Jacque Vaughn | Post-Game Press Conference | Detroit Pistons | 12.23.2023

Jacque Vaughn | Post-Game Press Conference | Detroit Pistons | 12.23.2023

Well well jock obviously you guys were were focused on yourselves not so much what was going on with the Pistons but with this five game lose for genon what was important for you guys to just maintain the Good Start you had to start this game yeah you know the the the

Schedule presents as is and so uh we lost too many games in a row and so for us uh tonight was all about getting a win and and uh getting back to you know doing the right things on the floor to to earn a win muel kind of set a tone

Early with I think 13 points in the first quarter obviously we’ve we’ve talked a lot about his struggles but just how good was it for him to kind of be as efficient as he usually is with his shot today yeah good to see the basketball go in and uh you know it’s a

Matter of time going through the stretch of the Season tough stretch for us uh but you got a chance to see the ball go in which was great and I thought uh the flow of the game was really good the way uh we were able to get organized early

Get the shots that we wanted probably too many mides going into halftime I think we corrected that a little bit EV second half hey coach over over here yes uh Team see you guys were able to withstand a couple runs from Detroit uh they cut it to two in the third nine in

The fourth quarter how happy were you for them to able to fight back especially on the second game of a back to back yeah it’s been interesting for our group to be able to uh be in different situations throughout the course of the Year another test for us

To see if we’re going to keep Our poise and composure uh overall we did and that was both units both units got a little piece of that uh that effort as well so uh when we’re healthy able to uh depend on more bodies to to do good things for

I think overall we won majority of the categories tonight uh whether it was the rebounding uh whether it was the turnover battle uh we might have lost a foul battle uh but that piece of hopefully we correct when we see him in a couple days and I was just about to

Ask about the foul issues do you think that was a little bit of fatigue going in there or just out of positioning from the players a bit well it’s interesting you know uh uh Detroit has multiple guys who can get to the paint and drive the basketball they are very physical and

Aggressive team and so uh I think they would bring in the fight to us in those situations and uh you know when you’re out of position sometimes you you reach and you overreact and you put yourself in a position to foul you’ve probably experienced some extended L losing streaks during your

Coaching career nothing like what Detroit’s going through right now but can you just speak a little bit about what that’s like in a locker room when you have you know a streak and losses piling up like that like what it takes to be able to play through that yeah for

Us uh um I’ll just reflect on you know our losing streak right now and uh I think you appreciate the now and you understand uh where you’re at are you getting better and so that was my biggest thing is so we didn’t win verse Denver but the way we played I thought

We played with purpose and uh on both ends of the floor um I didn’t feel that way vers the Jazz and so along the streak you’re asking and you’re question your group and you’re question yourself are you given everything you have to put yourself in a position to win some

Nights we were able to say yes uh but on the nights that we were to say no we paid for it and so I think you try to you know get the group to understand what it takes to win how hard it takes to win in this league and the sacrifice

That you got to make on a nightly basis with Dennis I think you guys now are three and one in games that he’s played in since he came back from the first injury I guess um or three and one in the last four games he’s played and I

Guess his energy you guys talk about what it means for you guys what does it do just on the court seeing guys respond to him and even maybe Dorian just what they bring it’s interesting I think those two uh really feed off each other they have a previous relationship able

To push each other which is able to drive us defensively so it’s it’s definitely um a piece that we were missing when he was gone there’s a physicality that he plays with there’s a edge that he plays with that he gives to the rest of the group so the more he can

Stay healthy the better we are and then you look at the minutes since he’s played I don’t have to extend Spencer we were playing Watt out of position and so those things have a trick or down effect when he doesn’t play Hey jock uh last night you told me

You were going to pray that you had the same group ready yes and you did answered do you feel that that contributed to the win considering I’m pretty sure it was similar rotations and even that bench unit didn’t play great in the first half but then they really

Kind of put the game away in the end of that third quarter without a doubt Lucas uh it it is you I’ll say it’s the way our team is built to uh have depth and versatility and when we’re missing that depth and versatility it uh it puts a

Strain on the group and uh tonight minutes cross the board you look at our minutes across the board in both of those two games pretty good uh which I think gave us a chance on the backtack with the physical team that we played yesterday to have enough juice I thought

We had enough juice tonight uh and then even to be able to uh spread the minutes around um both units like you said it’s huge for us to be healthy so I’mma keep praying Jack I don’t want to look too far ahead but when you look at this back

To back where you had Denver and Detroit the next two now is Detroit and Milwaukee yeah you looking too far ahead for me Megan I am looking too far but however what can you take from this back toback since you have a back toback right in the next couple of days yeah

It’s huge for our group to uh be in a position to take care of the bodies and it’s um I think as an organization we try to put our guys in a position where they’re healthy and they have the ability to uh have their bodies in a position to

Perform and so some days it’s going to be off days some days it’s going to be recovery days some days it’s going to be uh no shoot around with the idea of you doing your job to be ready to play back toback a heart uh and I think

There’s a focus level that goes into it when you wake up that next morning of convincing yourself that you got to play and you got to play as well as you did or better the night before uh I think we had that going into today’s game I

Thought our intent our purpose uh at the beginning of the game was in the right place our attention to detail that shoot around so those things matter really on the on the back toback when you don’t have the margin of eror uh when you’re playing every other day you got

It happy holidays guys am I out of here all right

Jacque Vaughn spoke to the media following the Nets vs. Pistons on December 23, 2023