WATSON QUOTES

PHOENIX SUNS vs. MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES

TALKING STICK RESORT ARENA

MARCH 14, 2016

PHOENIX SUNS 107 | MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES 104

PHOENIX SUNS HEAD COACH EARL WATSON

(On Teletovic’s game winner)

“It is how I drew it up, but Telly had to put in the dribble. It’s just Telly. He’s going to add something extra to everything. We knew spur of the moment, creating in the moment, we knew that Telly can come off, he’s really good at coming off down-screens and turn, pin-down actions. We also knew that if he wasn’t open, Brandon Knight had set that back-screen, he was going to pop up. He’d be at the top of the key and have his entire right hand to use his speed vs. Rubio. Telly being Telly…If you draw up a play for Telly or anyone else, if it touches his hands, he’s shooting it. The play could be for him to catch it on the pin-down and swing to the other side, it’s not going to get all the way through. It’s just Telly, we love him for who he is, and it’s a part of having that guy who sometimes you might say that’s a crazy shot, but he hits big shots: Chicago, tonight, through the Florida game he hit big threes. We love Telly.”

(On what this win means for the team)

“We’re embracing the process. We enjoy the win, it’s great for the fans, but we understand what we have to build and it’s not going to happen overnight and it’s not going to just change the course of our season just by winning one game. We have to be consistent and commit to the process and surrender to where we are, and continue to build without using buzz words, but actually putting in the work.”

(On the importance of the play of Tucker and other veterans on the team)

“As Tuck goes, as we go. And this is the message to the team, it’s very direct: we need Brandon, Tyson, and Tucker to lead us with energy, effort, communication, and focus. Our young guys are going to score a lot of points, and out of that group, Brandon is going to score a lot of points. But we cannot win if they just score points. We can win if our veterans lead us in energy, effort, focus, and tenacity. And if our young guys struggle, we still have a chance to win. So really the box scores don’t really matter to us. It’s the x-factor, it’s the things that don’t show up on the stat sheet. So those guys, they embraced that role, and ever since then I think we’ve been pretty focused and bringing it every night.”

(On the mentality he wants from the team going forward)

“We’re playing better. But this is one thing we emphasize to the team. When you lead a team you talk about losing. When you lose, you learn from your losses, you study your losses, you have the self-discipline to let it go. So we can’t take losing too far until tomorrow. Then it has to be balanced with winning. And what I mean by that is we can’t fall in love with winning. We can’t start feeling overconfident. We have to stay confident, stay balanced, and fall in love with playing the right way, fall in love with doing things at the right time every position, playing the right way, and playing for each other. If we just focus on that, the wins and losses will take care of itself.”

SUNS BASKETBALL COMMUNICATIONS