http://www.nba.com/kings/news/Practice_Quotes042405-139884-58.html
Practice Quotes-04/24/05
Kings Coach Rick Adelman
“Seattle is probably saying the same things to their team, that they played well at the start but didn’t play well in the second half. So I expect it to be a totally different game, I certainly don’t expect us to shoot it like we did, I expect different guys on our team to step up and play much better, and I’m sure they expect the same thing. I just think, now that we see what they are trying to do, we gave to go out and try and take advantage of it.”
Did you say anything to Mike?
“Yeah, make a shot. Like I told Bobby, try to go one-for-eight, make the first one today. With Mike, I’ve never seen him have a game like that before. But I think it was real obvious as the game went on that he got very impatient and was really pressing, and he can’t do that. He’s probably the key guy and so they’re going to try and do things to him and that’s why I tried to tell him not to try and do everything in the first 10 minutes. If he gets going in our offense and everybody else gets involve, it’s going to be harder to guard Mike Bibby then.”
“Everybody has one of those games. I’m sure the doomsayers are saying that he’s not the same Mike Bibby, and I always go back to a young Karl Malone when I was an assistant coach in Portland, and he had maybe the worst game I’ve ever seen a player have in Portland. And for two days he didn’t talk to anyone, he wouldn’t look at a soul. And all he did was go out and destroy us from that point on. And knowing Mike Bibby or any other good player in this league, he’s going to go out and have a much better game. I expect that, so I don’t think there is too much that has to be said—he knows I have a lot of confidence in him and I think he knows that he has to play better and has to do things a little different”
“I’m really encouraged by Brad. People were asking me why I didn’t leave him in the game and everything else, but I don’t think the first game of the playoff series when a guy for the last two months has scrimmaged 20 minutes and played 10 minutes in a game, I don’t think that’s a time for me to push the envelope. I wanted to see how he felt today and practiced today. I was concerned he would come in like in training camp and be sore everywhere, and then if he takes three days and steps back, where are we? But I feel much more confident in the way he played last night, watching him the way he played today, he has no ill effects from anything. I can just see him getting better and better, and he’s starting to.”
Greg Ostertag
“They have Fortson and Reggie Evans and Jerome James-they’re bangers. They’re going to get in there and throw their bodies and try to beat you. I think they 16 offensive rebounds between those two, and Danny might have had one or two. Us knowing that collectively, we’ve got to make an effort to box them out.”
“It’s got to be encouraging that we were down and battled back. Thinking about it over and over that if Peja or I had just reached down and grabbed James, who knows what would have happened? Instead of me trying to block the shot and him trying to swipe the ball away, we should have just tried to grab him and make him earn it from the free throw line. It didn’t happened that way, but it’s encouraging to me the way that we got a little pride back there in the middle of the third quarter and started battling. If we can do that, hell, we can beat them. We can beat anybody. We’ve proven that we can beat anybody in the league, the only team we haven’t beaten is Miami.”
“Mike’s played really really well for this team and against the Lakers a couple of years ago and he does every year. He just had a bad game—everybody has a bad game. Good thing he got that crap out of his system, now he can start playing.”
Mike Bibby
“I figured a couple would drop, but my shot just didn’t feel right. You’re going to have games like that, not like that I mean, but games where you’re not going to shoot the best or play the best and you’ve got to take the good with the bad. I’ll take one of those to get 10 good ones.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a game like that period. One time in my rookie year I think I was 0-for-8, but never one-for-16. I feel like if I had made a little more of a contribution we would have won the game. You are never going to see me and Bobby shoot one-for-23.”
Practice Quotes-04/24/05
“Seattle is probably saying the same things to their team, that they played well at the start but didn’t play well in the second half. So I expect it to be a totally different game, I certainly don’t expect us to shoot it like we did, I expect different guys on our team to step up and play much better, and I’m sure they expect the same thing. I just think, now that we see what they are trying to do, we gave to go out and try and take advantage of it.”
Did you say anything to Mike?
“Yeah, make a shot. Like I told Bobby, try to go one-for-eight, make the first one today. With Mike, I’ve never seen him have a game like that before. But I think it was real obvious as the game went on that he got very impatient and was really pressing, and he can’t do that. He’s probably the key guy and so they’re going to try and do things to him and that’s why I tried to tell him not to try and do everything in the first 10 minutes. If he gets going in our offense and everybody else gets involve, it’s going to be harder to guard Mike Bibby then.”
“Everybody has one of those games. I’m sure the doomsayers are saying that he’s not the same Mike Bibby, and I always go back to a young Karl Malone when I was an assistant coach in Portland, and he had maybe the worst game I’ve ever seen a player have in Portland. And for two days he didn’t talk to anyone, he wouldn’t look at a soul. And all he did was go out and destroy us from that point on. And knowing Mike Bibby or any other good player in this league, he’s going to go out and have a much better game. I expect that, so I don’t think there is too much that has to be said—he knows I have a lot of confidence in him and I think he knows that he has to play better and has to do things a little different”
“I’m really encouraged by Brad. People were asking me why I didn’t leave him in the game and everything else, but I don’t think the first game of the playoff series when a guy for the last two months has scrimmaged 20 minutes and played 10 minutes in a game, I don’t think that’s a time for me to push the envelope. I wanted to see how he felt today and practiced today. I was concerned he would come in like in training camp and be sore everywhere, and then if he takes three days and steps back, where are we? But I feel much more confident in the way he played last night, watching him the way he played today, he has no ill effects from anything. I can just see him getting better and better, and he’s starting to.”
“They have Fortson and Reggie Evans and Jerome James-they’re bangers. They’re going to get in there and throw their bodies and try to beat you. I think they 16 offensive rebounds between those two, and Danny might have had one or two. Us knowing that collectively, we’ve got to make an effort to box them out.”
“It’s got to be encouraging that we were down and battled back. Thinking about it over and over that if Peja or I had just reached down and grabbed James, who knows what would have happened? Instead of me trying to block the shot and him trying to swipe the ball away, we should have just tried to grab him and make him earn it from the free throw line. It didn’t happened that way, but it’s encouraging to me the way that we got a little pride back there in the middle of the third quarter and started battling. If we can do that, hell, we can beat them. We can beat anybody. We’ve proven that we can beat anybody in the league, the only team we haven’t beaten is Miami.”
“Mike’s played really really well for this team and against the Lakers a couple of years ago and he does every year. He just had a bad game—everybody has a bad game. Good thing he got that crap out of his system, now he can start playing.”
“I figured a couple would drop, but my shot just didn’t feel right. You’re going to have games like that, not like that I mean, but games where you’re not going to shoot the best or play the best and you’ve got to take the good with the bad. I’ll take one of those to get 10 good ones.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a game like that period. One time in my rookie year I think I was 0-for-8, but never one-for-16. I feel like if I had made a little more of a contribution we would have won the game. You are never going to see me and Bobby shoot one-for-23.”
