Chauncey Billups Postgame Interview | Portland Trail Blazers 120, Oklahoma City Thunder 128

Chauncey Billups Postgame Interview | Portland Trail Blazers 120, Oklahoma City Thunder 128

John so you guys have played AR the two best teams in the Western Conference kind of back to back where do you kind of assess where you guys are now as opposed to a month six weeks ago and kind of everything in between that um I I think we uh you know the

Minutes that have been played by some of the guys that weren’t in the rotation some of the youngs um you could just SE of this time well spent you know um they’re making up coming up with some big time plays for us um we’re starting

To those guys you know and and all of us really just starting to really know how to play with one another how we want to play what we’re trying to do less mistakes are being made you know um and I just thought we I just thought we came

Out and we we played this team really well man you know for the second time you know um and no matter who plays we just we we we play the we play the right way we just going to play right you know and that’s what I want to happen you

Know just play right play together and uh we just rely on each other the whole time but I’m very happy with where um where we are and what the progress that we’ve made is part of that progress tonight specifically it look like ant being face guarded 40 feet out you were okay with

Them playing four on four underneath is that kind of come from trusting the other guys a little bit more than you were maybe earlier in the season it is it is and we we talk about that you know teams play Ant that way and I’m saying okay that’s fine and there’s some

Plays that I’m going to make sure an is in action and there’s some plays where I’m saying let’s play four on four they they should not be able to stop us you know if we play four on four and um the guys are just gaining more confidence

When that happens and they’re not just trying to wait and look and wait for ant wait for ant wait for ant now it’s 2 three seconds on the shot clock throw it up which is where we were a couple months ago um they’re taking they’re taking that personal and they’re taking

Pride in they’re saying how dare they do that let’s let’s let’s go make a play you know and who knows who’s going to make that play but let’s just do it together and I’ve been happy with that part for sure there was a moment about Midway through the fourth quarter um

When Chris got a stop on sgaa and you came over to him as you guys went to the Huddle what did you appreciate about that it was like six minute Mark of the fourth quarter as he took the time out yeah I mean Chris is really showing how

Versatile of a Defender that he is you know and I’m challenging him every night you know um whether it’s chasing Duncan Robinson you know or Luke Canard or putting him on an Edwards or tonight Shay um I’m really pushing the limits on trying to see how many different type of

Players he can guard and um he’s doing amazing he really is he’s doing amazing and I just wanted to like give him some love in that moment you know and kind of let him understand and know how big of a moment that was you know not just for

Him but for the team for the staff and uh I was just proud of him I was happy for him you know was it just that he stayed down was that what it was yeah you know um first of all that’s maybe the toughest cover in the league you

Know um and he’s hitting you with so many pump fakes and he can go right and he can go left and he can you know we were making a mistake a lot of times when they run their their little plate of like giving him Shad in him and I’m

Saying you can’t give him no angles and he made that mistake earlier in the game a couple times and then boom finally you know he did it right and it worked out you know so um and it could have very well not worked out that kid can score

On anybody in any situation but when you do it right you can live with the results and that’s what that was you talked about playing the Thunder well two times in a row I know it was a big talking point before the after the last time you guys played in Oklahoma City

That you wanted to come out after that 60o loss there the time before and not do that again was that something you guys talked about again this time with this facing the same team or is that something you guys kind of gotten past at this point no we didn’t talk about

That at all you know um I feel like we played good enough to beat them you know as y’all know I was I got ejected from that game and I feel like I cost the team in that moment um so we wanted to come out and just kind of validate that

And tell our guys all the time like you don’t nobody gives you respect in this league you got to go earn it you know you got to go earn it and when guys come in here and we play against teams they should they should have to play really

Good to beat us if we play right no matter if they’re like have our record or one of the best records in the league they should feel like they got to play really good to beat us and they play really hard to beat us and if that

Happens we did our job you know and hopefully we won that game and if not we can live with the results it’s been a long time since Portland’s beaten the Thunder I think maybe April 2021 or something like that and a lot of the games along the way especially the last

Couple years they were clearly more physical than you guys and you would talk about that a lot do you feel you guys show tonight that there’s growth in that area where you were able to maybe match that physicality well I did that was one of our um owner points I always

Kind of say hit first you know I I’m the kind of person period that I rather Act is opposed to react and um I did think that they physical I told our guys about halfway through the first quarter that the first four four or five minutes I thought they’re physicality they were more

Physical than us um they pushed us off of our screens and we wanted to catch the ball we caught it three or four feet out of the area which impacted the um our place you know so once we made that adjustment we we kind of turned the game

Back to where we wanted you know they jumped out on us I thought that was the reason um so after the timeout we started playing the way that we want to play and we we we ended up having a good first quarter um and it just kind of went on

But those are just things that that’s just who we are you know that’s just what we’re trying to build here like we want to do things we want to do it hard and we want to do it our way and um I’m proud of our guys man I feel like they

Starting to starting to sink in you know where have you seen rots improve the most since like summer league to to Now everywhere everywhere seriously everywhere he’s our he’s our hardest worker nobody works harder than rots nobody puts up more shots than rops nobody comes back at night more than

Rops RS is our hardest worker was that true in July yes yes but what he didn’t have in July was game minutes you know but um he’s improved everywhere his understanding you know has improved his shot has really improved his dribbling has really improved um I really think sometimes like um

Because I’m out there and I’m hollering at them and um I think I really think the language barrier as fast as we could I don’t feel like I talk fast or us but when it’s not my language it probably needs to be a little slower well that can’t really

Happen when you in the hit you know um so I think that kind of has has led to some of his breakdowns out there as we try to change up stuff and change up covers and he’s also very aggressive so he’s into the ball and he can maybe not hear the

Change um but every mistake he makes which is what I always I love about him and I tell him that the mistakes that he makes he makes them aggressively um and he’s Fearless man he’s Fearless so I think he he’s improved all over the place he he he

Really has but he’s he’s worked for it man right last one John this is kind of specific one but over the last couple of games you guys have faced some teams that run more kind of a pet action tonight OKC runs that split action over and over and over with with SGA and

Jaylen how do you feel like you guys are getting to being able to make the JS both Personnel wise and coaching wise as you guys kind of get more reps with each other yeah I I you know it’s funny we we we’re in these timeouts and um we know

Obviously the type of players that they want to run coming in and out of time outs and split actions and you know rip screen slips and things like that so we’re talking about it and the one area that I’m always you hear me up here

Saying it all the time um is we just need we we’re playing as as hard as we can but we don’t communicate very well well the only way to be a good defensive team and splits and pin downs and rip screens is you have to communicate and they crushed us a few

Times you know um out of timeouts on those things and I seen something that I haven’t seen in a long time and maybe ever to be honest and that’s Jeremy Grant get mad um because we were prepared for it prepared for it and then again you know um

It was bar and Chris was into action the young young the kids the babies you know um and they were playing their butt off but they just didn’t communicate give up a layup it a big play in the game and I never really seen Jeremy get mad but he

Did um and I was happy to see that you know G left jayen back up yeah yeah so you know um I do think that we prepar for it we talk about it and you still got to go through it to get better but um we we we usually can sniff it out

Whether we can stop it or not it’s two different things

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