“At halftime, I kind of told him, ‘We’ve gotta do more to affect the game. They’re trying to take you out. You can do more than just score the ball. Your shot’s not dropping, what are you gonna do?’ We kind of challenged him defensively. He was much better in the second half defensively. ‘Can you go get an O board? Can you get a defensive rebound?’ So I thought late in the game, he was in there when we were closing that game and making that run, and he got some rebounds and then he stepped up to the free throw line and did it.
“He’s not gonna be 7-of-9 from three, 5-of-9. He’s not gonna shoot that way every night out. Tonight, he was 0-of-5 from three, but at one point, he was like 50 percent from three. Teams are gonna key on him. I think teams are gonna realize that if you totally key on him, we’ve got plenty of other players that can beat you. So you’ve gotta be careful just keying on him. They were really keying on him. Jaden Bradley gets down in the lane and dunks the ball because Jarace Walker’s so concerned with guarding Brandon Miller, he doesn’t switch the ball screen or edge or whatever the plan they were supposed to be in at that point, just lets him go right down the middle of the lane and dunk the ball.
“We’re gonna use Brandon as a screener sometimes. We’re gonna take him off screens, and he’s great that way. He’s gonna be playing in the NBA next year even if he has an 0-for-8 game. His talent level is so high. Obviously, we want him to get better and let’s work with him on doing other things to help win the game, but I thought he showed he could do that in the second half.”
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