Hornets vs Lakers: Coach Clifford Postgame Media Availability | 2/5/2024

Hornets vs Lakers: Coach Clifford Postgame Media Availability | 2/5/2024

What were some of the challenges that the Lakers were rting offensively for you guys in the first half against 74 at the break what was well they you know they crushed this in the paint uh it was you know individual defense um it was Cuts right they scored on a ton of cuts

And then it was their post ups and you know in the second half which I didn’t really want to do but it worked a lot better we were just super aggressive gambled more double teamed a lot more and uh it worked you know you don’t want to be double teaming those two guys

They’ve been doing it since they were rookies they’re great against it but it whatever brought he got our aggressiveness up and we guarded the ball better in the second half too we played a really good second half second half i’ see miles and it brand for about 75ish points tonight what you think

Their efforts there kind of spearing oh they were both terrific and you know like our again our defense um well we held them to 50 in the second half which is you know against that team that’s very good and we scored we scored 60 so I mean um yeah

Both ends and those guys were terrific we just talked about Brandon’s game it feels like each game he’s growing more comfortable calling sets for him lat in the game obviously still a rookie but what have you seen from him going from day one to now well I think

The other one no he’s playing great and the other one tonight remember now the last time he got in fou trouble in the first half he really struggled to get his body going in the second half and tonight he was great you could tell he learns and that’s not somebody talking

To him or you know who what did you say to him it’s not that he’s like he just how he is you know he figures stuff out um like they’re double teaming him you know and all the pick and roles now so he’s playing with a lot more activity

Off the ball to get Space off the ball and uh he just does things that you don’t teach you know um so but as much as any anything he’s got size uh and I think he’s he’s starting to show also people don’t realize he’s going to have

A real playmaking aspect to his game too as he gets older he can really pass um you know right now we need him to score and that’s what he’s doing in the final five minutes you’re young Stars Brandon and and Miles were trading shots in moments with two future Hall of Famers

On the other side and and the building had juice did that kind of conjure up memories of what it could be like well for sure I mean look I remember you know the you know the last time the playoff games we had here were the heat you know where this building was alive

And um I think like I’ve always said you know if we could get to be a playoff team consistently this would be one of the toughest buildings to play in um yeah I mean for sure I mean I I still go back to uh and I don’t think about game six

That much because that was one of the wor worst nights of my life but games three and four here where you know people still talk about the energy in the building the intensity of the fans um I was also my first year in the NBA these guys swept that was in the old

Building they swept Miami and uh I was with the Knicks then the fans were great then so the the fans here are great you know we just got to be able to again we have to build a team that can get there consistently and uh obviously those two guys played great

Tonight our defense was better um you know we just again you know we just have like the biggest problem in the last minutes where we had no timeouts and the reason we didn’t have timeouts in the second quarter the same thing is we take a couple bad shots we

Don’t run back on defense so you know and you know again I’ve been trying not to use them but then you’re down 28 and tonight by using them then they’re good and they gather themselves but but in the end it was the biggest part of the

Game CU if we had our normal timeouts right there it’s a totally totally different situation you know yesterday you talked about how you don’t really see a reason to throw in young players in meaningless games but in games like this with the competitiv oh it’s a great learning

Experience 100% I mean to this game tonight was totally different than the you know the game that we played last night to me I mean just different you know and uh and I mean Indiana is a terrific team too but there was just look they didn’t play Halbert in the whole fourth quarter

It was totally different so it’s that’s what I’m talking about is but the this is a game that you know we’re going back to back we’ll take tomorrow off but before we do anything with Toronto Wednesday this is film and you know that they can learn from so that’s why it’s

Important that you continue to try to win you know to me just my opinion and I would I would try find me a team you know people love to say the rebuilds right go back through the years and see how many times it’s really worked you

Know and it takes a long time and you got to get lucky and all that but I know one part that doesn’t work is if you take winning out of the equation because once you lose that it’s over it’s the biggest part of this the guys they have

To learn how to play to win you mentioned before how you think the team has good effort you have the right guys in the building can you just talk about that especially in the game like this where everyone’s trying to go and make the right play yeah well tonight we you

Know we scored better but our defense was better we just you know we had we you know I won’t tell you but one of the veteran guy more veteran guys was in the office today and we had a great talk and he gave me a couple but he just said he

Said you know it’s you always talk about the details and you can’t give away possessions and that’s our biggest problem yeah it is and you know nothing for nothing there’s no other level of basketball I mean I’m talking about younger like if if you look at the stats

That matter in our league to win it’s a league of execution you know like college basketball one of the biggest things most years is offensive rebounding points steals well those things are not usually even a big deal in our league they’re becoming more so now but for the

Most part it’s what you can do in the half court you know with the game on the line different now because we’re playing More by the numbers right the first 8 seconds but it’s still not because of the coaches at all because of the age and the IQ of the players because

They’re older you can’t mess things up so I mean I would just say this you know like do you know how many guys there are in our league that can average 15 or 16 and they’re no good their team never wins when they’re out there and because

They score 15 or 16 they stick around for five or six years and then people say wow you know look he must screw everything up because everywhere he goes when he’s on the F they lose it happens all the time and that’s why them learning at a young age that the

Coverage is the coverage the set is the set the aftertime out playay is the aftertime outplay knowing what a great shot is is everything in this league you know being able to play with both intensity and technique for 48 minutes is everything and that is what I want

This group to get out of this I want to win some games too I mean it’s sucks to lose okay and it sucks for them too but we we we’re going to work okay we’re going to prepare to win every night and my expectations of them and

They know this is that we’re in every game because we’re good enough to do that and then and then if we do that and we get better and we stop or we get better with the details you know like tonight again when we got down 21 it’s all mistakes it’s mistakes and they’re

Going to score anyway those two guys but you can’t give them layups after baskets and you can’t give them cuts when the ball’s in the pulse those are all mistakes ch

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