04/28/2008 - 23:29
My Coach of the Year
by Tyson Chandler

It's funny. I read it this morning in the newspaper. That's how I found out. But I think it's awesome and well-deserved. I had thought Coach Scott should win it. I didn't actually know when they announced it, but I was very happy to see that he had won, because I thought he deserved it. He did an excellent job, not only managing our team, but also getting us better as individuals.

Coach Scott approaches the game and he approaches the players in a different manner than the other coaches I've had. First of all, you can tell that he believes in you and what you can accomplish on the basketball court when he's talking to you. He's very personable and very aware of what's going on with you as a basketball player and even in your life in general.

And then on top of that, he also knows how to push a player. So, you take the combination of him taking the time to understand his players individually and how to push them on the basketball court, and then he knows how to form all those individuals into a team.

I haven't read it, but I've heard comments about what happened in New Jersey. And he doesn't talk about his past at all. He never brings it up. I can't comment on it because I wasn't there. All I know is that he's the type of person to give his players a chance and an opportunity, and he's not too big to let his assistant coaches speak up. So, I don't know if people took that out of context and thought that he wasn't doing his job, but obviously, he's a winner. And he's shown it. He took New Jersey to the Finals two years in a row, and then they removed him and they haven't done well since.

And he comes over here, and turns a franchise that won 18 games three years ago into the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference and the Southwest Division champs. So, he's proven that he's a winner with a totally different staff.

GAMES 3 & 4
I think that in Game 3, they came out and played with a Game 7 mentality and we were stuck in a Game 3 mentality. I felt like we got our two wins at home and it's kinda hard, as we've seen throughout all the series, to come in after going up 2-0 and win that first game on the road, because that other team is playing with their backs against the wall. They know if they go down 3-0, it's going to be a tough road ahead of them.

So they came out and fought, and they threw their best punch at us. But I felt like we survived it. Even in that game, I felt like we had some chances to win. So that really helped us out going into Game 4, because we were like, "Look, they threw their best punch at us, and we still felt like we had a chance to win the game. We just never turned it on. So, we know they're gonna come out in Game 4 and do the exact same thing. This time, we gotta take that punch and also dish them out."

And I felt like we learned our lesson from Game 3. The exact same thing happened. In Game 3, we didn't keep it up. We just sat back and countered everything. In Game 4, we said, "We're not waiting for them. We're gonna apply all the pressure and they're gonna have to play off us." And that was the difference in the game.

I'm glad they do that +/- stat, because a lot of times people look at the boxscore, and if your numbers don't jump out at you, they can't tell how you impacted the game. And Game 4 was one of those games where I wasn't scoring the ball. And in the first half, we gave up so many offensive rebounds and so many hustle buckets. That's what really was keeping them in the game.

In the second half, I told my teammates, "I'm gonna sacrifice myself. I'm gonna get everybody out of the key. Somebody just come get the ball for me. And whoever gets the ball, let's start the break." So, I was just trying to get everybody out, and a lot of times, our guards got the rebound and started the fast break. It worked out better for us.

JANNERO & JULIAN
Jannero has been unbelievable for us, but I'm not surprised by what he's been doing. For one, I see it everyday in practice. And he's been doing it his whole career, except that he's never had the opportunity to channel it. He's always been that guy like, "Oh, we're down by 20. Throw him in." Or "We're up by 20. Throw him in."

This is the first time he's had the opportunity to play significant minutes, and that's one of the things I can also contribute to Coach Scott. He believed in Jannero, saw the talent, and molded him into a guy that he could come in and trust to run the club, as well as provide the same spark that he has his whole career.

Game 4 was pretty much the Jannero-Julian show. J.J. They just brought so much energy and that's what got us over the hump. Jannero and Julian came in, got a couple of steals and got us some fast break points. Jannero picked up where he left off in Game 3, hitting big shots.

At that point, we weren't scoring the ball well. And when they start scoring and getting us back in the game, we say, "OK, we can ride this wave with these two and we just gotta lock up." So, we locked up on the other end, and those two provided the scoring and the energy. Then the starters, when we got back in, we kinda fed off it.

J-KIDD'S FOUL
After seeing J-Kidd's foul on tape, I thought it was a bad foul. During the game, I thought they were both going full speed and it was just a hard foul. After watching it on tape, I thought it was a tough foul, because he grabbed him around the neck and he continued to throw him down. There was no play on the ball and it's not like he even let go. So, it was definitely a tough foul. It's the playoffs and luckily, Jannero was expecting it and was able to brace himself. If he didn't, it would have been an ugly foul.

It's really tough, because I have the utmost respect for Jason Kidd. I love Jason Kidd. I love what he does as an athlete and what he did as a teammate on the USA team. I just love and admire what he's done his whole career. And I've always thought he's been a good dude for the NBA. Even if I didn't play with him over the summer, it's tough when you have that much respect for a guy, because your first reaction is to protect your teammate at all costs.

SEA OF GOLD
Tonight, the opportunity to close is here. We gotta take advantage of it. The one thing we don't want to do is let them walk us down in games. If they win a game here, then we gotta go back to Dallas and then they can win a game on their home floor and throw the pressure back on us. We want to finish it while we have the opportunity.

You're gonna see a very passionate game tonight. Dallas, I'm sure, is gonna play with a lot of pride. They don't want their season to be over. And you're gonna see the best Hornets team tonight, because this is the first time that we've been in this situation as a group, and we want to show ourselves that we can get it done and close it out.

Our crowd has been awesome for us so far and I expect it to be ridiculous tonight. I expect it to be even more juiced than the first two games. We told our fans through the media after Game 4 that we want everybody to wear gold tonight. So, I'm expecting to see a sea of gold.