12/8/2012 Los Angeles Clippers vs. Phoenix Suns

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1 12/8/2012 Los Angeles Clippers vs. Phoenix Suns RE: Overall thoughts on tonight s game Thank the bench, because our starters are struggling. They got us off to a bad start again. I was disappointed with that. I didn t think our energy defensively was very good. But Lamar [Odom], Eric [Bledsoe], Matt [Barnes] and obviously Jamal [Crawford] got going for us. He was aggressive, made some shots. Overall, our bench won the game for us. RE: Adjustments to make Our starters get into energy on the offense and not as much energy on the defense and that is what beats you in this league. We ve got to change that mentality as soon as possible, because this game easily could have gone a different way. RE: Role of the starters The starters know that it s about defense. It s about getting out there and understanding and taking away easy ones. Our rotations were slow. We gave them layups. I think we gave them 11 points in the first twoand-a-half minutes of the game. We have to be sharper there and more consistent. RE: Development of Lamar Odom He wants it and I believe in him. I m going to keep pushing him. I m going to keep making him work and he s going to keep doing work. His teammates support him because we know that he gives us an element that we need. RE: Turnaround in the game 4 th quarter was the biggest bright spot for us. The bench did a great job. Like I said over and over, it started with defense. We got 5 stops in a row and got into an 11-point lead. Then we came from there so we owed them a lot. RE: Play of the second unit We want to put it away early. But with the way that our team is put together, our second team is just as capable coming in and putting that lead on teams. RE: Growth of Lamar Odom Never really being around him, I didn t really know he has a tremendous basketball IQ. He sees the game very well. Listening to him and bouncing ideas off of him, he always comes to me and says something and is always giving me encouragement. He s helped tremendously, even when he wasn t able to be on the court. He s got his confidence. You can tell he s feeling better and better in every practice and every game. So he s huge for us.

2 RE: Playing back-to-back afternoon games It doesn t bother me. I like it. It s almost like playing AAU back in the day. You come in, play, and get to spend a little time with your family. Tomorrow, we ll just come in early for the game, look at film, and try to feed off of our crowd. RE: Improving play of Lamar Odom L.O. [Lamar Odom] is finding that rhythm. He s so valuable to our team because he just knows how to play on both ends of the court. He knows how to space the court, he knows how to roll, and he knows what pass to make. Defensively, he s so valuable to us because he can switch screens and he s aggressive on ball screens, which catches a lot of guards off guard. I remember when he was on the Lakers, I would come off of screens and he was a problem. That play when he almost stole it and dove on the ground is a good example. Guys think he s just up there, but he makes you think about him. I ve been saying that as he continues to get more and more comfortable, it s going to be scary. RE: The depth of the bench It s very unique. Every team in the league would love to have what we have. Teams usually have one or two dynamic players that come of their bench, but we come in with a group of starters. Blake [Griffin] and DJ [DeAndre Jordan] are the most athletic combination of big men in our entire league. And it s huge to be able to bring in L.O. [Lamar Odom] and Ronny [Turiaf] and [Ryan] Hollins, who know who they are and know how to play the game the right way. RE: Getting transition points We have to go out there hungry. We have to eat. We just have to go out there and try to execute to perfection. RE: Team s development I think that we are trying to get better at every single game, and sometimes you are not going to have success over and over and over. You are going to go through rough stretches of time. It s not like you are trying to do anything different. It s life. You can t be perfect all of the time. You guys want us to be perfect. We want to be perfect. We can t achieve that. I don t think anyone wants anything else. Our mindset is to definitely go out there and execute. Unfortunately sometimes we come up short. RE: Bench mentality in the fourth quarter We looked at each other and we said let s go. It s time to go have some fun. RE: Impact of the bench When we have different lineups, we can change the momentum or play any style. We have a guy off the bench who can score 20 points in every game in Jamal [Crawford]. Eric [Bledsoe] changes the speed of the game and makes plays. Defensively we stay solid. We got in the passing lane and denied them the ball. We didn t give up too many offensively rebounds tonight and that really helped a lot.

3 RE: Bench mentality It s very important to be conscious of what you can do and help the team and not overstep any boundaries to get in anybody s way. We try to keep the same energy so we complement each other well. RE: Team dynamic Winning solves everything. We are going to try to continue to win and everybody will be happy. I don t think that you can have too much talent. When you go deep into the playoffs, there are always guys coming into the games hitting big shots, playing four, five, six, or seven big minutes. We need everyone to be successful to get to where we want to be. RE: Team s Depth I think that when Grant [Hill] and Chauncey [Billups] get back, some people are going to have to make some sacrifices. It s a long season and you never know about injuries. We want to be headed in the right direction and be fully prepared towards the playoffs. I think depth is good right now, because we are getting a lot of key people some rest. RE: The second unit Usually when you go to the bench, that s when the other team feels like they can make a run. But I think we try to come out here and increase the lead so there is no let-up when we go to our bench. RE: The play of Jamal Crawford I told him that at the end of the second quarter he was really second guessing himself a lot and passing up a lot of shots. I told him that he had to be aggressive. With our second unit, he s our leading scorer. So we just needed him to get going and everyone else could feed off of that. RE: Today s loss The game was lost with 64 points in the paint and 20 turnovers for 30 points. That was happening before the fourth quarter. They made a run in the fourth quarter where they started out 15-2 and that didn t help us either. We have to take better care of the ball and we have to be able to execute. I told the guys I appreciate the effort and intensity that they played with, but we have to be able to execute. But a lot of the credit goes to the Clippers; they have a hell of a basketball team. RE: 6- game losing streak I am not super concerned with it. It is what it is and the guys will play through it. If we are going to get out of this, we have to work our way out of it. In this league no one feels sorry for you. It is not a pity league. If you re down and you want to get yourself out of it, then you have to work yourself out of it. We have to do it collectively as a group: coaches and players and all others involved. We have to be the ones to work ourselves out of this losing streak. RE: Stopping the Clippers bench

4 I said it already, we have to stop the turnovers and slow down their bench. It is like what I said pregame, their bench is what got them separation not their starters. It was Matt [Barnes], [Eric] Bledsoe, Lamar [Odom], [Ronny] Turiaf, and Jamal [Crawford] when they went on their run; there was not one starter on the floor when that happened. SUNS CENTER JERMAINE O NEAL RE: Today s loss They made shots, and that is the object of basketball. Whoever puts the ball in the hole the most is going to win and that is what they did. SUNS CENTER JERMAINE O NEAL RE: Team s turnovers The hardest thing to do when things are going rough is get ourselves out of our funk. We have to find a way to respond and then we have to be able to win. Sometimes it takes a win to kid of turn the tables a little bit and we have to figure out a way by tomorrow how to do that. SUNS CENTER MARCIN GORTAT RE: Current losing streak We are in a tough stretch right now. We are trying to dig ourselves out from this troubled hole and it is not easy. We are struggling with a lot of things on the court right now and hopefully tomorrow will be another chance to finally get a win. SUNS CENTER MARCIN GORTAT

5 RE: Team s standing It doesn t matter what we think of ourselves right now. We could think of ourselves as the world champions but we are not, and quite honestly, results show. Right now we are not the best. SUNS FORWARD MICHAEL BEASLEY RE: Not starting tonight I have been coming off the bench my whole career: my rookie year and last year in Minnesota. Coach is just trying to find a solution right now because we are in a losing streak. He is trying to find a solution to keep us all in the game, and not just keep us in the game, but find a way for us to win games.