Hornets vs Bucks: Coach Clifford Postgame Media Availability | 2/29/2024

Hornets vs Bucks: Coach Clifford Postgame Media Availability | 2/29/2024

Like that run there maybe at the end of the second quarter I think you guys got it to five and may got it to 20 there is there anything that’s stuck out about that stretch that go back to right um I I would say the bigger part I mean again

I don’t you know you’re kind of guessing before you watch the film but it’s just uh you know for us again I know it ounds we’ve done it the ball’s got to hit the paint you know and when we we’re not uh executing well enough or not playing

With enough force or purpose um you know we just take a lot we don’t take bad shots but we take okay shots you know and and we can’t do that we got to get really good shots and when we did you know what we were we were efficient

Um so that’s something uh whether newness of the group or whatever um but uh you know we were we were better defensively in the second half too they had us all spread out that was our our in the first half there tonight um we missed a lot of helps and stuff

Which we’ve been good at you know kind of going up that a little bit coach there was a lot of Swing Swing kind of passes that bus were doing you guys have to read and recover a lot can you just talk about that first half defense that you guys were well most of

It to be honest was the individual defense it wasn’t so much their ball movement I mean like Giannis to me is going to drive by you Dame’s going to drive by you but we gave up drives where we just had wrong stances wrong angles and no help to other guys who were good

Players but not guys that should be blowing bias like they were and that was again that’s without watching the film but that’s what I wrote in my notes that’s what I told them in halftime and uh you know that to me we did better in

The second I mean to me the Swing Swing in this level it’s not really that big well let’s put it this way the Swing Swing actually at any level depends on who the Swing Swing is swung to okay so like when that’s to L Lillard or you

Know yanis that’s it’s a problem when it’s to a normal guy it’s very doable SL guys what are you see that’s where no no no that’s where we’re not but we’re not coming out and playing with the right to me mentality offensively tonight our we made a lot of

Mistakes defensively with that first group which they have not been doing we got off to a bad start on defense also but it’s again we if we’re not inside out we took a ton of they’re not bad shots they’re okay shots but we’re not that team you know what I mean like

We’ve that Ball’s got to hit the paint you know we need to be shooting great shots and if we do I think we’ll be good enough to compete with anybody if we’re going to settle and not put continual pressure on the defense which we did in

Stretches we did a good job but we’ve got to be able to sustain that through everybody that plays for 48 minutes I I know my bad I know earlier you talked about earlier this evening you said you’re trying to play Brandon Miller maybe a little less now that you have a

Different bench you play 40 minutes I think Toronto if I’ve been the only time I I know it’s hard like how One how high of a priority is that for you and where can you steal some rest for him in game yeah I mean tonight because to be honest with

You I I really thought we had a chance to see he played more minutes than he was scheduled to play um 38 is a lot backto back um but I mean you know he’s our best offensive chance right so um he played a really good first half they were more

Aggressive with their coverages with him in the second half um and listen I mean I think you guys know this and I actually think it’s a big deal is you know playing to win’s important you know we’re going to play to win uh you know I

Mean we may play some guys to see what they can do and everything but when you start doing that let me just tell you it’s weeks of losing we’re not going to do that and I also think what people don’t understand a lot was when they

Said why don’t they just play those guys it kills your season kill we got 23 games left that stuff kills your it doesn’t I’m just saying it’s somebody who’s lived it and when you do that you are absolutely crushing everything you build in the locker room about accountability about play you can’t play

Guys who don’t deserve to play minutes more than they deserve and then look at Pro players and say go play hard do your job do the stuff that’s difficult it kills everything and when people uh don’t understand a team Sport’s different than an individual sport it is

And they have to learn how what real details are what real execution is and again you start playing around with guys like that you can mess the whole thing up and you don’t do this I will tell you this I’ve seen this year after year after year you don’t take 20 games at

The end of the year and just play for fun then come back next October 25th and say now this we want to win not you either build the right mentality or you don’t and that’s the way it works kind of gr off that coach allar break isn’t

Half the season it’s like you know the yeah you’re racing to the Finish Line what is something you looking to see from this team kind well we have to get an identity and and this is the part that’s not fair for them and this is where I told them after the game I’ve

Got to help them more because you know we’re going to be able to do it defensively and the offensive part is always harder and you know five of our top nine guys right now are brand new and usually you get a whatever you get a month or three and a half weeks of

Preseason you get all of September all that that’s where we’re behind and it’s starting to show um and I don’t know how you speed up the process but we’ve got I’ve got to find a way to do it you know that’s my responsibility Steve with this

Group you talked about the life of the ball hitting the paint is there anything else offensively that this new group has maybe troubled with or maybe even on the other end maybe solved well there I mean Golden State switched a lot more and we struggled with it so obviously

That’s this leag right so everybody you know now like they switch more these two games in Milwaukee than they have all year so yeah we don’t have breakdown guys we don’t have guys we don’t have Mellows out there they can’t do that I mean that’s just it right I mean we

Don’t have we have really good players doesn’t mean they’re not good players but we don’t have anybody that you’re going to look and say well we can’t switch under him so that’s quite a bit of part of it but there’s things that you can do it just takes more more

Coordination more cohesiveness more chemistry guys playing together but you know that’s going to be every team’s going to have things that they do you know like since that game though like teams are doing that you know and they’ll do it tomorrow night too so we have to figure that out

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