zone area picking up a couple of fouls just because he was going so hard so those two guys were really really big for US changing the ti

Of the game but uh a good win versus a team that came out really hot tonight Mike what was the uh spirit of the team after the first quarter and what do you think was the Catalyst for that second quarter uh I I thought the spirit was

Was okay you know uh guys knew it was a this a long basketball game and uh you know we just kept messing around with the rotation you know I threw Ron out there when I called his name and I kind of looked at him he looked back up at me

And he was like did I hear you right and I said yeah one he goes oh okay and you know we had to talk him through a few few sets out on the floor but Juan and Trey were were were were were really big I thought Malik was too uh for us on

Both ends of the floor uh but the energy that Juan and Trey brought and the defensive intensity and the communication was really big for us to climb back into that game sooner than later was I know I think it was the Atlanta game when you went with daveon

And that kind of wasn’t really the plan was was the move to go to one in in this scenario kind of similar like we just need a change of energy maybe switch this up in a way that we didn’t really foresee before the game for sure one one

I mean he just got back in uniform I think tonight before the game and so I I didn’t plan on playing them I just thought thought we needed a little jolt of energy I thought we needed something defensively we need the guys that that that would fly around and and uh so I

Call Juan’s number that’s what he does and just keep Keegan um particularly the burst I think it was a 7 nothing burst that he just had in the second quarter just what stood out to you about Keegan in that moment and it also seemed like there there was some defense leading to

Offense in that sequence yeah I I I thought he mixed it up you know he didn’t just settle for the three he didn’t just settle for a little step back he got to the rim he shot the pullup he shot a floater he shot a couple of Threes And then like you said

That defense generated some easy looks on the offense end of the floor and he was a beneficiary of a couple of those and and you know he’s a guy when he sees one or two go down look out that thing is like a ocean to him I know you’re not

Going to look too far ahead on the schedule but this road trip you have Philadelphia on Friday um you go to Milwaukee you have Phoenix uh just how how important is it to start this road trip off on on a good note with tonight and and tomorrow on Charlotte well you

Know I I I I really a you know I just try to get the next one and and you know obviously anytime you go out on the road or you’re at home you know you want to and and you’re going to be there for a

While you want to get the first one or two but at the end of the day if we don’t play like we’re capable of uh this win won’t propel us to anything so we have to go into Charlotte tomorrow with a focus and an energy that was similar

To us in these last three quarters tonight and and try to get that game before moving on to the next Mike Tomas always plays with energy passion seemed a little extra tonight did you get the sense that he knew how big tonight was you know coming off last game

Uh no you know I think you said it to start don’t to me domas uh always plays with with passion and energy that’s just his makeup you know and and you know I wouldn’t say it was any less than than what it was in the last game he

Obviously knew just like everybody else that we should have and could have played better in our last outing and we didn’t and um this is the next one that’s in front of we talked about it we cleaned up what we need to clean up and it was evident in what we saw tonight

And so this was the next one and and our guys were locked in after that first quarter and they figure out a way or found a way to get this tonight that one play you talked about with ke and Diving on the I think Malik was on the ground

Also that something you preach to the guys and want to see from the guys 100% we’ve we you know anytime that ball is bouncing uh we got to find a way to get it the best way to get it usually is the first guy on the ground cuz if you’re

Diving on the ground a lot of times guys are going to move out the way and and we haven’t done a good job of coming up with those 50-50 balls we haven’t done a good job of getting on the ground so it was really good to see a couple of guys

Get on the ground during that possession thanks everyone thank y’all

Keegan Murray, Domantas Sabonis and Coach Brown speak to the media following a win to the Detroit Pistons on January 9, 2024.

0:00 – 2:50 Keegan Murray
2:50 – 4:34 Domantas Sabonis
4:34 – 11:44 Coach Brown

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