What James Borrego Had to Say About Wednesday's Matchup vs Pistons
On how PJ Washington helps them defensively:
“Yeah, I think he’s to be great energy. I think before he went out, he was playing with great energy on the defensive end, in the post and in pick-and-roll. So, as I told him this morning, I’m looking for him to bring that spark off the bench. He, Jalen, Cody Martin, Kelly, they’ve got to be ready to go defensively at any point in the game – one minute into the game, five minutes into the game, that group’s got to be ready and PJ can do that. He can do that. And he’s watched us from afar, he gets it. He sees it, so need his energy tonight for sure.”
On if sometimes guys can rely upon the home court advantage too much:
“I don’t get that sense – I don’t get that sense. I like us playing at home. I think it’s a great opportunity. If guys are trying to relax, ease themselves into games, that should not be the mentality. We got to set the tone on our own floor. I don’t sense that, but it was not a great performance our last game at home and obviously, we got a chance to go correct that tonight. And we have a great opportunity in front of us the rest of the way. We do have home games, but if you just hope and wish and believe that being at home’s going to get it done, you’re sorely mistaken and it’s going to catch up to you. So, we got to own our home court and play well.”
On what he was able take away from the fourth quarter in their last game to help the team close games moving forward:
“The biggest part of the fourth quarter was the start of the fourth quarter. I think it started an 11-0 run, so that group, we did not set the tone there and it wasn’t just one group, it was multiple groups, but we got to get stops. You know that. You’ve seen when we’ve won these close games it’s on the defensive end, we ‘ve made one or two stops down the stretch. Now give Washington credit, Kuzma hit three tough 3s in front of our bench, contested 3s. Looking at the film, I thought we had better shots than they had. Tip your hat to them, they made their shots, we did not. But what we control is just getting stops, have more effort, have more urgency and that’s what we have to have in fourth quarters. But in the fourth quarter, when we’ve been good, we’ve either made one or two shots and we’ve got one or two stops. We did not get stops down the stretch and that’s where you close out games. And we have been good there. That’s been a strength of ours the last couple of years is being a clutch team on both ends of the floor. We needed one of those shots to go down, one stop. It didn’t happen and it cost us.”
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