Steve Clifford Reminds Reporters That Coaching Is More Complicated Than It Looks

The Hornets lost 103-115 to the Miami Heat this evening to fall behind 0-2 in their first round series. The Hornets had a top-ten defense in the regular season, but they’ve allowed Miami to score 238 points in their first two games. Naturally, someone asked Hornets coach Steve Clifford about whether he’d make any adjustments for Game 3. He then gave a great, thoughtful two-minute speech on the slipperiness of “adjustments” as a tonic and he called the basketball media dumb in the nicest way possible.

Here’s the full transcript of his answer:

Clifford is right, in a sense, that winning basketball games is about execution and the basics than elaborate schemes or quantum theorizing or anything like that. Patience is essential in evaluating whether or not a coaching strategy is working because, as Clifford notes, sometimes guys just miss shots and it’s that simple.

Unfortunately, Nic Batum turned his ankle rather severely, so he’ll have to tweak his starting lineup anyway.