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Deseret News - Jazz
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SALT LAKE CITY — Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan doesn’t look at tonight’s Game 4 with Utah as a must-win for his team, but he wants his team to execute particularly in areas his players can control.
“I never look at it that way,” Donovan replied when an Oklahoma City reporter asked after Monday's shootaround if his team was in a must-win situation. Donovan then listed the ways his team must improve to come away with a victory.
“I think 52 points off of our turnovers, that’s second-chance points. We’ve got to do a better job of rebounding the ball. We’ve got to do a better job of getting to the free-throw line and keeping them off the free-throw line and getting back in transition. Those are things we’ve got to do better.”
Donovan was referring to the number of points the Jazz have gotten off OKC turnovers over the three games. As for rebounding, the Jazz have outboarded the Thunder by 24 in the three games and in the free-throw department have shot 20 more (80-60) than OKC in the first three games.
As for motivating his players, Donovan says there’s little he can do and knows they’ll be ready to play Monday night.
“These guys are professionals and have been in all sorts of situations,” he said. “Utah’s going to come out and play hard, our guys are going to come out and play hard. But you have to not only be playing hard, but you have to execute and be disciplined and a lot goes into that.”
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