Bump. On this morning. Spoiler http://houston.cbslocal.com/2012/01/25/mchale-dalembert-has-been-invaluable/ http://houston.cbslocal.com/?podcas...=true&config_file=config.xml&dcid=CBS.HOUSTON Coach, you're on with Marc, John and John McClain, how's it going today? I'm doing well guys, how are you guys doing? Fantastic; great. Good. So the winning streak in progress. 7 and counting. Milwaukee in town tonight. What's been the big difference? Obviously I know the schedule has been favorable but you have to love the way your team is playing right now. Yeah, the schedule turned in our favor a little bit after a brutal start. We had 7 of our first 10 on the road and just getting together and having 9 days under your belt with training camp and...I guess the thing I'm most pleased with is, after the Clippers game, we just got pounded, they beat the heck out of us. The next day, we went into the gym and really worked on things. There were some guys that were tired and didn't want to work that hard, and we had played back to back games and had another set of back to backs coming up but the guys really found a way to dig in and really work hard. I said "Guys, we got to get better. It's unacceptable to get beat by 30. We gotta work." It was an interesting practice. A lot of volatility in the practice. I think that brought everybody together. Even though we lost a couple games after that, we really competed hard at home against OKC, lost a tight game, lost an OT game in SA, then went down to Charlotte and won but we have been playing pretty solid since then. I think the team realized if they work hard and really defend, and get out there, and if we can run and get some pace(?) in the game after we get stops, we can be a pretty good team. Do you guys as a staff feel you're just getting your legs under you so to speak after the disarray that the off-season was? It takes awhile for us. We're still figuring out our best big lineup, our best small lineup. Some things are becoming clear to us. Really trying to figure out how many minutes the guys can really play effectively, when we stretch them too much, when we maybe give them a 12-14 minute run, that's maybe too much for certain guys, other guys can go 8-10 minutes. And then how we're going to finish games. I don't think that's just us to be truthful. I think that's the entire league. There's just a lot of teams getting used to each other, even teams that were together for awhile are finding it difficult. Look at Dallas. A majority of those guys are coming back and they're having a tough time getting it going. Talking to most of the coaches, they feel the same way. Its been a really odd start to the year in a lot of ways but again like I said, I'm pleased with our guys. Our guys are getting after it. I'm proud of how much they like to compete. In this league, that's a huge thing. If you compete, you're in good shape. I know there was so much focus on the defensive end that you've guys made. Did the offense suffer at all? Seems like you're starting to click there and picking things up a lot better. I don't know if I would say starting to click. We gotta make sure our D provides offense for us. We gotta get out on the break. Our spacing gets jammed up. Our wings don't run deep and far enough sometimes. These are some things that happen. When we had that stretch of I think 9 games in 13 days, you could see our execution start to go down and down. We talked about it but what you need is practice time to get out on the floor and really go through things, and show them on tape and then really pound away in practice. The guys have been good about learning through video. I would tell you that, is our offense exactly where we want it to be? No not yet, but hopefully we're crawling towards that direction. Talk about what Samuel Dalembert means to your team. Oh wow, Samuel, I cant even tell you how valuable he has been. His ability to block shots, be big, rebound, just control the paint, I can't even begin to tell you the importance of that and what he has done for our team as far as guys know he is behind them, they can be more aggressive on the ball, Sammy's coming over blocking shots. When you have a shot blocker and a legitimate rim protector, rebounder, guy that covers up so many different mistakes on the perimeter, the perimeter guys are a lot more confident that they know if they make a mistake, there is a chance it will be erased by Sammy or at least make the guy miss. I can't even put into words what it means for us. He's been a wonderful guy to coach. He came in like a lot of guys. Sammy said "I'm in ok shape.". Then after two days, he said "I'm in really bad shape.". I said everybody is. That was one of the oddest things. As a NBA player, there is a rhythm to it in normal years. In normal years, you're coming back to your city in the first part of September. Then you have 3 weeks with the training staff that are pushing you and coaches are there. Then 28 days of training camp. A lot of the guys came in in September shape for the season. It took them awhile but Sammy is a hell of an athlete. He got into good shape pretty quickly. I'm trying to think, the only one I can think of is Chauncey Billups, that was a good player early in his career, first 2-3 years, and then became great. I'm starting to wonder if that's whats happening with Kyle Lowry. Do you remember anyone making that leap? If you're going to find that leap, you'll normally find it in big guys and point guards. Those positions, you gotta remember Kyle is only 25. Hes not a 35 year old guy. And it's funny you mention Chauncey. When I was up in Minnesota, we had Chauncey there for us, with us. You could see him growing and getting better. That PG spot is one of those deals where so much is experience and learning. Kyle has been fantastic. Hes a phenomenal rebounder for his size. 8-9 rebound all the team. He's a great rebounder. He can see the floor. Has good instincts. Really worked on his shot. Became a really good 3 pt shooter. His package keeps getting better. As Kyle gets more comfortable and hits that nice stride, 25-32, 25-32 is that nice stride where you have enough experience but yet the league hasn't beaten the life out of your legs yet. He's just hitting that, he's just hitting that point. Military Appreciation night for all branches as Milwaukee is in town. What about this match-up with the Bucks tonight? First of all, what a great night to honor the military and all they do for us. I hope the people come out and really support them and come out and support our Rockets but really come out and support the military people. Milwaukee will play hard. Scott Skiles teams, they just play hard. Tonight will be a dogfight. Who will play hardest? Who will get after all the 50-50 balls? Who will get the loose rebounds? Who will get the plays that don't end up clean? There are so many plays that don't end up clean. All that stuff will determine the game. We have to make sure we outplay our man and as a team, we outplay them and outhustle and outwork them because it will be a workman like game tonight. Thanks for the time. Appreciate having you on. Best of luck this evening. Ok guys, thanks a lot. Take care.
