What Steve Clifford Said Following the Win Over Oklahoma City

If he expected that kind of night from Mark Williams

“I could lie and say, ‘Yeah,’ but 17 (points), 13 (rebounds), 7-for-7 (shooting), I mean, he’s played three good games. It’s good, and like I said, he’s going to get an opportunity to play for a few games so hopefully, he can keep building on that. … It just shows what he’s capable of. In this league, you’ve got to do it three, four times in a week against different types of players, different types of coverages. I think he’s going to be a very good player, but this just shows his talent. Now it’s, ‘Can you do it every night?’ That’s what the NBA is all about. In this league, if you want to look at the better starting 5s, just certain components, if you have a roll game and you’re playing with someone like ‘Melo (Ball), and you can protect the rim and play pick-and-roll defense at the other end, you can be a really good starter. Look at the guys like that. Then there’s the other guys like the 3-point shooters, which by the way, he may be able to do here. He’s not going to do it this year, but my point is he has the basic background of a way to be a very effective NBA player – protect the rim, he’s smart, he’s good with coverages. He has to work on his screening and rolling. For somebody like ‘Melo, Gordon (Hayward), or Terry (Rozier), if they get a good pick with a solid roll, we’re going to get a good shot. It’s an important part of the NBA game.”

Kelly Oubre leaving the game

"Just his finger, yeah. I mean, this has been since early in the year. If you notice, they try everything. He's had it bandaged different ways, different fingers together. And the problem is, when he gets hit hard it's super sore. So the only way for it to really get better is to rest it which obviously he doesn't want to do. Hopefully, he'll be okay. But again, this isn't something that just happened."

Jalen McDaniels carving out a role

"He's having to play two different positions, so he's guarding threes and fours. I think as he continues to work on his technique part of it, he's a good competitor. He's got good size. He's worked on his shot a lot with Bruce [Kreutzer], which has helped him. So, he's confident and he's a lot more confident with his fundamentals there. But he's played well very consistently against a lot of kinds of teams, so hopefully, it's something he can continue to build on."

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