What Steve Clifford Said Following the Loss to Golden State
The difference in the game
"We had the missed dunk, then we had the missed five, six-footer, and then we had a wide-open three bang, bang, bang and we didn't make any of those. Jordan Poole had the big play - the semi-transition in where we didn't get back, we didn't get set. We had our chances. We just weren't as ready. They were ready to start the game and we weren't. That was the difference in the game."
Evaluation of the six-game road trip
"I thought 3-3 would've been great. We're getting better. We're getting our guys back. We still got two more guys to get back, but we got our guys back so we're a lot better team. It'll take us a little bit more to get organized. We're playing every other day, so there's not a lot of practice time but I think you can see the beginnings of what can be a good team."
Slow start
"Everybody always says you don't have to watch an NBA game until the fourth quarter. And actually, if you've been around, it's anything but that. The fourth quarter and this is nothing but factual, is never the most important quarter. Never. I've been doing this 20-plus years. First quarter, second quarter, third quarter, every year if you look at it in a lot of ways you could say it's the first quarter. Especially on the road. If you play from ahead it's a big advantage."
Keeping the team motivated
"The reality is that we've really had this group now for this trip, right? And I think they understand that. Melo got back the Detroit game. Gordon got back the Atlanta game, so these are the first, I believe third or fourth game that we've had what you could say I guess in some regards would be our projected lineup. They understand that. The whole thing is we've got to make progress. We need to get Dennis [Smith Jr.] back. We need Cody [Martin] back and when we get those guys back, I think that'll help us in many respects also."
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