Jimmy Butler “can't expect for my guys not to turn the ball over when I'm out there turning the ball over”

[GSW-ORL videos/interviews/transcripts]

The bench numbers looked atrocious, but it’s the vets and the starters that set the tone, and the tone in Orlando, once again without a star (in this case, Paolo Banchero), once again seemed like basketball impotence.

Jimmy Butler, postgame in the locker room:

We happened to turn the ball over a little bit, a lot a bit, which lead to us not getting back in transition. They got some costly offensive rebounds and that, that’s the game… I can’t expect for my guys not to turn the ball over when I’m out there turning the ball over. I’ve always been one to lead by example, so if I’m turning the ball over, I guess it gives everybody else a right to turn the ball over. We just gotta get back to giving a damn about every single possession, which is easy, but it’s definitely gonna start with me not turning it over.

It’s weird how he said that giving a damn about every possession is easy. Obviously, it wasn’t last night, nor was it many times in many of the losses so far. Let’s see, building off the Know Your Personnel article:

Portland: 👴🏾 (old)

Milwaukee: 🪫 (basketball impotence)

Indiana: 🪫

Sacramento: no Steph 🐐🚫

Denver: 🐐🚫

OKC: old, but also Steph just got back

Orlando: 🪫

That’s three losses due to “lack of focus.”

Contrary to what Jimmy said, I would’ve thought it’s difficult to give a damn about every possession, especially with older guys and, well, basketball impotence, which is a function of being old, as described in the article (click it!).

Jimmy, when followed up by Nick Friedell of The Athletic on why they seem to struggle against teams with their stars out, said:

We have to do a great job of focusing on who we are and what we need to do in order to win games and what we can be better at. You give credit to those guys though. They went out there to play hard, executed and won a home game, but I think if we focus on us and what we’re supposed to be doing, it could have been a different outcome.

You sling a ball to a cutting Buddy Hield who doesn’t seem to try to catch it…

Jimmy: “I’m never passing you the ball again.”

Buddy: “Don’t be like that.”

You get down by nine or ten early, the die is cast, the in-game bad habits start to take shape.

That’s where I wonder if there’s a radical solution, because I’m not sure anything can be done about basketball impotence.

Your spark plugs on the team are Gui Santos and Trayce Jackson-Davis. On an old team, maybe they should not be DNP’ed in any three-game stretch. Maybe Gui and Trayce need to infuse their energy on a veteran team in the modern NBA at least once per three games.

Granted, it is very difficult to do this especially when you think you’ve found a formula for winning, at least as we saw in the two games in San Antonio. I’m sure the prevailing coaching wisdom across thirty teams at the highest level of basketball on the planet would tell you to stick with what works.

It’s hard to just say, oh, well, nice two-game winning streak, but you’re old and so you’ll probably have a lack of energy this game. Guess what, I’m gonna sub you out if that’s the case!

Let’s stay grounded IRL.

And yet, I find myself almost being able to predict when one Wardell Stephen Curry will commit five turnovers. It’s the ones where the stars are missing. It’s the younger teams. It’s the wear and tear of the road, of the schedule. It’s the slow starts and all three of the main guys having to be locked in at their ages. They can’t take turns losing focus, as they did in Orlando.

But integrating Gui and Trayce as energy boosters here and there could be impossible to implement IRL. You have to script a rotation so as not to disrupt chemistry and establish some rhythm. I encourage anyone to enter a team into the local city league and see how your teammates accept sudden rotation changes, even if it’s just an 8-man squad. They will tell you they want to play for at least seven consecutive game minutes. If they’re playing bad through the whole stretch and you sub them out after the fifth minute, there will be some conflict with team chemistry. Speaking from experience, I can almost can guarantee you that.

You can’t just trash the script in the first quarter, either, and make it up as you go because you have to make the stints worthwhile for every player — the quick-sub experiment in Memphis by Tuomas Iisalo doesn’t seem to be working, by the way. You also need to end up with 32-ish minutes for Steph and similar targets for Jimmy and Draymond Green.

You can’t sub Santos for Curry, obviously. They play completely different positions and, quite frankly, everything revolves around the Curry ecosystem anyways, so you really can’t touch Steph’s sub patterns even if he’s tossing out beignet after beignet (i.e., turnovers!).

If you sub Trayce for Dray on a whim, you might get some lash back from a guy who has a lot of pride, which could disrupt team chemistry. If you sub Gui for Jimmy, you might take the one guy off the floor who could settle things down. Butler actually did that a few times against the Magic, with 15 free throws attempted.

It would be hard to implement this on the fly in the middle of a road trip. Has Gui even played in the first half of a close game where Steph, Jimmy and Dray were fully healthy? Guys like him are rolls of the dice usually no earlier than late first half and the guy he replaces is usually a young guy who’s having an off night.

As for Trayce, obviously, the bold suggestion is just as a spot energy boost in place of Draymond. I’m not suggesting that TJD be in the regular rotation with spacers like Quinten Post and Al Horford, especially when both are fully healthy and available.

Coaching staffs get mentally tired, too. It is a real grind out there in the 82. And I always say this: basketball IRL is very different than a video game where you can just sub guys in and out with no recourse; the NBA2K algorithm is missing a ton of human factors.

Especially without Jonathan Kuminga, the options are limited. I think we are just stuck being an old team and are left with the only solution: the vets simply have to show up and play better versus the young teams.

If it’s a back-to-back, probably one of the vets is resting anyways. A young guy could step up anytime Steph, Jimmy or Dray is resting. When they’re not, it’s hard to blame a loss on any of the young guys.

So if all the vets are available and playing and it’s a game against a young team that has a star out — there is no solution other than “play better” and “please lock in.” That is my conclusion.

This exercise of trying to find a way to infuse Gui or Trayce, it’s a simple example of why it’s hard to infuse anybody into the rotation. Saying that Buddy should be benched, which inevitably gets thumb-typed anytime we lose, that isn’t moving the needle enough. The die is cast by the starters unless there is a bench player that goes nuts. And Buddy is a guy who could go nuts, so he has to play, just in case. So can JK, if he’s in the second unit.

It’s the starters, the old guys, that have to set the tone for the game.

Can an old team even go on a winning streak with this level of talent and athleticism and pace across the NBA, across 82 games?

“Olden State” had three streaks of five or more wins in a row (5, 6, 5) after the trade for Jimmy last year. That netted them the 14-games-over-.500 finish, although that meant the Play-in. So yeah, it seems doable.

The Lakers, who finished with exactly 50 wins, 18 games over .500, which was the benchmark for the 3rd through 6th seeds, had four streaks of four or more wins (6, 4, 6, 8) and one was in November 2024.

I’m going to guess that a 50-win team, which probably guarantees you at least the 6th seed, needs four streaks of at least four or five wins in a row during the 82-game grind.

The Warriors have an eight-game home stand in the middle of January — and 10 of 11 if you start counting on Jan. 2nd.

To close out November, they have three sets of two off-days in a row at home where they’ll get to practice.

Also, De’Anthony Melton is on his way back, as he was seen sprinting in New Orleans…

…and there’s also Seth Curry. It should be interesting to see how they’ll be integrated.

There should be a win streak some time by the end of January. If not, expect Mike Dunleavy, Jr. to shake things up and, really, the only way to shake things up is to utilize the JK contract — and, again, so far what I’ve seen is, it’s all about the vets, their focus and their health. JK eventually getting traded might not even be about JK.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that because we’ve seen an identity take shape in the overtime win against Denver and it was great. Then, Steph got sick. Oh well. We shall see. Still got a lot of basketball to be played until February.

By the way, if we get through this season without any muscle strains for the Big Three — and so far it looks like there’s only been one young guy, Moses Moody, whose had one — we need to raise a Warriors polo shirt to the rafters for Rick Celebrini. I’ve recently had a couple mild calf strains just casually doing layups in a gym for cardio. They happen with sudden bursts. Here’s Steve Kerr pregame on the topic (see full video and transcript below):

I’m very concerned. It’s dramatic. The pace difference is dramatic. This team tonight has really upped their pace compared to last year and I think across the league, everybody understands now that it’s just easier to score if you can beat the opponent down the floor, get out in transition, but when everybody’s doing that, the games are much higher paced, faster paced and then everyone has to cover out to 25 feet because everybody can shoot threes. So we have all the data players are running faster and further than ever before and so we’re trying to do the best we can to protect them, but we basically have a game every other night and it’s not an easy thing to do… They (the team’s medical staff) believe that the wear and tear, the speed, the pace, the mileage, it’s all factoring into these injuries.

00:00 Everybody’s available tonight includes Al?

00:03 STEVE KERR, PREGAME GSW-ORL: Yeah.

00:04 We’ll put into, you may have some rest tomorrow, I’m sure, definitely--

00:08 Yeah, Al’s out tomorrow for sure. Obviously he’s not playing any back to backs this year. Everybody’s feeling well enough to play tonight. We got some guys banged up a little bit, but we’re gonna go out there, try to win the game.

00:25 Still day to day with Jonathan?

00:26 Yeah.

00:28 You seen any improvement or--?

00:30 Nothing to report, yeah.

00:34 Where are you at on how you guys are playing defense right now? Like, how do you feel about--?

00:38 A lot better. Yeah, our defense has improved a lot during this road trip. I think we, we’re getting better with our concepts, loading up in transition, not letting guys dribble through the cracks and get to the rim. I think in general we’re containing penetration better and so I feel a lot better about it now than I did even a week ago.

01:05 Coach, obviously last time Steph was in this building, he had a night to remember. Take me back to that game and beyond his hot hand, what do you remember working so well against those matchups for him and how do you hope to utilize him?

01:16 There’s, it’s never about matchups. It’s never about schemes. It’s never about what plays we run. It’s just about Steph being one of the greatest players of all time and there’s certain nights where it doesn’t matter what the defense does, doesn’t matter who’s out there. He was just incredible and we’ve seen it quite a bit because we’re spoiled, but yeah, the game he had here last year was, was definitely one of his best.

01:47 You’ve talked a lot about Will to start the season, how much you liked him and how he’s played. What have you liked most about what he’s brought to the team, either as a starter or off the bench?

01:57 Number one, he just knows how to play at both ends. He’s constantly making the right decision with the ball, without the ball, defensively. He’s a quick learner. We’re, he’s learning some new NBA schemes, NBA actions that we see pretty routinely. He’s picking up on those things. Main reason he’s starting is he compliments our best players really well and that’s the name of the game. We’ve gotta put Steph and Jimmy and Draymond in a position to succeed. That’s what wins in this league. Everyone has their best two or three players and how well can you support them and enhance them and that’s what leads to winning. So Will is helping us win.

02:40 Mike Brown, I asked a question last night. I say that because I might have asked it, but it was about Cup point differential and he said that when he was with you, that your philosophy was, play it out. Just always play it out.

02:54 Who, who is this?

02:55 Mike Brown. Mike Brown.

02:57 Mike Brown, yeah. Yeah.

02:58 You, you met.

03:00 Yeah, I know Mike. Yeah, nice guy.

03:02 Good man. He said that when he was with you, it was always, you just preferred just play that.

03:08 Yeah.

03:09 And now we see it in Cup Games where teams are obviously going for point differential and all that. Would you rather it just become more--?

03:15 Yes. Yeah. Yeah, somewhere along the line it became really offensive in the NBA if you actually tried to make a basket near the end of the game, for no apparent reason. My favorite one was a few years ago. There was, I think, Jimmer Fredette signed a 10 day in New York and he was, basically got in at the end of the game, down 20, 15 seconds on the game clock. He raced down and pulled up for a three pointer and somebody on the other team knocked him down and looked at him like, what are you doing? So apparently it’s also offensive if your lead is cut from 20 to 18 or 17 late in the game. It’s just one of those dumb things that there’s no rule. I think the, it was always understood that when the shot clock ran out, the other team kinda puts up their hands. You just dribble it out and you don’t go and dunk it. That’s always been understood, but it’s extended to be on the shot clock now, so now you’re supposed to take a turnover and I just, I’m not a believer in that. I think I’m on a one man crusade though, unfortunately.

04:35 Mike’s with you.

04:36 Mike? Alright, good.

04:37 He also want me to call you a bad name, but I won’t.

04:42 You’ve commented a little bit on like the increase in soft tissue injuries In the league. There’s several more today across the league.

04:51 I didn’t hear. What happened today?

04:53 Wemby’s out, Castle’s out.

04:56 Oh, wow.

04:58 How concerned are about what you’ve talked about with this (inaudible) calves and hamstrings and all that.

05:07 I’m very concerned. It’s dramatic. The pace difference is dramatic. This team tonight has really upped their pace compared to last year and I think across the league, everybody understands now that it’s just easier to score if you can beat the opponent down the floor, get out in transition, but when everybody’s doing that, the games are much higher paced, faster paced and then everyone has to cover out to 25 feet because everybody can shoot threes. So we have all the data players are running faster and further than ever before and so we’re trying to do the best we can to protect them, but we basically have a game every other night and it’s not an easy thing to do.

05:53 And you said you’ve talked to your medical staff of the belief that--?

05:58 Yeah. Yeah, they believe that the wear and tear, the speed, the pace, the mileage, it’s all factoring into these injuries.

06:09 Steve, to that point and to the point you’ve made several times, is there ever a moment where you’re in these meetings with the league, where everybody’s there, where you’re like, Hey, the best thing to do would be to cut the season a little bit. Does the topic of conversation even come up?

06:26 I bring it, I bring it up a lot and I just think it’s, if we’re actually focused on the product, it would be great. We literally have not had a single practice on this road trip. Not one. We’ve been gone a week and, or longer, eight days, not one practice because it’s just game, game, game. And so not only is there no recovery time, there’s no practice time and what was different back in the day, you did have four in five nights, which was not great, but then you’d have four days before your next game. And so you’d take a day off and you’d actually have a couple good practices and scrimmage. And so there’s no easy answer here. The league has done a great job of trying to protect players by not overloading the schedule with four and five nights, but now it’s basically we’re playing every other night. And the flip side of that is, we’re not getting any practice time and the wear and tear is there anyway because it’s the accumulation of all that, all those games and the speed and the pace and mileage and everything else.

07:38 Do you feel like you have support in the room from anybody?

07:41 I mean, the tricky part is, it, the, everyone, all the constituents would have to agree to take less revenue and 2025 in America, good luck in any industry to agree. Imagine some big company saying, you know what, we’re not as concerned about our stock price. We’re actually concerned with employing people and giving people a stable job and making our product better and. Come on, Nick (Friedell). That’s not happening. We know that.

08:17 How many good practices that do you think you’ve had since the start of the regular season?

08:24 I’d have to look back, but maybe three or four. I rattled off the schedule to you the other night. I think, tomorrow night will be our 17th game in 29 days, so 13 cities. So between practice time and travel, there’s rest time and travel. There’s very little opening for a practice, but we’ll get them next week. We, I think, we have three days next week where we’re gonna get some work in and much needed.

08:55 So is that in terms of the improvement, right, defensively and whatnot, is that just all film?

08:58 Film. It’s all film and it’s one of the things I’m really learning as a coach, is the improvements because of the schedule. You really have to come in film sessions and individual film sessions and walkthroughs and you gotta make the most of your time. And so I’m thankful for our, the young coaches that we have on the staff that who are at the forefront of kind of a maybe a different way of teaching in the league today. I think that’s a real thing. A lot of our guys who have been through the G League, they’re learning a different way to teach the game and some of it is related to lack of practice time. Some of it is related to young players who don’t have four years of college. Richard did, so you’re getting, it requires a different approach, I think, to the one that I grew up with. And so I’m thankful we got some guys on our staff who can help us through that.

10:08 Steve, let’s say all that corporate profit stuff could be worked out. What would you say would be an ideal, number of games?

10:19 I think, I don’t have an exact number for you, but everything has to be based on a formula that involves two conferences and how many games you’re playing against other teams and all that. But 72, 75, somewhere in there make a dramatic difference, for the players and I think the revenue is so high and I don’t think it would affect the national TV money because you’d still get all the national games. It would affect home game gate receipts, local TV, so for sure there would be some revenue loss, but I can’t really prove that the product would be better if we had 10 fewer games, but I would bet on it anyway. Sorry, I can’t say that either. I would be careful. I would guess, I would guess that would be the case.

11:16 How was the seeing Todd Golden last night?

11:18 It was awesome. Yeah, he came this morning, actually. Yeah. Yeah, so we were able to surprise Will and Todd presented to him his championship ring and Will was just great. The guys gave him a good ovation and he’s just a, he’s a great young guy and it was fun to be able to celebrate his accomplishment and the Gator’s accomplishment with Al sitting there and Coach Golden there. It was a really nice moment. Thanks.

00:00 What would you, what would you pinpoint the reason for the loss?

00:07 STEVE KERR, POSTGAME GSW-ORL: We needed to be really sharp tonight. We weren’t quite sharp enough. I thought we played well on stretches. They played really well. They played fast. I thought the second quarter free throws really factored in. 18 free throws for them in the second and we just had some plays we didn’t convert, some timely turnovers where they scored at the other end, so I love the effort. Guys gave everything they had, a lot of good execution and then some plays we’d like to have back.

00:40 You played Jimmy 38 minutes and Steph 34. It seemed like they were really going after this one.

00:45 Yeah.

00:45 Do you know yet what that means for tomorrow?

00:47 I don’t. We gotta talk to our performance staff and we’ll determine what we’re gonna do.

00:53 Steve, you said you liked the effort in these last few losses, especially without a star player or top guy on a different team. Is there something you can point to as to why maybe the mental letdown, just in that whole bit?

01:09 No, this is the NBA. This is a damn good team we played tonight on their home floor and so we, you have to be a little sharper than that. We’re gonna have to do a better job taking care of the ball. We know that we had 18 turnovers tonight. It felt like a lot of them came at really key times where the momentum was shifting our way and then quickly shifted back the other with our turnovers, so that’ll be something we’re gonna harp on and try to correct, but I really love the effort. I like our team a lot. I think we’re gonna be, we’re gonna be really good, so we just gotta keep plugging away.

01:49 Coach, the Warriors, championship DNA. You guys have been through the meat grinder, so to speak, over the years. It’s early, just talk about continuing to work through this and just continuing to play Warriors basketball.

02:03 Yeah. Yeah, like I said, we have, we have a good team. We got a lot of depth. We got a great approach. Our players are connected, chemistry’s good and I thought we got a lot better, to this point on this trip. Five games with one to go and no practices, but I thought, I thought we saw our team come together over this last week and I’m excited about that.

02:28 Steve, when you get to the end of a trip, is it almost solely the performance staff or how much does player input still factor into whatever?

02:37 It’s a collaboration, for sure, and we’ve got some guys who are banged up, so we have to make sure we handle things the right way. And that will be determined here, tonight. Tomorrow we’ll see how our guys are doing.

02:56 Steve, I don’t know how much you watched Anthony Black in time, but what did he think about what he gave them tonight?

03:02 Yeah, Anthony’s a really good young player, aggressive. I thought he, his defense was, was good and attacked the rim, got some buckets at the hoop, but yeah. Really good young player.

03:16 Seeing the league, getting dominated by bigs again and seeing what you can get from Al, Quinten and then Jackson-Davis, do you think that you can keep up with these bodies when the quiet time comes into playoffs?

03:29 Yeah, we played, we played our big lineup more in the second half for that reason. We thought, the size and the speed in the first half got us. It was a combination of that we weren’t getting back with urgency early in the game and they’re playing very differently now than they have in the past few years. We felt like we had to try to get some size out there in the second half. That’s why we went to Quinten and Al earlier.

03:59 What’d you see with the turnovers?

04:01 I’m sorry?

04:02 What’d you see with regards to the turnovers tonight?

04:04 Just it felt like everyone was, came at a bad time. I always tell the guys we’re gonna turn it over 12 times no matter what. Every team in the league turns it over. The very best team in the league probably averages 12 turnovers and so we had 18. It wouldn’t be that hard to pick out six that were just too aggressive, careless. And tonight they felt really timely. It just felt every time we got one it was, we were right on the cusp of gaining some momentum and so that, that hurt us tonight for sure. Thank you.

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04:43 The National Championship with the Gators, just talk a little bit about playing with the Warriors and coming back and playing against Orlando tonight and what it was like.

04:52 WILL RICHARD: Yeah, it was special coming back to Florida. Definitely had some friends, family, got to see my coaches today from Florida, so it was special being back in Florida and being able to come out here and compete.

05:01 Talk about working with guys like Draymond, Steph and just the NBA experience so far, what it’s been like?

05:08 Yeah, it’s been great working with guys that are gonna be Hall of Famers and being able to watch them work every day, see how they carry themselves. It’s been, it is been very special for me and I’ve been taking notes, asking them a lot of questions, so they helped make my transition to the NBA lot easier.

05:20 And what’s it like to play against Orlando? The Magic are a team that, that played here and here and you’re from Florida and what was it like to finally be here against the Magic?

05:29 Yeah, they’re a good team. They play hard in transition. They’re good at drawing fouls and being aggressive and stuff like that, so they’re a good team, for sure.

05:39 (Inaudible) oiled machine. How can you fit in and how did you find the process of joining this system?

05:48 Yeah, it’s all about making sure I come in there and impact the vets and make everything clean when I’m in the game. I’ve done a good job of asking questions and making sure I’m on the same page with them since training camp, so when I got my opportunity, I was ready to come in and not slack off or anything like that, so I’d probably say just asking them questions, seeing what they like on the court, what kind of rotations they like defensively and what they’re used to doing because at the end of the day, everything flows through them. So I gotta come in and make that transition smooth.

06:12 What kind of skills do you need to be able to contribute to this team as a rookie?

06:18 Yeah, I’d probably say just basketball IQ. It gotta be high playing with those guys. Effort, knowing to make the right plays, the right reads and stuff like that on offense and defense. So I’d probably just say IQ and then just coming in with a lot of effort is the main things.

06:32 Horford played for Florida, won a national championship, played for the Celtics, won an NBA title. Now you get to work with him with Golden State Warriors. What’s that like?

06:44 It’s been great. I met Al after our national championship in San Antonio and he’s been doing a great job of taking me under his wing, allowing me to ask him a lot of questions, teaching me the ropes and how he’s had such a long, successful career. So it’s been great having a vet like him around.

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07:02 What do you think went wrong tonight?

07:05 JIMMY BUTLER: We happened to turn the ball over a little bit, a lot a bit, which lead to us not getting back in transition. They got some costly offensive rebounds and that, that’s the game.

07:20 You’re a low turnover guy. You guys have been a high turnover team. How frustrating has that been to you?

07:29 I’m not gonna say it’s frustrating, but I can’t expect for my guys not to turn the ball over when I’m out there turning the ball over. I’ve always been one to lead by example, so if I’m turning the ball over, I guess it gives everybody else a right to turn the ball over. We just gotta get back to giving a damn about every single possession, which is easy, but it’s definitely gonna start with me not turning it over.

07:52 Jimmy, the league is the league. Why do you think you guys have struggled when there’s been one or two of the top guys on a different team out during the year?

08:00 I don’t know. We just didn’t do what we were supposed to do, what we talked about we were gonna do, no matter if they were healthy, who was out. I just think we have to do a great job of focusing on who we are and what we need to do in order to win games and what we can be better at. You give credit to those guys though. They went out there to play hard, executed and won a home game, but I think if we focus on us and what we’re supposed to be doing, it could have been a different outcome.

08:30 How much does it take out of a team when you get down 15, you get it to five, you get down 14, again, just that, that rollercoaster all night?

08:37 That’s basketball for you. It’s a game of runs and you withstand their runs knowing that yours is coming sooner or later. I wish we had more runs than we had tonight though.

08:48 Are you expecting to play tomorrow?

08:51 Who knows. Who knows. Who knows. Who knows. We’re gonna see how we feel whenever we wake up, that’s how it goes.

08:58 You kinda (inaudible) with Suggs a little bit in that fourth. Was that just physical basketball?

09:03 Man, y’all done?

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09:11 Steph, you passed Vince (Carter) on the all time scoring list tonight. As you continue to accrue even more and more milestones, what is that feeling of-- how they sink in after a while?

09:26 STEPH CURRY: There are certain names that are a little bit more special than others just because of past history and my dad playing with Vince in those three years in Toronto and his countless memories, me and my brother being around the Raptors organization and playing Vince one-on-ones, 11 or 12-year-old after practice. And to know, like, where it’s all coming full circle, those are pretty special. It’s always an honor whenever you’re passing greats like that.

09:58 Do you stop, ever, to think about that stuff while you’re so close to top 20 and all those wonderful things?

10:04 Sometimes do the math when you know, you, when you, every time there’s a, you rise up the list a little bit, but then you get out there and hoop and you don’t really think about it too much.

10:15 Was this a frustrating one?

10:18 Yeah, we knew this was a good one to get and the Orlandos are, playing well, but without Paolo it’s gonna be a fast-paced game. And they made every answer to our runs. We had some self-inflicted wounds with turnovers that gave them easy buckets at hard times throughout the game and just could never get over the hump. And disappointing, for sure, because I felt like we played well enough to win. But those lapses gave a young team confidence and they took it and ran with it.

10:57 How were you feeling, whatever, a week or so over the sickness? We played four straight road games, then.

11:05 Still dealing with it a little bit. I feel like myself, but still got some little symptoms and then a little sore ankle. That was a couple games ago and a little bit tonight, but those are the things that you’re just trying to play through and trying to figure out how to continue to build momentum. It’s been a, we all know what the schedule’s been like and nobody’s, Coach talked about it either yesterday and we try not to think about it too much, knowing it is what it is. You have to find a way to overcome it. Done a decent job. We let three games slide that we feel like we wish we would’ve had, but we’re all right now.

11:48 Tweak the ankle in San Antonio?

11:49 Yeah.

11:51 So tomorrow, theoretically, would profile as a potential rest night. Do you know your status yet tomorrow?

11:56 Just looking at how that responds because I did it again, first half tonight, but I don’t think it’s anything crazy. But it, see how it responds, the flight and how I feel tomorrow.

12:08 Steph, last year you dropped 50 plus here in Orlando tonight, despite the loss, you still dropped 30 plus here at Kia Center. Just what is it about this arena that gets you high up on that kind of score sheet?

12:20 You never really know between arenas what, how you’re gonna feel and, but there are certain arenas that you just have a different buzz. They have a loyal fan base. Dub Nation does travel in here pretty well and there’s a different kind of scream when we score or when they announce us. You appreciate that turnout and that these type of live arenas that bring the best outta you. So I love, I do love playing here.

12:47 Steph, what was it like for you to see Will get his ring or this morning?

12:54 That was cool. Coach Todd and their staff here, how he talked about Will, his character. We’ve been able to see it since he’s been with us, but you could tell it was from the heart and he was super grateful, what Will did for their program while he was there. And I know in their, their coaches short term since he’s been there, you win a championship, you rely on high quality, high character guys who can also hoop. And it’s cool to see that interaction, Will get that honor.

13:29 Steph, how tough a defender is Anthony Black, given his size and also his agility?

13:37 I think it’s interesting because I know that’s what he came into the league, trying to prove in the sense of value to a team. He’s super long athletic, quick on his feet, so he, and he has this relentless drive. He knows that’s how he’s gonna be out on the floor and offensively he played well tonight, too, so he’s elevating his game.

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