SHOOTAROUND SOUND: COACH MOSE, JONATHAN ISAAC

SHOOTAROUND SOUND: COACH MOSE, JONATHAN ISAAC

Coach you’ve been able to hold your recent opponent since Phoenix to under 100 can you just talk a little bit about the defense and how they’ve been able to really step up lately well just being able to get timely stops we’ve talked about it from the beginning of the year

Uh hanging our hat on the defensive end of the floor uh knowing who we’re covering how we’re guarding sticking to our game plan and the guys have really done that on the backstretch our fourth quarter Focus has been at a very high level when you look at this Miami team

You’ve faced them before faced them at home what is it about them that kind of just keeps them a threat with you guys and is it you know the idea that it is a a rival kind of with Florida teams I think it’s it there’s a big portion of

That yes but you know you know coach SPO does such a great job of keeping these guys playing hard disrupting things defensively changing the defensive coverages so you never know exactly what you’re going to see you know from the offensive side of the floor they keep you guessing they keep you off balance

Then offensively they just continue to move without the basketball they’ve got Shooters everywhere and then You’ got guys that can get to the free throw line easily so we’ve just got to be smart in our game plan understanding who we’re guarding when we’re guarding them the

Closeouts that we have to have and then being able to move and share the basketball the right way to keep the defense shifted do certain games mean more I mean tonight there’s tiebreakers at stake and all that stuff do you bring that stuff up or is this it does do you

Not want that to enter into the thinging well it’s inevitable I I think the guys will look at the standings our guys will look at you know what we’ve done with this team and you know being in Florida and whatnot so I think guys look at it

You know you don’t want to put more on it than necessary because our thing is always going to be take it one game at a time and focus on the opponent in front of you and we play to our standard and when we play to our standard we give

Ourselves a chance to win every single night I want to go back to last week too for a second how neat was it that obviously the team got you Embrace Paulo in that All-Star moment but then he has the presence of mind to tell the guys

This is us this is not me this is all of us how cool was that moment for you and what’s that say about the maturity of that kid it’s who he is and it’s also who this team is like I think it’s just such a tight-knit group that they all

Pull and root for one another so that celebration that you saw for him making the All-Star game was more than genuine it was real and who we are and who he is as a young man you know he’s always going to celebrate his teammates um he’s always going to celebrate the guys

Around him because that’s who he is as a young man and we’ve said it from the beginning of when we drafted him he’s a winner and people understand that being a winner means I celebrate those around me cuz I don’t do it on my own and that’s who he

Is ji since that Phoenix game you guys have been able to hold some of your opponents to under 100 points can you talk a little bit about the defense and how you guys have stepped it up in some ways and and how important that’s been for you guys I think just continuing to

Embrace it as our identity and uh a big part of what this team does you know we’ve had ups and downs of scoring of basketball but us being able to sustain you know defense it’s it’s it’s lucked out a lot of these games and for you

You’ve been able to see more minutes at the end of these games to really find it in the fourth and help finish out with the fourth how important has these minutes for you in these recent big games been especially for you out here on the court it’s been great like just

Continuing to get acclimated and feeling comfortable out there and and to be in the game in those big moments that’s what every player wants and so to just be able to contribute in any way if it’s just defensively if it’s just stopping my guy um you know I I I take pride in

It to go three in one finishing out against Miami another tough team how important would this win for tonight be for this team heading back home this is huge you know I think this one of our biggest games of the season honestly so you know we know that and we’re coming

In ready to play through 50 games you guys have done so many different things well defensively but is there one particular thing defensively you guys think you do better than maybe all the other teams in the league I think what we have done is being able to to play

One-on-one defense um so take take a game like tonight you got wendale you know most teams when it comes to B or you know they’re sending double teams or uh other teams that we played a lot of teams have to send double teams and that immediately puts your defense at a at a

Disadvantage and so I think we’re able to match up well with teams and able to have one guy guard one guy and it just makes everything easier and then if you need to help at the last second it’s easier too rather than having to throw everybody into rotations when you play

Miami does it feel like a playoff game just based on your experience yeah every time every time whether it’s here or there it feels like it and for us to be I think we win tonight it’s 2-2 um so this has been what

Coach Mose: 0:00 – 2:33
Jonathan Isaac: 2:34 – 4:32

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