De’Aaron Fox & Coach Brown | Postgame Pressers 2.14.24

De’Aaron Fox & Coach Brown | Postgame Pressers 2.14.24

What can a win like that against that opponent in these circumstances given what you guys have gone through the last few games due for for you guys in the last game ahead of the All-Star break oh it’s definitely big to to be able to get

A win like this I mean at this point rest of the season um especially in the west everybody’s fighting for for seating um you know trying to get out of the play in um doing whatever you possibly can just to move up and Seed so um every game you know really really

Really matters and especially when you’re playing so many Western Conference teams where um you can make up a full game gap uh that’s definitely big for us the game seemed like an offensive struggle for for Mo both sides to rout what could you describe just what what what it was like seemed the

Switch flip for for you and the team L yeah I mean we knew that this is going to be a grinded out game I mean that that last game usually before Allstar break is usually kind of sloppy guys are trying to get to their break but um we knew

That we just we had to get stops at some point the ball would go in the basket and I think in that third quarter was big for us because we were able to get stops and get out and run and just try to create easy opportunities for

Ourselves and uh once we did that we came back in um we tightened the game up and I think from there A lot of it was was executing trying to get good shots and then just getting stops down the stretch you obviously won clutch player

Of the year last year um but so some of those nights you know have been fewer and further between this year so when you score 10 straight what’s the feeling like for you I mean I think my my teammates my coaching staff I mean everybody here um I mean puts me in

Position they cheer for me they want me to go out there and be able to close games obviously um if I’m shooting the ball or if we’re in a pick and roll and I just make a make the right play uh they want me to do that so you know that

With when your entire you know bench and everybody who’s out there on the court with you have that confidence in you for uh and that confidence in you for you to go make a play you know I I can’t help but have confidence in myself and um

Sometimes it doesn’t go my way um that’s fine but uh tonight it went my way and we were able to grind out this win Dar um you guys 11 turnovers in the first half only three in the second half you kind of you already mentioned tightening up the game talk about how important

That was for you guys to get back into things and kind of get the offense going yeah I mean that was big for us obviously when you’re not shooting the ball well it doesn’t help you when you’re turning the ball over and not getting a shot at The Rim so um that was

A big emphasis for us coming out of halftime uh just being being able to I mean but I think a large part of that was also what we were doing defensively and being able to get out and run and um like I said it just made it made the

Game in the second half a lot easier for us offensively when we were able to get out and run what can you take from going 3 0 uh this season against the NS oh I mean I feel like we’re a good team I think um there are times where we don’t

Show it there are times where we have showed it and um I think against this team there have been times where we’ve showed it so um that’s I mean that’s pretty much what you can take for OB obviously this is a championship caliber team they have best player in the world

Um on their team and uh when you come in here you just try to make it tough on them uh obviously you’re not going to stop him when Jamal’s playing you’re not going to stop him you just try to make it as tough as possible on them and then

What we’re doing offensively try to be ourselves man tell you what uh for for us uh I know probably a lot of teams think the same way but for us the All-Star break couldn’t have come at a better time um you know we just got a lot of guys that are

Just banged up you know we played we played Dom’s heavy minutes these last couple of nights we played Fox heavy minutes tonight these last couple of nights he played 43 minutes tonight uh those guys are a little banged up it be great to get them some rest but uh a

Little concerned about Keegan he stepped on somebody’s ankle during the course of the game uh he took a hard fall um you know and he just gutted it out but uh his body for a young guy uh his body’s banged up uh pretty good right now so just

Knowing that we have these I don’t know five six days to get a little little rest and uh get get our feet back underneath us starting with with with with Keegan with him stepping on some of his foot and his fall and then foxy and

And and domas uh it’s it’s big it’s big so like Trey’s you know obviously sick and so this this would be good for him but uh you know I thought uh I keep telling our guys that uh the shots aren’t going to always go in they’re not

Going to always go in and they didn’t go in tonight I looked up at the the stats on the on the board one time and I we were well into the game and we were shooting I think 177% from the three and uh you know it’s unlike us but that’s

The reality ity of it that shot’s not going to always go in so the only way that you can give yourself the chance to win is if you take care of the ball you don’t send them to the free throw line a lot you don’t give them a

Ton of offensive rebounds and and you defend and our guys just kept scrapping they kept fighting they kept finding a way to get it done defensively you know it’s a good team there I know they’re missing a couple of their starters and but uh you know for them to shoot 39%

From the floor and and and score 98 points uh for us that’s really good it’s it’s really really good you know and and sometimes you got to win ugly and you just got to find a way and in the second half we picked up our

Defense uh we made a couple of shots we had six assists at halftime we ended up with 21 um we had four fast break points at halftime we ended up with 13 so we just kept trying to find find ways to get it done and uh he give a lot of credit to

To dorte I I I I can’t remember the last time he played uh he was he was banged up for a while um but even before that he wasn’t even in rotation and uh and we threw him out there in the fourth quarter let alone and I thought he was

Big he was picking up full court defensively uh he had a huge deflection for us in the late red uh he hit a big three for us uh he he he was he was really really good in his minutes and he left it out on the

Floor um I thought he was a catalyst he got defensive player of the game but he was a catalyst for us getting win you know foxy HB and Doma scored for us but we had to find a way to defend and we did it in the second half we were down

One I think with two minutes ago two plus minutes ago and we had four consecutive stops it’s huge for us um so just a lot of uh positives in a game that we could have easily just folded uh especially going into the break I I love

Love love our guy’s perseverance and I I gotta say uh Mason Jones we just signed him to a two-way deal he didn’t play at all tonight but his impact in the game was huge he was you know the the the energy he brought from the from being on the

Bench was phenomenal I mean every time out before I can even take three steps on the floor he’s sprit past me high-fiving guys talking the guys during the game he’s talking to guys and you know we have a fairly quiet group and so for him to bring that type of energy was

Phenomenal my my my my son Elijah who’s a video coordinator for us uh he was watching at home he even said he said this before I even had a chance he said Mason’s energy was off the charts he could feel it through the TV and uh I

Know that I felt it our players felt it and our coaches felt it so his energy was great for us in a game that uh again we could have easily folded but uh our guys found a way how valuable is it to to get a win like that given the

Circumstances given you lost four or five given you know you won’t play again for for another week just what’s the value in this win for you guys it’s it’s big because you know I told our guys we’ve talked about it we know we know our destiny is still in our hands and um

But at the end of the day we got to go go get and you know when you have less than 30 games in the season uh it star to get tight and uh every game matters and for us you know after dropping a tough one last night dropping one game before that uh

To come here on the back to back and find a way before going into the break and to find a way to win ugly it just adds to the belief that we don’t have to be this offensive Juggernaut to go win games we can win games in a lot of

Different ways and tonight was a testament of it so hopefully that belief will carry over and help us win some games against some tough teams that we have coming up from your Vantage Point um I mean you’ve seen Fox take over a lot of games late before

But it seems like they’ve been a little few fewer and further between this year when you see him do that um in that moment what’s it like for for you and and what stood out to you about that oh we we need that uh he’s he’s our high in

Those situations and he’s done it before he’s more than capable uh and you know for him to step up in a situation where we need to get a win going into the break for all those things that I just said it was it was fantastic you know the difference of us

Going into this break with less doubt not feeling good to us saying okay you know what we can play a different style of basketball if we need to because in my opinion that’s what you got to be able to do come playoff time you’re not

Going to be able to shoot the lights out all the time you’re going to have to just find a way and it starts with all those things I said but it ends with the defensive side of the ball if you’re not defending it doesn’t matter cuz everybody can score nowadays so Fox was

Big for us down the stretch getting timely basket after timely basket but it started with all those other things to give him a chance to be put in that position to get it done um can you just talk a little bit about I know you just mentioned that

Domas has banged up a little bit a lot of guys banged up a little bit um obviously last night didn’t talk about as much because of uh the loss but uh he was the first player since Larry Bird yesterday to have I believe it was 30 15 12 with three blocks um tonight

Obviously 20 and 13 can you talk a little bit about his impact on your team as a whole as well as just kind of you know I think a little bit of his performances get lost a little bit in terms of the magnitude of what what he’s

Doing on the court this year yeah I mean it’s you just said it right there his performance gets lost a lot and and it’s evident with him not being an Allstar uh but him being a top seven MVP guy I still haven’t figured that one

Out yet but I I you know I don’t know a ton um he was big for us he’s been big for us all year to know what you’re going to get from from a guy uh a v caliber um you know that’s Irreplaceable you know you know that he going to hit

The glass hard you know he can score and you know he’s going to set his teammates up and he’s going to try to play as hard as he can and that level of consistency um in in this league is hard to attain but he’s done it at a high

Level cuz everybody knows it’s going will happen but it doesn’t seem like anybody can slow it down or stop it and we need every ounce of it uh until we get until we can get to a level that we think we’re more than capable of being

At for the long term Mike you talk about consistency a lot with with this team and um forgive me if this is a stupid question but as question but as as a coach like what’s what’s your focus on getting your team to be consistent like

How do you how do you impart that how do you put that into practice it it it’s you know turnover is going to happen Miss shots are going to happen uh Miss assignments are going to happen but now can we give the level of consistency that’s needed when it comes to

Communication when it comes to to to effort and when it comes to physicality like to me those things things you can control if something breaks down and you stop playing or you don’t close out hard or you’re mad CU you didn’t get the ball and you don’t run the floor as hard as

You can that stuff adds up and we have to be consistent in all those little areas and I I do I feel like we’re getting better uh not just as a team but individually you know cuz there was some guys last year that have made tremendous strides to this year and

I can see it it’s not only live I can see it on film and so once we can get to our plateau in that area the sky is a limit for this team

De’Aaron Fox & Coach Brown speak to the media following a win over the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena on February 13, 2024.

0:00 – 3:16 De’Aaron Fox
3:16 – 13:48 Coach Brown

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