Kevin Porter Jr. Postgame Press Conference | 12.03.25

Kevin Porter Jr. Postgame Press Conference | 12.03.25

Scoot. Uh you guys have obviously had some close games not go your way this year. Just kind of how good did it feel to to close one out and and get a win against the team that’s got the best record in the East? Um it was much needed. Um we knew uh coming in tonight that we we wanted a win just for the spirit for you know protecting the land here and um a game like this you know we kind of seen everything. you know, there was adversity um from the beginning and uh we had to persevere and be resilient and um it made us come together and um I think you know, especially when Yanni went down, we had to, you know, will it in and uh figure out a way and um I’m happy that we were able to finish it. Um obviously we don’t know how long might be out, but I guess just to kind of start your guys’ day with, you know, another report about trade rumors for Giannis and kind of all of those things. How did you guys kind of work through that as a team? How’d you guys address it? Um, I mean, Yanni, I’ll just say this, there’s a lot of outside noise. Um, that’s just what comes with it. And, um, you know, Yanni does a great job of assuring that he’s wanting to be here with this group specifically. So, we ain’t worried about all the outside noise. You know, that’s my brother and um, I’m sure if it was something, he would he would come to us, but he with us. Um, and um, we going to hold it down until he ready. Since you’ve been back and sharing the back court with Ryan, how do you think your guys’ games complement each other? Um, I mean, we both, uh, like to play fast and we both like to guard. I think, um, me and Ryan can, you know, deflect and get some steals and create, um, early offense for the team. And, uh, he’s a great shooter. He’s a great scorer. And, um, I love to pass. So, um, you know, he’s he’s always been a two guard. He’s always been a great, um, scorer, um, and have the skill set, too. So, I think me coming back, um, kind of gave him the ability, you know, to beat him more and, um, you know, that allows us to be a better team all together. Jericho had a double double today. What What do you like about playing with him? Um, me and JRock, you know, we were our chemistry kind of came from last year. um we were connecting a lot on lobs and that was one of my guys for the pick and rolls um with our group last year. So me and JRock um definitely are good, but tonight we needed him to be an enforcer. Um I think that’s tonight is what we expect out of JRock. Um he’s a brute force and we just want him to be, you know, as physical as we know he can be. He showed that tonight and he helped us a lot on the rebounding. Jiannis goes down in that first quarter. you know, some non-cont and has to be helped out or uh helped off. Just how did you guys rebound from that? I mean, you guys kind of take the air out of the building. You guys were I think even went down probably kind of big right away. Um just what did it take for you guys to sort of like rally from that moment? Anybody say anything or was there any kind of message? Um I mean, in the moment of the game, you know, all you can say is, you know, um we got to elevate. You know, our star players out, so all of us got to elevate. And I think that was the message. And um usually when when things like that happen, you know, two things. It’s either, you know, you you come together as a unit and um you figure out a way to reel it in for him or, you know, the the air gets sucked out of, you know, like you said, and uh we can’t we can’t uh come back from it. And I think uh I think Yanni will be proud of us um that we was able to come back and u finish the game and get a win for him. And then uh you know a couple of weeks ago when both of y’all were out, you and Giannis um and the team really kind of just struggled to create shots. Were you looking at that time and and kind of like almost chomping at the bit to be like, “All right, I see spots where I can help with my sort of sation or just being able to off the dribble.” Um and is that kind of what you were able to do tonight? Um yeah, I mean um my time out I wanted to take advantage and make it most valuable and uh valuable and um you know little things like that seeing what you know what we can work on um seeing what we needed to um be better at. Um was all I was able to do. So, I definitely hone into that time of studying us as a unit, studying us in the game. And um I just want to be able to make life easy for for my guys. And um you know, I had seven turnovers today, which I’m going to hear a lot from my wife about that. But um yeah, like it’s it’s one of those things, you know, the ball’s going to be in my hand and I got to I got to contribute and make sure my guys are happy. I imagine you went up against Ryan a number of times during training camp. What is it that makes him such a good defender? He don’t stop. Um his motor don’t stop, you know. Even me, like I I press up five times, I might take a play off, you know. Um but his his his motor and um his will to to guard the best defenders at 94 feet, like that’s hard. You can’t teach that. And um I think he thrives off of it, you know, getting deflections, getting a couple steals, and then, you know, his offense start flowing. Like I got a chance to see, you know, the intensity of of everything um going against him in training camp. So I knew, you know, what what he was capable of and I’m happy that he took this leap that he did um while I was out because it’s honestly a leap like that is not heard of from from no one. So I just want him to to flourish and keep flourishing. AJ Green had some really big moments. I think it was around the seven minute mark in the fourth where he hit backto-back threes to give you guys the lead. What did you see from him as far as his impact on both ends? Yeah, man. AJ’s um AJ’s is one of the hardest workers and um you know the shots that he take, they’re not for everyone. Um those are shots that we’ve seen him make in his sleep with his eyes closed um a million times. So, we trust him to to take and make those shots. And um I think that he knows that now. You know, we give him that assurance to if you feel, you know, if you if you catch the ball and you feel it, just let it fly. And um he’s been doing that the last couple of games. And we need him. We need him to play um how he is. Um we feed off of AJ. You know, he’s a he plays the right way every night. Um he has one agenda, which is win, and he gives himself to the team. So having AJ is definitely something that Well, we’ve seen it tonight. So, uh, that’s the most zone you guys have run in a game, I think, this entire season. Doc was saying during timeouts, he just kind of calling guys and just saying like, “All right, like let’s move a little bit this way.” You’re making adjustments on the fly. How comfortable did you guys feel in that zone kind of by the end of the night? Um, I think we’re I think the zone is very good for us. Of course, no one wants to play zone, but when you got to go to it, um you know, zone perfecting it is definitely, you know, a specialty if you can’t perfect it. So, um we threw it at it and it was working and I’m I’m glad we stuck with it and um it won us a game.

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