De’Aaron Fox, Coach Brown & Domantas Sabonis | Postgame Presser 12.23.23

De’Aaron Fox, Coach Brown & Domantas Sabonis | Postgame Presser 12.23.23

Uh Fox obviously that their defense is uh pretty pretty Elite um what did you just see from them and how hard did they make things in the fourth quarter especially I mean they just they have length obviously have Rudy at the uh at The Rim so you know they try to force

You into uh uh some tough shots and um they’re long and athletic so um they get you off the line and obviously having Rudy back there um it kind of makes you think twice about you know getting to the and um a lot of rearview contest and they’re very

Active Fox 28 to5 on Fast Break points was is it troubling was it troubling to get the ball moving up the court or was that something you guys wanted to do to slow down the ball oh no I mean um I think just about all of our turnovers

Were were live ball turnover so I think that’s how they were able to to to get out and run how how do you feel like you guys did defensively and how much do you feel like your defense impacted your offense I mean I think we were um I mean limiting their threes but

Um I think the first half like 44 I think 44 of their 58 were points in the paint so we had to be better um guarding the rim I think that’s where we had trouble at tonight dearn you guys haven’t been super competitive on the second night of a back toback this one

Felt more competitive did you feel that that you guys were in this may have come down to a little bit of legs I mean you want to keep the game close you know throughout the game not just trying to fight back in the fourth quarter um

And then we had a big turnover and a block shot that kind of uh that kind of blew the game up so um I mean we have to be better throughout the course of the game rather than just trying to fight back and the forth Fox there’s been

Plenty of times over the past couple Seasons where you’ve kind of had to take over in the fourth quarter but with Keegan going the way he was even Trey lles getting involved Harrison a little bit what is the in your mind like what is the decision between it’s I got to go

And I got to get my teammates involved oh I mean there’s always you know you try to find the balance even you know just throughout the game and uh I think you guys had it going uh but I still have to be better in that and that at

The end of the game that uh early in the game um we didn’t do a good enough job shrinking the floor and uh um Rudy Gober got loose for a couple of uncontested dunks and you know we were hugged up to our guys and this is a team that you got

To you really got to play the percentages uh when you have a guy 72 that’s uh you know multi-time Allstar you have to pay attention to him you have to get to him early and I thought that um our shrinks weren’t good to start the

Game he got loose a little bit uh and they ended up scoring uh I think 44 points in the paint in the first half which helped them get to that big lead and that’s what they do uh they’re a great defensive team with all the length that they have and athleticism and and

Then they’re a team that that scores it well in the paint and uh and we kind of played into their hands uh also a couple of long rebounds that uh that they came up with and got out and transition you know again to give up 28 fast break

Points we we I’m to backtrack we did a better job protecting the paint in the second half I think they ended up with 22 points in the paint we did a better job of of understanding that we can’t hug up on certain guys and that’s why you know the young fell McDaniels ended

Up hitting a couple of Threes And you know you got to pick your poison and obviously the smartest thing to do is try to eliminate a a dunk by 7 foot2 kid and and and then contest late to a guy like McDaniels or somebody else that’s

Not hot on the perimeter so we did a better job in the second half with that uh I like seeing that from our team CU we talked about it at halftime uh but the the other thing that I would talk I wanted to talk about was their their

Ability to get out and transition you know they were really good in transition happened because they got a couple of long couple of turnovers we didn’t have a ton of turnovers but uh a couple of long rebounds that they were able to get and just beat us down the floor by throw

Throwing it over the top and and to in my opinion those two areas uh where the ball game we I thought we took pretty good shots throughout most of the night that didn’t go in but you got to give them credit uh they they’re they’re long they’re long they’re athletic and they

Fly around and you feel a little bit more pressure to get that shot off a little bit quicker even though they’re not going to block a most times a perimeter three-point shot but they make it tough on you and this is a game that

You got to go in with a lot of uh U mental resiliency because no telling what can happen throughout the course of the game with their length and the way they scramble and the protection that they have at The Rim uh but we we fought gave ourselves a chance and they they

Got the W so you take your hat off to them Mike more on Minnesota’s defense I think this is the ninth game that they’ve held a team under 100 point points um when you’re looking at a team like that that’s doing some of the things that you’re trying to get this

Team to do how much do you borrow or are you inspired or do you try and take from what the D wolves are doing and and apply it or try to apply it to your group it’s I me they have different they got different personnel with us you know

They got a center at 72 when was you know defensive player of the year I know once maybe twice before so he’s a high level guy on that end of the floor you you know you you got some length and you got some athleticism you’re talking

About playing Nas Reed at your four and he’s shooting 40% from the three Kyle Anderson at 69 Jen McDaniel can guard one through four and some fives at 69 610 uh when you have that length and athleticism um you can do a lot of things differently you know I mean when

I was coaching in San Antonio uh and we had Tim Duncan and David Robinson back there uh we we even we we started started Danny fair at the small for and we told Danny just to press up press up because we wanted their wings to drive

By us we get two guys 71 and 72 protecting the rim so there are a lot of things that you can do different with with the type of length that they have so does some of it translate some of it does but we have different Personnel

Than than them and so we have to play a certain way based on our Personnel but uh Finch does a uh a f fantastic job with that group and I me Tim connley he he doesn’t get enough credit but he’s done a fantastic job putting that team together coach how um

How much did you guys miss Malik being out there today uh you know we missed them a lot Malik generates a lot of offense for us and I thought uh I thought in the first half you know we struggled a little bit offensively because our looks weren’t as easy cuz

Malik’s a guy that can go go get it off the dribble he’s going to draw a lot of attention especially in the pick and roll uh in transition um and then you know he’s another highle shooter to have out on the floor so uh missing him definitely

Uh was a factor because of his ability to make the game easier for his teammates Mike aside from the outcome did this matchup feel any different than the one you had a few weeks ago in up in their place uh you know again I the young kids

Jaden McDaniels he’s a he’s a special defender in my opinion um he he does a lot of things that don’t show up on the stat sheet uh especially on the defens end of the floor and he didn’t play in that game you know and I thought uh you

Know obviously he scored 20 points on a to 16 from the floor which is which is too many to to to for him to score uh especially when they have a guy like Anthony Edwards on the floor but having said that he he defensively his impact

Is a lot lot higher than what it may show in the stat sheet or even in some analytics you know and and that’s probably the biggest difference he didn’t play up there and and he plays here we had Malik up there and we don’t have Malik here and you know so it’s a

It’s a little bit different ball game Mike you you guys were a lot closer in this game than you have been in the other back-to-backs do you feel like they’re starting to either figure out how to manage their energy or they’re getting in better shape or do you think

That’s just the team you’re playing look you Minnesota’s 21 and five or whatever they are for a reason they’re a really really good ball club and uh I I thought our guys did try to bring it tonight um and you know the the areas that we can

Control I thought just again from the it test coaching the game I thought we tried to control him I thought our communication was pretty good uh I thought our physicality at times is good now the one area with the physicality uh one area in in the one thing with

Physicality we could have done better is when Rudy rolled to the hole in the pick and roll situations we could have been there sooner we could have hit him sooner not allow him to catch and go for the steel or not even go for the steel

Just allow him to catch and dunk it so we could have gotten to him earlier on his roles earlier in the game uh but besides that I thought uh our physicality was was at an okay level and then for the most part I thought our multiple efforts were good so um I

Thought the controllables we did a decent job of and previous backto backs uh you know I know especially against the Clippers I didn’t think we did a good job in that area so you know it’s against a long season we have plenty of backto backs left uh I know we’re not

Going to go 0 and 15 on them uh but tonight uh definitely for us especially based on us being 0 and3 in these situations it was a decent job Mike you’ve talked about Minnesota kind of how they’re built and their size and their length for for quite a while

Um do you is that part of the is that part of the conversation like internally with you and Monty and West when you look at like the future and roster building and and things that that you guys might need going forward uh you know you always look for length you know

But um for us right now no we’re not talking about that it’s I mean it’s just it’s it’s obvious you look at every everybody looks especially at the current NBA champions you know when I was in Golden State everybody wanted to play fast and shoot a lot of Threes you

Know you wanted the mimic even when we were in San Antonio the way we played offensively people tried to mimic that you look at the current NBA champions the current NBA champions I mean they’re they’re their point guard 65 their two guards 66 and and kcp and then they

Probably go 610 610 71 72 it’s a long team uh you look at the the West is tough and you look at the West right now and they’re 72 7 feet you know 610 and and so what you do is you’re like okay well maybe there’s something to it uh

But you know you have to T take and build your team the best way that you can based on how you play and uh and the pieces that are around it so you know for us to sit here and say yeah if we can get everybody wi

Besid and that talented yeah you know maybe we’ll look at it but you know it’s not anything that you just consciously go bring a seven footer in here or a 611 guy in here just to be bigger it have they have to fit they have to be able to

Play they have to be able play the way you want to and so it’s it’s a long process to try to get there but you know the reality of it is current NBA champions are big and and these guys are big and so there has to be something to

That yeah coach on that topic when you are undersized what do you feel like you need to emphasize to to compensate for that uh for us playing fast we we we got to play fast for sure and and then you you know the physicality of the game we

We have to protect that paint you know and like I said we gave up 44 points in the paint in the first half and we didn’t do a good job protecting the paint that was you know there were some Laps on on our on our on our side that we could

Have done better which we did during the second half and that’s why we had a chance at the end of the game because we were we were doing a better job protecting the paint you know and and again they’re going to get more three-point attempts because we’re

Protecting the paint and you got to hope they miss some but most of them you got to try to fly around which I thought we did we even contested did a nice job contesting late on some of those things so playing fast and protecting the paint are are probably the two biggest things

With one being on each side of the ball that you emphasize back to back tonight domas just what was your thoughts in terms of Minnesota physicality wise how they played against you guys and the length that they provided that that unfortunately wasn’t enough for you guys tonight yeah you know they’re a number

One in defense um in the NBA and um they’re a really good team that’s why they’re they’re number one in the west and uh I I thought we did a really good job fighting throughout the whole game we just didn’t make wide open shots early on and mostly throughout the game

And domas I think Minnesota had 44 points of the paint in that first quarter and you guys cleaned it up in that second half what did you see as the difference between the two uh you know we were really hugged up on U on their perimeter players you know and um they

Didn’t shoot that well from the three-point line and Coach told us to like back off and help him and protect the paint you know and I feel like we uh we came out and we did that in the second half more but you know they already built that lead and uh we tried

To craw back but we just weren’t making our open shots how big did you feel Rudy was early on for them um yeah it’s tough you know we’re going through our coverages but um we weren’t we weren’t connected as a team there in in that first half you know and um leaving wide

Open dunks for a player um play after play um doesn’t help and then when you guys kind of got things going there in the fourth what did you see that was just working for you um their defense had you kind of figured out for a good

Portion of the game did you kind of was there something that slipped on your end that kind of made it easier I feel like you know uh we found some grit we we we found some energy you know we got stops you know we turned them over and we went

Out and ran and um we started making shots the shots that we usually make and you know that totally flipped the game you know and then at the end we just didn’t have enough to finish it off yeah I know it’s not an excuse but just how much does it hurt not having

Malik there to kind of change the sort of the energy with that second unit oh yeah you know he’s he’s a big part you know he leads he leads the second unit and everything and um not having him his energy his Vibes on the court you know

Uh that just brings brings life to us you know um uh you know he’s uh in that second unit he’s the one uh leading leading the charge you know so missing him obviously is big and you guys are 4-0 on the first night of back Tob backs

0 and four on the second night how how do you clean that up and tonight’s effort clearly was better than some of the other games you guys have had you know we just got to come out and not look for excuses just go out there and

Uh fight you know I feel like today we we we did that you know we missed wide open shots early on got good looks got what we wanted and the fact that we came back and fought till the end um is a big plus for us you know hopefully in the

Future we can finish these games off doas you guys have had um some matchups where where size and length has been you know kind of problematic for you how how do you deal with that um you know from this point forward how how can you guys kind of combat some of those

Disadvantages you know tonight I don’t think it was such a problem you know we got the shots we wanted uh we converted when when when we needed to you know at the end there we kind of went at them on on on sides and picked on certain matchups but um overall you

Know I feel like we didn’t we we played better defense than than than we have these last couple games and then uh we just couldn’t put the ball in the basket as much as we usually do domas in that third quarter what was the zone you guys

Were playing was it a 3-2 was it um it’s the the usual Zone we do with the 23 you know um um we try to mix it up a little you know um like you said they they attacked the the paint in the first half more than we wanted you’ve had this team

Twice now obviously they’re off to one of the best records in the league um how I don’t know if surprising is the right word but what do you just make of their start and uh I guess is it surprising at all to see them off to such a no you

Know on paper they have a great they have a great roster you know um they’re playing together this year they’re they’re connected you know um defense wins game you know and they’re the number one defense in the in the NBA so um they’re playing together you know Anthony Edwards leading the charge and

Um it’s showing thanks everyone thank you guys thank you Merry Christmas guys thank you thank you thank you thank you

De’Aaron Fox, Coach Brown and Domantas Sabonis speak to the media following a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on December 23, 2023 in Golden 1 Center.

0:00 – 2:01 De’Aaron Fox
2:02 – 13:17 Coach Brown
13:18 – 17:05 Domantas Sabonis

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