“I Believe In This Group.” | Nickeil Alexander-Walker WCF Game 2 Postgame Sound | 05.22.25

“I Believe In This Group.” | Nickeil Alexander-Walker WCF Game 2 Postgame Sound | 05.22.25

Nil, another one where third quarter they seem to pull away. Just what do you feel is happening coming out of the the break that’s allowing them to kind of get control of things? Sense of urgency. I think whatever adjustments they’re looking at in that first half, like when everyone goes back, I’m sure every team watches film, they say, “This is what we’re doing well. This is what we need to touch up on.” I think they have that sense of urgency to make those changes and they’re playing 12 minutes at a time and they’re playing all four quarters throughout this postseason and I would say throughout the season we have been able to wear teams down to where we put them away at times. This is a team and you can see by their record where you’re not going to put them away and you kind of got to play four rounds at a time. If it’s a knockout, it’s going to be a TKO. Um, and so I think that’s the main difference. Are the the three-point shooting struggles for the team as a whole? Is that more what they are doing defensively to make you guys uncomfortable? Is it just missing shots you normally make? What do you see there? These are open shots. They’re open shots. We got to make open shots and I have faith that we will. Whether that’s more repetition, I know we have workers on the team, so they’re going to work to making sure that they’re prepared. Last game, I made miss shots. So, for me, it was a focus on really owning in on my principles, my base, all the stuff that I I tell myself, good risk, and so forth. And so I think the main thing out of all of this and the big takeaway was that fourth quarter and we made shots. Yes. But I think because we played with pace though that’s the reason why Hill and that you know in the first game you guys did a really good job of running them off the three-point line and you know I believe it led to a season low and three-point attempts for them. Um and the same thing kind of in this game a little bit more, but um guys have, you know, held them to shoot, you know, below 50% from the three-point line in this series. Uh but it seems like, you know, their two-pointers is where they’re really starting to get, you know, going towards the basket. How do you, you know, kind of balance that? Um kind of fun into the rim, but it seems like, you know, they’re not missing any mid-ranges. How how do you kind of balance that? You know, finishing up possessions defensively, making sure that once we run them off the line, staying in the drive, passing over to the next guy, low man rotation being there, we had some fouls that had led to free throws or and ones because we weren’t there early. the job like it’s not going to well we won’t get stops if we’re playing defense 90%. Like if we’re not making that last rotation, if we don’t box out to get the rebound. Like I mentioned earlier, because they’re so disciplined in the small details, like we have to match that. I think in the fourth quarter, we matched that. We flew around. The rotations were there. We forced some shot clock violations. They missed the mid-range shots that they were making in that first half. And I think that just boils down to matching that intensity and and bringing another level like like they do in the third quarter. This is really the first game all postseason that Julius has struggled. What did you make of his night? And um you know what does it make you recognize like how consistent he has been uh prior to tonight? For sure. And I’m not bothered. I’m not going to bat an eye at it. I know Julius. I know he’s going to come in and work. I know that as a competitor, his blood’s boiling and he’s going to come back the next game ready to go. We’re going to be at home. We’re going to have the comfort of sleeping in our own beds and having an opportunity to play in front of our home crowd, have them behind us, and just another chance to compete. I’m not worried about Julius. I know that he’s a great player, and I know right now he’s telling himself he’s going to be ready for the next game. Nil, you say you were talking about playing with pace. One of the ways you were doing that is taking the ball and just going right to the cup as much as you could. and other players were kind of doing that too. Is that one of the things either getting post ups early down in the paint or either, you know, just kind of avoiding that swing swing while you’re surveying the defense in the first five or six seconds of the half court defense? I mean, offense, is that what you need to do is put the pace into getting to the paint and then kicking to the corners? I think so. I think the main theme kind of just leans back to like matching that intensity. They’re a very aggressive team on both ends of the floor. They play very hard and so we can’t rely on just our talent to get us to what we need to in this series. We got to put pace into the game in fourth quarter. I think that’s when we felt more life and you can kind of even hear it in the building. There’s parts in that second quarter as well when we made that run. Putting pace into the game for us and being aggressive with the talent that we have, it helps us now. It opens up so much for an it opens up so much for Julius, Nas, Dante. Um Mike was making shots behind screens. Rudy puts pressure on the rim as a roller draws guys in. But just playing with pace and bringing life and energy. It’s hard to do anything slow. It’s It’s easier to guard. You got to get them moving, get them flying around, put them in rotations. Are the Are these third quarter runs, the last two games, are they happening so fast that you almost don’t realize, you know, it’s it’s a six-point game, it’s an eight-point game, and before you even have a chance to make an adjustment, all of a sudden it’s, you know, 1719. Is it just happening that it’s so fast you almost don’t have a chance to make that adjustment? I would say that it doesn’t feel like it’s happening fast because if you look at it, there’s like 30 seconds left. We’re down three to take it to half with a chance to tie or cut it to one. We maybe turn it over and missed. Next thing you know, we’re down eight. So, those are the small things that when you look back at it and you say like, “Oh, the run’s happening fast and they’re up 17.” is because we had a chance to be down three, down one. They maybe don’t score. Maybe we get, if it was a two for one at the time, maybe we do score twice and they don’t. And now you’re looking at us having a lead. So when they do have those third quarter runs, it’s not 8 to 17, it’s 3 to nine, it’s tie game to seven. And those things are now within reach where when you fight back and you give yourself life and you score, stop, score, you’re down four, you’re down two, it’s a one possession game. Now you’re putting more pressure on them and they can feel that. But when you get to 17 and it’s an 11 point game, they still kind of don’t have that that pressure on them. And so I think it’s just about closing quarters better and weathering their storms a little bit better. It’s going to come back to the details, especially in the Western Conference Finals. M, you talked about just kind of the the effort that it’s that it requires to beat this team that you know it’s if it’s going to be a knockout, it’s going to be a TKO. Is there anything that you or this team can draw on from this season or last postseason about the amount of energy, effort, focus to reach that level to knock these guys off? I think there’s no other feeling than losing last year, getting so close to lose. I think that’s my biggest memory. And as a competitor, losing has to be something that’s got to motivate you if anything, wanting to to win, to play together, to achieve something that you never achieved before. Like, and this is a great group, and I feel I believe in this group. I feel like we have what it takes. So, it’ll be a huge disappointment if we don’t bring that competitiveness to try to win. Nikil, uh, you guys have won the minutes that Mike Conley has been on the floor by 19 points in this series and lost the minutes. He’s been off the floor by 60. Why do you think that is? Mike’s a glue guy. Very smart. Gets gets us into our sets. He’s not frantic. He’s He’s been here so many times. He understand what it takes. And just the lineups and the way Mike’s been making plays off the pick and roll has been a threat that has helped us. Last question, Nikil. Some of the things you guys have done most successfully against the Sun team early this year. Um getting up and down playing with a lot of pace and you know blitzing Shay at the top of the court to get the ball out of his hands and switch coverages. Are those things you guys can do with your big lineups or how how are you able to play with some of those same aspects with your bigger lineups on the court? All five got to be on a string. Got to be connected against a player like him. He’s going to be aggressive. He’s going to get to his angles, get to his spots. the more bodies we’re able to throw at him, fly around in rotations, I think that will help us, especially when he gets the angle at bigs, bumps them, now they’re trying to play in the recovery space, and that’s exactly what he wants. Trying to draw a foul, trying to bump, get to his spot. So shrinking the floor a little bit better, rotating a little bit better, not getting hit by screens, staying connected as much as we can in that drive to kind of east west him more than north south. Awesome.

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