NFresh off of a thrilling and exhilarating Game 6 victory over the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinal, the Washington Wizards enjoyed a relaxed practice that was more heavily focused on watching film and recovery. Scott Brooks, Ian Mahinmi, and Otto Porter spoke with the media. Here are the highlights:
Scott Brooks
On day after thoughts:
“It was a great game. Obviously we love the result. A lot of good plays. It was a classic playoff game both teams battling. Both teams struggled to make shots. Just glad we made the last shot. We did a lot of good things and made one more play than them.”
On staying level after such a high:
“That’s what we’ve been talking about all season, especially in the playoffs. You’re going through a playoff series. We always told them and everybody heard this for years. It’s the first to four (wins) and you can’t go crazy after a big win you can’t get to down after a tough loss. Basically we had both situations the last two games. A tough loss in Game 5, but it was one game and we didn’t lose the series. An incredible win in Game 6, but we didn’t win the series. We just have to stay focused on what we have to do. It’s going to be a tough challenge ahead of us Monday night, but our guys are excited about it We’ve put ourselves in this position to go seven against one of the best teams in the East.”
On Wall’s shot:
“It’s definitely one of the biggest shots I’ve been around. I was happy for a lot of reasons. There are a lot of layers of happiness for me. For one, our crowd. I thought they deserved to win that game. They were there, they were loud, they were into the game. And John, he’s put so much into getting better as this season has gone on especially from the 3-point line. That’s something he’s going to continue to improve on. Our guys did a great job of making plays. We missed a lot of shots that maybe the game wouldn’t have been as close, but I thought we did a good job offensively to put ourselves in position to make shots. We didn’t (always) make it, but we didn’t put our head down and we still defended. We made a couple of mistakes into the stretch on Isaiah Thomas’ looks, but we made up for that with an aggressive trap on his turnover. That shot is right there with some of the biggest shots I’ve seen as a player or a coach.”
On Wall’s late block on Isaiah Thomas:
“It was two great players challenging each other’s and a lot of times we will have help, but John did a great job of staying in front of him and contesting without fouling. He’s not easy to guard, but when John is isolated up top, he’s not easy to score on either. It’s a battle of who’s going to get a clean look on the shot. Is he [Thomas] going to get a clean look or are we going to get a clean look at contesting it. John obviously did a great job of getting that shot blocked.”
On Wall’s development:
“It says a lot because it’s based off of the work he put in. I remember early on in his career, I don’t know if he made a three in his first season or so, but he’s worked on it and you want all of your players to get better – in the offseason and during the season. And you don’t get better by just going to bed at night and saying, ‘I’m going to get better as a three-point shooter.’ You have to put work in and he does it every day. You see it in the media sessions after practice, he puts shots [up], puts time in shooting the three-point shot and he’s improved as the season has gone on and he’s only going to get better because he’s going to be able to do that all summer long. For him to make that shot, I think it’s based off the work that he has put in.”
On Wall’s drive to continue developing:
“I think all great players are striving for excellence and trying to improve their games. You've heard about it through the history of the game when guys come back better and you thought there's no way this guy can come back better. But you can, there's always ways that you can improve. John is a high IQ basketball player. He loves the game and he knows that in order for him to get better, he's going to have to continue to work on his three-point shooting because then it becomes 'how are you going to guard him?' His quickness, his strength, his ability to attack with either hand. Now he's able to post up smaller guards and most guards are going to be smaller than him. Teams want to give him the outside shot, but if he can shoot 35 or 37 percent from that spot, you can't give him that. I think as his career continues to evolve, his three-point shooting is going to be a big part of his game.”
On what the Wizards are doing from a historical perspective:
“It's definitely something. We haven't won there all year, there's no question. But we've been in positions to win. The pressure, I've kind of kept the pressure as the same all year long. We play hard and play for teammates. If you don't play hard, you don't give yourself a chance to win, whether it's at home or on the road. It's definitely a big challenge, but you have to embrace it. You have to embrace the challenge. I said before last game that you would take a chance to play two games to go to the conference finals to play against Cleveland. But going into one season, if all you had to do was win one game to get there, we all would have taken that. We're going to have to do a lot of things well, but they're going to have to do a lot of things well to beat us, too. We've going to play much better than we played in Game 5. I can tell by our focus today. At least I hope.”
Ian Mahinmi
On playing three Game 7s, compared to zero on the rest of the team, and his advice:
“Game 7s are fun. Actually, those games are like, how do I say, they’re easier to prepare because it’s kind of you have to go out there and give it everything you have. It’s plain and simple. There is no, ‘I’m going to save this for the fourth quarter’, because if you lose, you go home. Mentally, you just relax and go out there and do what you’ve been doing all year. It’s kind of a privilege to get to that point where one game is going to decide your whole season basically. I’m going to tell those guys, ‘it’s nothing to overthink, just go out there and play hard.’ We’ve been playing hard. More of the same.”
On beating the Wizards as a member of the 2014 Pacers and how he has seen Wall and Beal evolve:
“Now, those guys are not babies anymore. They closers. They proven closers. You could tell, at the end of the game, there is no hesitation from none of those two guys. Bradley came up and shot that three with full confidence like the whole entire stadium knew it was going in. And then he went right back at it, drove, floater; like all those shots were like no hesitation and you can tell from the bench, from being on the floor, those guys are now calm when it comes down to taking last shots and game-winning shots.”
On John Wall’s improved three-point shooting:
“It says more about his work ethic [than confidence]. You could tell that he’s been working from the time when he first came in the league where he was mostly a driver and finisher at the rim to now he’s everything – threes, twos, passes, leadership – so that shows me more of his worth ethic and his willingness to improve himself year after year after year. I feel like I am here at the right time. So the guys have been through it and me I just come and he’s like the best guy, the best point guard on the East Coast [Conference]. It’s awesome.”
On if he went from ‘oh, no why are you taking that shot’ to ‘oh, yes that is the greatest shot ever’:
“Honestly, no. I wanted him to go for the win [with a three]. I was just happy he took it with confidence and you could see from the second it left his hand, it’s going in. Big shot, big moment. I know it was very emotional for him, the city. Couldn’t be more happy for him. When you go through so much, and finally, you get your chance and you take it, this is like taking advantage of the opportunity. This is what big time players do.”
On if left calf:
“It’s better. There’s good and bad days, but it’s been improving over the past seven days. It’s good, I’m happy with where I am at considering, the high strain that I had on my calf. Everything is all good.”
On Isaiah Thomas’s potential buzzer beating, game-winning shot:
“He made some tough shots. I think ten years from now, you going to watch this game again and be like ‘OK, this a class.’ Just because the back and forth. Guys really stepped up on both sides. And we just happened that we made one more play and Isaiah hit some tough shots.”
On blitzing Isaiah Thomas:
“It’s more of a common-sense adjustment. When you got a guy that almost beat us by himself in Game 2 and scored 50-some points. Your kind of like ‘common sense, alright, next time somebody else going to have to beat us.’ We have high IQ guys on the team and coaching staff is awesome.”
On how long he will be packing for:
“I haven’t started packing yet, but yeah we going to pack for the entire week.”
Otto Porter
On if the series was destined to go seven:
“We knew early on in the series we were right there, especially on their home-court. We were right there. Just going looking at it, we knew we would win at home. We had that confidence. … Going back there for Game 7, we couldn’t ask for anything more. All the pressure is on them. We can go there and just play our game and I think that’s what we’re going to do.”
On if the inbounds pass to John Wall could have been a five second violation:
“I had [the ref] counting out – he was counting out right there so I knew I had an extra second and I seen John sprint up from the corner. The play was for Brad on the side, but they did a good job of forcing him baseline. John came and made a good play.”
On watching the Wall shot:
“It took forever, the shot did. Great shot by him. We see it all the time in practice, working on that shot, When it left his hand I knew it was going to be good.”
On seeing Wall develop:
“Every year it gets better. He adds different parts of his game. That’s why he’s an elite player. He’s always working on his game. … It’s all the hard work he puts in. It’s all about the work. If you put in hard work you can accomplish anything you set out to do. For him it was big to extend that range out to the three-point line. He’s continued to put in the work.”
On rebounding from a scoreless game:
"I just try to find ways to affect the game. If shots not going, try to play better defense. I’m not trying to hang my hat on my offensive scoring. I try to do a lot of things well. Going into Game 7, we’re definitely going to look to be more aggressive. Everybody is going to be a lot more aggressive offensively and defensively. I think we can get a lot more steals, make them turn the ball over a lot more."