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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v SPURSMay 29, 2014Scott BrooksSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Game Five Q. How is Reggie? SCOTT BROOKS: Reggie is good. He's fine. Q. Are you anticipating San Antonio to give you a little different look? SCOTT BROOKS: Yeah, we've thought about all the changes that they could possibly make. They've got options just like we do. Their starting five has won a lot of games. If they decide to stay with it, they've obviously won a lot of games. They won the first two games with it. They can go small, they can go, you know, big in there with Boris. But we have to be prepared. Whoever they throw out there, we're going to be ready to play and compete, and we have to do it at a high level against a very good team. No matter who they throw in, they're going to be replacing a very good player with a very good player. Q. Serge said he's getting better even though there was only a day off between games. What miracle stuff are you doing to keep him from digressing and actually improving? SCOTT BROOKS: Well, we have a medical staff that's really good. They work. They have a plan in place, and Serge is dedicated to following that plan every day, off days between games, obviously that helps. In Playoffs, you don't have to go back to back, so that helps. He's feeling better every day. Talking to him this morning, he feels better than he felt yesterday, so every day he gets better. Q. How many hours of the day is he spending on rehab? SCOTT BROOKS: I mean, I don't know exactly how many, but I know he's in the facility early and he's leaving later in the afternoon. But he does a lot of things, does weight training. He does all the aqua stuff that we do, and, you know, the court time, so he gets shots up. He's there like all of our guys. It's not a hobby; it's their livelihood. Q. How do you coordinate how much he practices with the medical staff? Do they say he should do this or shouldn't do that or how does that work? SCOTT BROOKS: Well, during the Playoffs, this late in the Playoffs, we don't have a lot of practice time where we're on the court really getting after it. It's not a physical practice. It's all mental walk‑through stuff and adjustments that we have to make, and a lot of it we're doing in the film room. He's doing just as much as KD or Russell or the other guys. We're not doing a lot on the court, and when he's on the court it's just really spot‑up shooting just continuing to have a feel for the game. It's more a mental therapy that I like to call it with our guys. When you get your shots, you're smelling the gym, feeling the basketball. Q. With Russell playing so many minutes the last game, are you watching him at all this game? SCOTT BROOKS: No, not at all. We had two games in what was it, like seven nights from Game 2 to Game 3 to Game 4, and then we have every other night. Russell has nothing‑‑ I mean, he has another gear. Maybe he has another engine. But he's always ready to play. Q. With that maintenance program you guys had on him late in the year, 30 or so minutes, do you think that's helped? SCOTT BROOKS: Yeah, I think so. We had a plan in place, and we were consistent with it. Obviously, we've had some interesting decisions to make. And the game that we went into overtime, I would have loved to have spent five more minutes coaching him on the floor, but we couldn't do that with the restrictions that we had. So we were pretty strong on our game plan, and it's paid off. He feels great. He's playing well. Q. When he's engaged and active and firing as he was to start the game, especially defensively, does everything else kind of fall into place? SCOTT BROOKS: Yes. He's one of our leaders on our team, and he's an emotional player. He's a passionate player, and he gets after it on the defensive end and makes us really good. But we have to have everybody locked in defensively. You can't do it with just one guy, two guys, three or four. We need all five guys. This is a very good offensive team that's skilled. They play with the pass very well, and they have guys that can touch and shoot and make plays, so we have to all be ready to play. But Russell is a big part of it because of the head of the snake is Tony Parker. Q. You started Thabo in Game 2, and that meant automatic Russell has to be on Parker. Did you give any kind of personal challenge to Russell saying the game rests on you stopping Tony Parker? SCOTT BROOKS: Well, the decision for Thabo was give Thabo an opportunity to use his minutes against Tony. We were going into the game, Thabo plays the next number of minutes. You know, obviously, he can play more. He was utilizing his strength. But Russell, you can challenge him many different ways, and we have, and I have, and he always responds. But he knows how important Tony Parker is, like they know how important Russell is. So we have to make sure that we can control and contain his penetration because he's a factor. When he has good games, they play well, just like when Russell has good games, we play well. That's just the point guard position. Q. I am assuming Reggie starts again? SCOTT BROOKS: Yes, he's starting tonight. Like I said, he's feeling good and he's ready to go. I'm not going to make a change. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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