Suns 130, Wizards 123
Q. Corey, what is the lesson after that game? Is it the way that you all approached the first half or the final 12 minutes?
COREY KISPERT: It's how the final 12 minutes cut (indiscernible) on the first half. A team like that wants to play free and easy. They want to play a fun game, they want to get up-and-down, get some cardio, make some shots, and it's our job to make them uncomfortable, and we started to do that in the latter part of the third quarter and I think in the fourth quarter. It paid dividends and it showed what kind of impact it can have.
Q. What's it like when the coach rolls with a hot lineup that's got it going, not the most conventional lineup for you guys but he can see it's working?
COREY KISPERT: Yeah, it's great, and it breeds confidence in those players. A lot of times during the course of the season players start to feel like they're kind of a routine, you know when you're going in, you know when you're coming out. It's kind of set for you like that. When you're playing really, really good and Coach rolls with it and lets you stay out there, it's a lot of fun, and we definitely had fun in the fourth quarter today. Playing with that lineup, however unconventional it was, speaks to our versatility and speaks to the ability of our team to play with whatever and have any lineup out there. But anybody can step up and do it.
Q. What do you think of the way Kyshawn played tonight?
COREY KISPERT: Yeah, that's a representation of what he can be and literally shoot the piss out of it. He was making everything in practice, and a game like this hopefully really kind of opens the floodgates for him and I hope he takes it and runs with the confidence of that aspect of it, too.
Q. What have you learned through half a season about Alex?
COREY KISPERT: Yeah, he's going to be very, very special. He's got to apply it every single night. That's what a player of his caliber and his potential has to do in order to realize it. He can guard at an elite level. He can protect the rim at an elite level. He can step out and shoot it. Those things -- all those things are not really things that you can teach, and he has the ability to do it right now. It's a matter of him applying that every single game and playing super, super hard, and he can take advantage of the gifts that he has.
Q. How much did you hear about all his Summer League misses and his rough start from three, and having heard that, what does it say to you that he kept shooting and --
COREY KISPERT: Yeah, it says a lot. That's what we need him to do. He needs a really, really high pick, and our organization values what he brings to the table a lot. You see it in the minutes he plays and the role he's given on this team. It says a lot to him or says a lot about him that he's not shying away from it and he wants to step into that.
A lot of people would take the start that he had and the Summer League that he had and think about it and just be discouraged by it. But he's continued to show up, and he's continued to play the way that we need him to play now and in the future.
Q. When you talk about him applying it every night, is that an effort thing from him, like the nights where he's not applying --
COREY KISPERT: It's not necessarily an effort thing, it's like a mentality thing really. These games continue to come, they continue to roll around, and he hasn't played an NBA season yet. That's not something you know until you've done it.
When you get to this part of the season, the dog days, if you will, the teams and the players who bring it every single game and step up ready to play every single game are the ones that have the advantage because teams oftentimes take nights off and players take nights off, and if you play 100 percent and you play your heart out, things tend to fall your way if you just bring it every single game.
Q. He's got a pretty even-keel laid-back attitude. How do you think that helps you or doesn't help him at times?
COREY KISPERT: Yeah, it definitely helps him in regards to lets things kind of roll off his back. Tough times don't affect him too much. It doesn't seem like it at least. He kind of moves on to the next play really easily, so that helps. That kind of laid-back personality can be honed into a killer instinct, as well, and that's something he's going to learn how to do and learn how to develop when he plays in bigger games and he plays in bigger moments and gains a lot more confidence from the way he's playing.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports