“It’s Never Going To Be An Easy One.” | Chris Finch Postgame Sound | 04.02.24

“It’s Never Going To Be An Easy One.” | Chris Finch Postgame Sound | 04.02.24

Chris you said you want your team playing better basketball at home um a slower start but they finish it off how did you assess it that was you know tough team um they really make you work with all their switching and all kind of their all their small ball lineups and

Stuff like that so um took us a while find a rhythm um you know certainly would like to get off to better starts that would be a priority but um you know we had some units out there that really were moving the ball and playing with pace

And being decisive and that’s what we have to do when we face that much switching so um but all in all you know we did a great job of guarding the three-point line till the end um you know could have done a little bit better job on 50-50 balls thought they beat us

To those um but it’s you know it’s a a good team playing uh really good basketball right now and um you know super motivated by what what their opportunity is down the stretch so uh was never going to easy one so proud sorry sorry uh Nas Reed

Continues to kind of star in any role that you give him off the bench starting what did you see from him tonight I mean it was huge you know uh scoring in the second quarter um you know sparked our run kind of turned the game around for us offensively um hit

The big three late definitely you know played an awesome game Chris J Max a plus 17 in his 18 minutes I mean I know we’ve talked a little bit about but just what do you see in night in and night out from him to shift the game in such a dramatic way

Yeah you know JM is uh gets a lot of 50-50 balls and that’s huge for us as we just talked about they you know they beat us to most of them tonight um so that’s one he creates Pace gets off it early um just you know we just play with

A different Tempo when he’s on the floor and his shot making as we’ talked about for a couple weeks now has super high level so defense defensively we don’t feel you know even if we switch we feel like he going to battle his way through

Anything that we ask him to do um it’s toughness so in the past I think switch heavy line defenses have been hard for you guys to handle at times does having what do you put jmck and Kyle and Mike out there together I mean is that

Collective IQ just what you need to sort through that yeah for sure um just the passing the playmaking U the willingness to move it move off of it um cut you know share the floor I think nille does a good job in those lineups too because he plays quick with quick decisions gets

Downhill a lot of times he’s attacking a close out after a switch so Chris even when uh Kyle Anderson was struggling earlier in the season you never wavered in your your confidence in him and whatever whatever the role might be yeah um how have you seen that sort of payoff

Here over the LA I mean tonight but obviously over the last month or so yeah I mean yeah I try to keep confidence in all of our players um but but more importantly you know he was our most important player last year in many ways

You know he he he he saved our season he did anything we asked him to do um so we know we had it in him um you know he’s played mostly at the three this year um which has been an adjustment you know for many reasons I mean he’s a he’s a

Basketball player so he can play all over the floor but you know I think the rhythm of the game for him was slightly different at times um that certainly had you know something to do with it um but uh you know you know I think since trade

Deadline breathe the S relief uh that he wasn’t going anywhere and and and thankfully was he hadn’t and never never had any plans to so but it seemly at that point in time everything’s just been better and better for him so looks like Kyle of old when has JM shooting

Opened up for you just in terms of lineup possibilities it seems like you can throw pretty much any group out there right now yeah for sure I mean uh you know playing alongside Kyle um you play them long you play them out there with Rudy you can play them with

Any anybody really um like combination that we you often start the fourth with has been Dynamic um in lots of different ways and jmx shooting is you know really really bolstered it so and can’t seem to hit a jumper right now Carl obviously out and yet you know

The offense really didn’t have many issues against one of the better defenses is that kind of the whole idea behind you know moving the ball making quick decisions and good offense will follow no matter who’s out there yeah I think that I mean to me that’s the idea

Of the game of basketball on the offensive end you know just kind of share it move it find the open guy particularly when you know you’re playing switch heavy defenses because the number one intent is for them to just bait in to slow uh ISO basketball

And load up into paint um and you know we got we didn’t fall for that after the first quarter I thought we did a good job of you know playing quicker um but yeah no doubt about it you know that’s kind of to me the essence of the game

Does it surprise you the way uh some of your opponents are playing you the way they attack you I mean you seem to be going after Edwards a little bit you mean uh defensively yes yeah um a little bit I mean doesn’t surprise me I mean um you know I think

Uh you know we’re we don’t feel like vulnerable with it so um you know today they I thought they they tried to attack Rudy a lot you know um we saw that the other day I can’t remember who it was was really coming coming downhill on

Rudy um you know our guys are ready for the challenge with with ant and and you know three games now without without a three as he’s trying to work through this is there anything you do offensively to maybe try to lighten his load a little

Bit and when it comes to there what you are asking if in the floor um I mean not really I think opposite I mean I was trying trying to a lot of things to get him going at one point coming out of the second half trying to feed him on some

Isos um you know try to maybe find him want some misdirection uh where he didn’t have to play against the switches but uh you know this happens it’s a long season he’s he’s going to have to keep working you know I thought he took good shots for the most part

Like you know I think maybe a little contested on some of his threes but I like the fact that he you know he he still was you know able wanting to take him um but he’s just got to pick up he has to pick up his decision making he’s got

To go back to being quicker a little bit more in transition a little bit quicker off the catch um and keep trusting the catch and shoot overall this team’s ability to maybe adjust within games like let’s say from the first quarter where you struggled offensively to the

Rest of the night or different nights defensively how important is that adaptability within gamees been to your success I think it’s been huge you know um and it’s a little bit of a it’s kind of a a Remnant if you will of like having to cover so many different types

Of game plans like coming into a game you know just getting used to employing different guys in different ways so when we make these switches in the middle of the game guys are pretty comfortable because we’ve done a lot of these things before um you know offensively uh you

Know they right away recognize that they needed to move and move the ball more tonight um and then you know I thought we did a good job of take taking advantage of size when it was there you know at the baskets when you are going up and down

And running Hut and cold how do you balance out making lineup tweaks that seem to be logical counters versus just reliability for the people who know that their rotation is there yeah I mean we’ve kind of fallen into a little bit of a rotation right now um um and it’s

Been working for us so we kind of keep running it back somewhat um but you know I think uh there was moment tonight where I felt like maybe shuffling it up but I didn’t um but yeah I mean it’s again I think one of the

Ways that as a coach we can impact the game is by the substitutions that we make so I always you know I never want to fall into like a strict rotation I want to always and other guys I think are know that and are comfortable with

That you know a lot of players like to always know when they’re playing um our guys have a rough idea but you know I still like to go whichever way we want to Chris can you tell us about the shoes you wore tonight yeah so uh Autism

Awareness Week here um a lot of coaches around the league are are in support um of the uh Autism Awareness um efforts that are being put out by uh the league and the coaches association in particular um and these shoes will be worn for several games this week and

Then uh autographed and auctioned off for um for the benefit of the charity so thanks thank you guys

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