Hornets vs Jazz: Sion James Postgame Media Availability | 11/2/2025

Hornets vs Jazz: Sion James Postgame Media Availability | 11/2/2025

Yeah, I know it was a tough week uh for you guys, but to finish off this home stand the manner which you did, coming out strong, finishing strong, um just where would you kind of credit uh how you guys were able to put this out? What do you think was the biggest difference? Give a lot of credit to the veteran leadership of the team, Mel, even though he wasn’t playing and Miles especially, those two from the beginning were just talking about how we just need to stop the bleeding and do what we do and um they set the tone for all of us. Defensively, uh there’s been some challenges again in this, you know, little bit of a skid you happen to hold Utah to 103. Uh what did you like most about how you guys were defending tonight? What do you think was kind of the key areas to limiting um their offense? Big thing was just the connectivity. Gave up some easy ones early on back doors and those were the ones we really wanted to limit. Honestly, our thing was just keeping them in front of us and making them shoot over us and shoot the shots that we wanted them to shoot. We did that for the most part. Um, aside from a few back doors, a lot of free throws in the sec in the third quarter especially. Um, but for the most part, we stuck to the game plan. Seion, for many stretches of this game, you’re Larry Markin’s primary defender. And I asked coach about that. He said, “Seion earned our trust and he guards the best guys in practice as well. What goes on in this for you a day-to-day basis just trying to be that defensive minded uh player for this team? A great answer for that. Honestly, it’s just kind of what I do and being who I am. Earn coaches trust to guard the best players. I mean, it’s a big responsibility and something I don’t take lightly. So, in preparation for the games, I try to do everything I can. And I’m thankful that it works out every once in a while. Players are really good. And for us to for Miles, Miles was on marketing a lot of the time, too. So, for us to do the job we did on him was was pretty good. See, on the four rookies, you guys spent a lot of the summer together. You you’re know you’re all new to the NBA. Can you talk about what it’s like for all of you to come in and immediately become as productful as you’ve been? First of all, having four rookies is great. I’ll tell you that. Those those three are the best, man. I love being able to spend time with them and do things together when we’re on the road and just kind of go through the experience together. And being able to kind of learn together is awesome, too. So, we’ve taken pride in the role that we’ve played in the organization that we play in just winning games and being who we are on the floor and something that we all share while we’re out there. Yeah, and I think everybody’s seeing how well um Khan moves without the ball, finds finds open spaces on the floor. I mean, I imagine you saw that last year quite a bit, too. I wonder if you could speak to that um what that says about him as a player and just how he’s able to kind of find creases and get open uncontested shots up. Understand at a very high level, knows what he does well and works to that as well as anybody. I mean, he he’s not doing anything crazy a lot of the times. Every once in a while I’ll do something crazy and I’m like, “Yo, I forgot you could do that.” That’s really special. But like a lot of the stuff he does is just taking one big step to the left and making himself like you’re saying, finding windows. And that’s just a little nuance of a guy who knows how to play basketball at a high level. And like you said, it was great playing with him last year. It’s even better playing with him now. Kyle was just in here. He said that he feels like you’re shooting 100% from three on the season. Scroll. You guys have like a friendship off the court. Do you feel like there’s a chemistry that you guys have brought to Charlotte from Duke that has allowed you to to both excel early on in the season? For sure. Duke is a special place. I man, I had nothing but good things to say about my time there. And I feel like the two of us kind of went through the same experience of learning and growing there. And the reality is that’s what pretty much everyone who goes through Duke makes like a mention and it’s just somewhere where players grow and grow and grow. And I learned a ton there. I know Khan did too. And that really changed everything for both of us. You came in here a couple nights ago after I think the Orlando game and you lamented the lack of physicality for the whole team and then that being what led to the loss. Do you feel like the level of physicality was higher tonight and that was a part of why you guys came out of here with the win? Yeah, definitely higher. Um, a lot of it is just us learning from our mistakes too. Orlando was punishing us early and we kind of set the tone more so today. Whereas the last few games, especially during the stretch, teams have been setting the tone on us phys uh physically. And see, what does that mean to set the tone early like that? You guys had a big lead early on tonight and then to have this dominant win, especially the home crowd tonight, too. Win number three of the year. How cool was that one? Love winning. We always want to protect home court and we always want to set the tone early. A lot of the setting the tone is just doing what we’re supposed to do. It doesn’t always have to be making flashy plays, though that does happen every now and again, but a lot of times it’s just boxing out when we’re supposed to or um going to the basket strong and finishing in the paint when we’re supposed to. Those are the things that really set the tone and that put uh defenses on their heels. Appreciate y’all.

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