Suns/Kings Postgame, Kevin Durant, Grayson Allen, Coach Vogel Reactions | Jan 16, 2024

Suns/Kings Postgame, Kevin Durant, Grayson Allen, Coach Vogel Reactions | Jan 16, 2024

Um we won a fourth quarter finally it uh took us being down 20 whatever it was but we won a fourth quarter those was our our Focus was uh what we’ve been talking about was closing out games wi in fourth quarters usually it’s us being up 10:15

And letting a team come back so we got on the other side of it tonight on fourth quarter uh hopefully we won’t let ourselves get that far down tonight but it’s good close out curious just with the the threes again you tied career TI franch maybe just take me through what

Was flowing for you early you got it going early uh yeah um a lot of a lot of good offense a lot of good ball movement um a lot of them were off of somebody else collapsing the defense kicking out um nerk made a lot of good passes being

That roller um when they went want to trap the ball and we can get it to nerk really quick on that half roll and let him be a decision maker to finish at The Rim hit a cutter hit someone in the corner for three he did a great job of that tonight

Um so a lot of it was uh a lot of them were assisted the only thing I have was I’m curious how do you get over the fact that you guys played so bad do uh we know that you can come back from being down 20 it’s happened to us a

Couple times we’ve given up leads so it’s not impossible um we have the ability offensively to put up a lot of points in a hurry and uh that ability when you’re down 20 like you’re always in the game um so for us the fourth quarter was about getting some good stops um we

Had a lot of good deflections Kev had a big block at The Rim Rim um some good rebounds and allowed us to get out and run and spread the floor out with five Shooters and hit threes and make that comeback what’s your mentality when coach puts a small unit like that what

Has to kind of change as far as your approach probably mostly defensively out there uh defensively we have to be a little bit more active if they have a big who’s a postup threat um a lot of times Kev does a really good job of guarding fives in the post he’s

Able to push their catch out and um use his length to disrupt them um sabonis we switching everything so we had to uh be ready to collapse down on guards or um front him in the post to not let him get a catch and um we were switching Kev out

And Kev guarding Darren fox out at the top of the key Malik Monk and he did a great job of keeping them in front forcing them in a tough shot so um I think his versatility defensively makes that small lineup extremely tough to attack you guys were kind of at a

Three-point disadvantage for most of the night but closing with that small lineup five Shooters like you said how did you like the flow that you guys had offensively and being able toate some of those uh I I like how fast we played with that group I like that we got up a

Lot more threes um EG hit a lot of big ones in the fourth um but just the the speed of play with that group and um it was great great at getting open looks and spreading the quarter out what’s your point about winning a fourth quarter

Finally I know there’s this is one of 82 but how big can a game like this be for Building your guys’ confidence in that area uh yeah I mean it’s huge um you know especially there’s going to be times during the season where you get

Down 101 15 like you can’t help it A team goes on a run but we we now we know what we can do we can put up points in a hurry and uh we proved it tonight being able to come back like that and so never mentally out of a

Game that shootout you had with c um sry his name right but it’s the second quarter you seem like you guys had aoout was it something where you they were basically giving you the ball for the hot hand or was there something opening up for you to even though you got

Balance you know most 17 yeah no I mean we weren’t running anything specifically for me it was just in the flow of our offense spaced out um guys were making the extra pass uh drawing extra Defenders and I was on the receiving end of it can you give us a

Sense of just what the conversation was like about staying with it and not holding up yeah um a lot of it was us bringing some energy on the bench uh still talking through the game Talking Through It defensively um offensively we went through some lows but we knew that we

Were kind of figuring out where we could attack them um and then it was a lot about energy um the energy at the building was bad at points tonight uh like the crowd was booing which I I wish they would I wish they would we would work together

With the crowd like I understand we weren’t playing well they paid for their tickets they can come out and cheer however they want to but man when we’re down like we want to be a great homecourt team and we have such a great crowd when it was so loud tonight like I

Wish they would cheer us on and help give us some energy in those times too um but in the fourth quarter when we went on that run the crowd was incredible it was the loudest I had heard it all season um and that kind of energy like that just when you have that

Kind of energy from the crowd you’re getting stops you’re running up and down the court hitting threes like it’s just flowing you have so much momentum uh everything is clicking it’s it’s like a a great spot to be in as a team like you feel like you’re doing everything

Perfect you feel like everything’s going to go right and part of that momentum that feeling from the crowd that feeling of being on that run is why we made all those shots cuz we’re getting good looks but we made all of them because of the energy of the building the energy of the

Game um so that’s one of the things like this one of the things I just wish is that we would us and the crowd would work together a little bit more you one more thing about the 50/50 balls can you talk about how important that was in that fourth quarter run

Besides just you got stick to back into yeah we limited them to one shot we limited them to one tough shot um like Kev getting some deflections on the board uh there was there was one play in particular where they they were pushing the pace the whole game and

Getting those quick threes up they had tried to have a skip to the corner and I looked over I thought it was open and books sprinting back and deflecting the ball out of bounds and flying into the crowd um like our energy defensively to limit those good looks force them to

Play in the half court force them to take tougher shots and then limit it to one shot even with the smaller lineup was was huge yeah thank you Kevin how the H did y win this game I have no clue I usually know how the game is

Flowing but I felt like this was a blur I felt like I looked up we was down six and I look up again as a tie game you know so everything happened so fast I guess we all were in the zone and just locked in I think once we went small and was

Able to switch all the actions their team that likes to you know play a free flowing movement offense so when you could disrupt that you know they turn into a a whole different team so we pressur sabonis a little bit more um we switched some of the screens and made

Them play one-on-one and made them you know turn into a they’re not a selfish team but when you switch and everything that just makees you play ISO game you know so um I think we did a good job of forcing them into that but it’s still

Incredible man I I really give a lot of credit to that third that end of the third uh unit who just kind of changed momentum for us and got us within like 14 or 12 or something like that I think with book and uh uh Mesi and I forget

Who else was in Atlanta but I think that one is what kind of helped turn the game for us even though we still got down 17 and fourth I feel like they we seen something with that group that’ll help us you know for the rest of the game and

I think that was that momentum kind of led us into the fourth I’m curious when you look at just you know you got did go small sabonis and coaches talked about your defense the last three to four games uh how much were you taking on

That you not let him yeah I mean I just try to take on the challenge he’s All-Star level player and I know it’s going to have to take multiple efforts just to stop him and he’s a physical dude and uh so I just try to play physical with him make his his catches

Tough push out his catches not let him like he likes to just stand at the three-point line and survey and get triple double so I tried to make him turn his back a little bit and pressure him and put my hands in the passing Lane

And just disrupt him just a tiny bit so I still crazy that we finished we end up finishing that game the way we did and we’ve been the worst fourth quarter team and feel like the history of the game and tonight we come back with this crazy

How how life works you guys finished I think on a 32 to8 run um when you’re going through that run or you even okay no it just happened so fast you know and it stop after stop and run out after run out I think we was able to

Get deflections blocks and you know and and and not take the ball out the rim and we got easy points in the other end they did a good job of pressuring us on the defensive side of the ball throughout the whole game and planning and we because we were playing against a

Set defense all night so we was able to get some stops get out and run and just put more pressure on them you know as the lead was dwindling their defense was a little looser they turned the ball over a little bit more so when they up

15 or 20 that you know everybody can play free and play Perfect in that scenario so we just wanted to put some pressure on them and see what happen and coach kept telling us that this the modern NBA you can get back into the game with threes and the stops and

That’s what happened Kevin your point on it being a blur the kings called a time out of 39 left and then they there was no break in the action until the very end when they drew up the bunk play that’s what you want as a player in that

Situation you just want to keep going yeah yeah most definitely um you know like especially when you got momentum like that you know you can you can play three or four minute stretch without them making too many subs or adjustments and you know and and we kind

Of blissed them there and the fourth um for that for those minutes and and we was able to get the lead and you know they were super aggressive end up fouling us late you know because they might have been a little frustrated so if we pressure teams and we put and and

We don’t get down early you know we’ll see who a team really about it’s easy to be up 20 and 15 10 the whole game and everybody playing well and excited and clapping on their bench you know so I think we got to start the games off even

Better than what we did and and and I think our force would be better we’ve heard a lot of the guys talk about your defense and the variety of different players you’ve been able to match up with was there something that made you want to kind of offer yourself up in

That way and I mean I offer I offered myself up this summer when we were having conversations about how we wanted to play and I told Coach I told um James Josh like my job is to uh be a lock down Defender you know obviously I’m not going to be perfect

Every night but to go out there and trust that I can go out there and make life tough for the other the opposing players I think that’s a part of my job description I mean I mean well that’s a fine um I mean I’m long athletic I can move I’m

Experienced uh why shouldn’t I be held accountable to play Topline defense against anybody in the league you know like I said I’m not saying I’m stopping everybody but I think I could make life tough for for any player in the league uh you know and and it’s some great

Players out here but I feel like I can just play hard and use my length and my attributes to make life tough and I want those assignments so coaches been trusting me coaching staff been trusting me even more I know I’m getting older and I think that’s probably why um we

Didn’t see this a little earlier in the season but um just about showing and proving I prove to the coaching staff that I can do it then they’ll trust me more and more I get more opportunities like that what fuels that drive to be a good defend what what fuels

Fuels I mean my calling my purpose of being a human being is to be the greatest basketball player I can be I mean that’s that’s that’s that’s the reason why I’m alive at this point you know so I got to I got to lock in on every aspect of the game and become

Great at it and I’m still working I don’t mean to get too hypers specific but in your experience over the years in the league how do you take work like this with the momentum everything the last five minutes and channel it the rest of the way to make positive changes

Going forward uh it’s just we watch film um I’m always about putting good stuff on film you know um we put some bad some good and bad stuff on film tonight that we can learn from so try to botle this up and try to emulate that as much as

Possible as we move forward and just it’s about making it a consist thing for us and I think that transfer from watching film to practice to the games um you can see it’s starting to pay off just a tiny bit for us we got a

Long ways to go and I feel like we uh you know we in a solid position Kevin you’ve been in situations where you you know struggled early and then found it you know when it mattered how much of that is just trust in the work that you

Put in that it’ll it’ll it it’ll come through yeah that’s all it is um like you said I’ve been I’ve been in so many different games and um you know started off you know so many different ways and was able to you know missing every shot and then come back

Around and make every shot you know so I’ve been a part of games like that so I understand what it’s like to be in a funk and then figure it out you know so U and my teammates too they do such a great job of just always looking for me

And seeing when I’m not you know they see when I’m not when I’m struggling to shoot the ball or when I don’t touch the ball for a little bit and they look for me and without my teammates you know it’d be hard for me to get out of stuff

Like that about Grayson and Eric before just just keep shooting keep shooting what was it like to see Grayson hit the nine threes and then Eric come in and deliver like you did yeah I mean we need them to continue to keep you know tossing them up there and shooting them

Confidence did Grayson get a record again oh he tied it he’s been he’s he’s he’s come here to Phoenix and showed everybody in the basketball World um the different parts of his game we all looked at him as just a 3 and D guy

But he can pretty much do it all on the offensive side of the ball maybe not post up maybe he need to come to my Academy this summer to post up but he can pretty much do a lot of he can do a lot of things on the court and I’m glad

He’s expanding his game and shooting the ball with confidence and we need everybody to do that 373s to that 40 I mean we’ve been shooting 26 27 threes before you know so we starting to get up there with the other team and matching them at the three-point line and you

Know um that’s been helping the stand game you spoke on it this morning with Grayson but not putting him in a box do you think there’s a lesson there that some team or just a lot of organizations across the league Miss on just in terms of limiting players what they do yeah I

Mean a lot of this stuff is situations a lot of times you got to sacrifice your full game to help maximize somebody else’s game and that’s what Grayson was doing in Milwaukee you know he had to be a you know space out shooter guy I mean

They got guys that can handle yanis and Drew and Chris Middleton and I think here uh we try to have a multiple ball handler attack and you know we want everybody to be at their best you know um so um but all his experiences throughout the league has helped him uh

Up to this point and all of that stuff mattered when it comes to him being a good player now so just keep building from there can you speak to how Scrappy he was in that final run in the fourth quarter with getting those 5050 balls to

Help you guys get out and run and get your positions to stick those threes and actually pull out the yeah I think once we kept the ball in the b in bodies in front of us we would we were able to make the plays when we chasing off of

Screens and you see the back of your your guys’s Jersey all the time it’s hard to to make those 50-50 plays or get get a deflection you know so we kept the ball in front uh we made them go through our chest if they wanted to do anything

And uh you know that’s what type you see you see what type of players um somebody is when you just you physical and you into them and you pressure them and I think we did a a solid job of pressure on there and that forth early on they

Were playing loose everybody was getting shots vinnikov was knocking down shots uh um he’s an incredible shooter but he felt like he made every shot Malik monk you know Keegan Murray I mean but once we start putting a little bit more pressure on them and and and and not

Letting them run around freely then I think that would played in our favor sense just the communication on the Ben lock room during the frustrating moments tonight how are you able to stay together and not pull up um I think the coaching staff made good adjustments we were we were

Definitely dead in the water we didn’t know they were scoring that will it was kind of hard to figure out you know how we going to get stops um and how we going to not play against a set defense uh I think coach made some good adjustments there with the lineups but

Also the the the scheme that we were playing and we was able to ex excel in that and get a win I know a lot of people say a win is a win but are you really do you feel comfortable you know about this win just just seeing how the

Outlook of the game was in general hell yeah hell yeah I mean it’s always about the process with me the end result is definitely cool but I care more about how we go about things and and um and like last game I didn’t like how we went

About things but we still won the game tonight it was one of those games where you definitely hate how you playing early on but you still don’t give up and was able to uh you know have some bounces fall our way to win the game so it’s a lesson in every game and

You know but but winning in this league is always fun I mean we I rather I rather learn from a win than learn from you know us losing you know so you we we we take some good things from this game and get better from it thanks togar how H win this

Game well we stayed in it we stayed in it fight mentally you know there’s a lot of moments where our guys um you know were struggling and frustrated and we were getting our bus kicks quite frankly you know credit the Kings they played a great basketball game tonight the team’s

Got a lot of Firepower and um you know you got to match it and we didn’t have our best offensive first three quarters could have played better there and could have guarded with more you know more fight more dis disposition early in the game but um you know we’ve seen

Firsthand that the modern NBA team’s never out of a game we’ve lost a few you know and um you know that was the sort of the messaging throughout the game is you we’re going to keep changing the game and and uh but we just got to stay

In the fight and uh you know I thought KD Brad and book were all vocal in in timeouts just saying on stay with it stay with it the next play type of mindset and um you know kept us engaged and uh you know then like I said the

Coach always has an opt opportunity to change the game with what’s happening in terms of why they got a lead so you know we looked at the small lineup um we’re going to go five three-point Shooters uh but J was making some some real quality

Energy plays so we kept him in there a little longer but finally got Eric in there and he hit some big threes and all those guys uh really stepped up you know so I’m proud of how our our guys stayed together and stayed in the fight curious you just mentioned obviously going small

And having five Shooters out there you feel like that was the biggest reason for the come back yes and then on top of that defensively though what do you feel like changed from the first three quarters because they were pretty much getting whatever they wanted yeah well

That’s part part of uh it’s not just five three-point Shooters but but five Smalls and you know you go through one through five red although KD did a great job uh in a lot of lot of possessions of of guard and sabonis and coverage and not switching not passing him off to

Other guys and he’s had four exceptional defensive performances for us uh in the last four games um starting with kawhai then Garden LeBron and then um you know throughout the game in Portland and then down a stretch asking to guard Simons and then tonight guard and sabonis you

Know what I mean so you know when he puts his mind to it you know he can really be a force on that side of the ball and uh he was a big part defensively he was a a big part of this win tonight mentioned the big three being

Vocal just being down as many as 22 how difficult can that be when it feels like you know some recent games might be repeating themselves to fight through that sort of thing you got to stay on the messaging for sure you got to Echo

It and you know you got to got to get after your guys a little bit and we did that you know made sure that they weren’t hanging their heads you know that um you know we got to be forward looking and how can we win the next few

Possessions and the way we can shoot the basketball the Firepower that we have we should believe that we’re never out of a game and uh our guys stayed in it not sure how much that fiveman unit has played at all this year is that something you had known you wanted to

Eventually try out and this just felt like the right time and is it something you think you could do more of since it worked yeah well it’s definitely something that we’ve talked about you know there’s a lot of talk about how many games the big three have played

Together but I don’t know that number is even less with all five of these guys cuz a lot of times the big three was in there either Grayson or Eric was out so we talked a lot about it in the preseason you know uh I remember back in

The I think it was the the Palm Springs game you know we were ready to go you know let’s let’s look at what five three-point Shooters looks like with KD at Center and I think Brad got hurt and book end up not playing that game and and we didn’t see those Five Guys

Healthy for a long time so you know it’s not something that uh you know I think is going to be a steady diet for us but it’s always a a move that we can make and line that we can go to when we need it third quarter you guys only were able

To cut it down to 10 but there were a few different fles from you guys to keep the game from getting out hand how big was that to keep it in a position the where you could ultimately come back yeah I mean you got to hang in there you

Know what I mean and it’s look it’s easy you see a lot of 40-point blowouts in this league you know the game gets to 18 20 22 um you lose focus that that could easily get up to 30 plus and um you know our guys again the message of next play

Next play like forget what just happened okay we’ll keep making moves with uh whatever adjustments we got to make and um but Mally you got to stay in the game and give yourselves a chance we’re asking you nearly every game at this point about the fourth quarter do you

Think this can be a turnaround or at least like a a sign for the team that they’re impr yeah definitely a positive sign we won a fourth quarter and and we you know we scored 35 points you know but every game’s every every game’s different you know so you know I don’t

Think next game is going to be about being down and throwing a you know a different lineup out there you know we got to execute with the guys that we have script it out sorry um maybe we check back in a month or two but are you

Have the belief that a win like this can change the course of a season I think it just keeps our momentum going you know I I thought we did some uh some good things on the Christmas Day game and a loss you know that I was encouraged about and um you

Know I felt like our team was going in the in the right direction with how we’re sharing the basketball and how we’re uh committing to the paint and um you know I think I don’t know if it’s since that point but I know we’ve won

Eight of our last 11 so we’re eight and three in the last 11 games and uh doing some really positive things and building confidence each game that goes by tonight you know being uh maybe one of the biggest of those games you know to to keep the confidence going so um

Encouraged with the direction we’re heading how has Grayson exceeded your expectations this year Well’s making nine threes every other game so I wasn’t expecting that uh in a lot of ways honestly you know he’s a even better shooter than we anticipated he’s better putting the ball on the floor and making

Plays and uh he’s he’s probably better defensively you know guarding top matchups you know and those three things have been invaluable for us it’s hard to believe for you that you were outlining this roster in like July August September and then he wasn’t on it because he’s just such an important guy

For you yeah I mean that’s the NBA you know your roster changes and um you know you lose some things you like you gain some things you you know you didn’t have and uh you know but when you know obviously when that trade was made and

We heard that he was in it we were all very excited about it but even with that he’s exceeded those expectations said after the last game that this was a step back for the defense but since this is a comeback win and everything regarding the Kings you guys lost to them twice

Before is this a step forward or is it still a step back defensively being that you got down as low as 22 three wins in a row all three moving in the in the right direction you know if you can play imperfectly and have Lessons Learned while you’re winning

That’s a great sign what did you learn from the defensive effort for the first half how to turn it around you showed what you can do defensively at the end yeah well I mean we we guarded them differently we had different lineups out there and different coverages in the in

The second half we have to do better with our you know our main rotation you know against that team um but they’re very difficult to guard and uh you know I think uh number one thing with with that is uh the transition urgency you know I mean they

Played with great pace and uh you know we weren’t getting back well enough coach when you guys I think ENT the game on a 32 to8 run at what point in that run were you starting to think okay we got a shot here to win this game I knew

When we cut it I mean we cut it I think we cut it to 10 or so in the third and um it ended up getting back to back plus to plus 20 uh when we we went from 20 to 10 in the third you know I knew we still

Had a chance and I knew we still had a lineup that we could throw out there that they would probably would keep Sab bonus on the floor and have make him guard five Elite Shooters you know so um knowing that we we were able to cut it

To cut it to 10 once already uh felt very confident that we you know we could at least make it a game obviously you know it’s still a long shot to come back from down 22 but um I knew we would have a chance with the starting five with the starting five committing

Uh just a total of 13 turnovers collectively however they still protected the ball a whole lot better in that fourth quarter what was the offensive adjustment including Kevin Durant also turnover yeah I mean keeping keeping things simple recognizing where they were bringing the double teams and how

We want to space out of it you know I thought our guy our guys are all willing passers you know when a double team comes and um you know that was I would say that’s in the third quarter and then in the fourth quarter you know just playing with the with the five

Three-point Shooters and that type of space you know it’s just a different attack nice

❗ Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEjOSbbaOfgnfRODEEMYlCw/join
✅ Sub And Like For More Content
🏪 FreeDawkins Merch Store – https://freedawkins-merch-store.creator-spring.com/
📌 Follow on Twitter – https://twitter.com/DawkinsMTA
📌 IG – https://www.instagram.com/dawkinsofficial/
✅ Subscribe To My SQUADawkins NBA Videos Channel – https://www.youtube.com/c/squadawkins

___________________________________________

DISCLAIMER – All clips property of the NBA. No copyright infringement is intended, all videos are edited to follow the “Free Use” guideline of YouTube.
______________________________________________________