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Los Angeles Sparks head coach Curt Miller’s pregame interview before Sparks vs Las Vegas Aces game on Sunday, June 9, 2024.
Miller talked about guard A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum and the ongoing development of rookies Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson.
first uh uh Leia back um Ary was back even though she was under a minut restriction with her ankle um it was nice to be able to find some Rhythm for Lexi and her natural position of the two um you know early in that um preseason exhibition games and even early in the season uh we had some effective minutes with Lexi at the point guard in fact that lineup for a long time even League wide with five of those players on the floor was one of the more productive lineups but Lexi was a facilitator and couldn’t hunt as much for her offense so really happy for her to see the ball go through the hoop she’s a tremendous shooter so those four threes not only helped us get a very important home win but you know gave her a big deep breath um so again she’s an a very talented two guard um brings a spark off the bench for us right now and again just trying to get her back in a rhythm that frankly I you know contributed taking our out of uh because of out of necessity playing her different roles so excited if she can build upon it uh she did have a good first Vegas game so excited to see how she’ll um step up tonight coach Eric L is the second cover City Observer uh today you guys currently rate fourth in team rebounding and the aces are are seven uh today’s game features two of the the more Premier rebounders in the league in ER in Asia is winning the battle of the boards how crucial is winning the battle of the boards today yeah real important that first game they had 10 offensive rebounds so we’d like to you know uh keep that lower um obviously we’re going to get a spirited Aces team uh I think you heard Becky uh talked after that last game so we know the pride that’s in that locker room you know the pride in every locker room in this league so we we know we’re going to get a spirited um you know uh play out of the aces from the beginning so we’ve got to be ready for that points in the paint the battle of the paint the rebounding um can we keep our fouls low around the rim when Asia’s going to the rim um is all a big big part of success for both teams tonight paint is always going to play a big part hey Kurt two-part question uh first of all how have Raa and Cameron adjusted to this league and the second part of the question is what is it what what are some of the things that that rookies have to deal with and maybe stumble across in the transition from college to the NBA or the WNBA yeah first Ria um so you know really pleased you know with how they’ve handled everything um they’re high-profile rookies um there’s a lot of social attention a lot of expectations of drafting two lottery picks and building uh our future with the the youth in mind with those two as pieces of the puzzle so first of all they came in with expectations they came in um with a lot of fanfare and they’ve handled it terrifically what they have been asked um as they help us grow uh our fan base and how they help us grow our footprint off the floor is a lot um and they’re incredibly gracious with their time uh they’re tremendous in the public and the community and with their fans so uh I can’t be more pleased we have two tremendous character rookies um their play um as most rookies is at times a little bit inconsistent right now you know shortest training camp in the history of the league uh we’re in a tough Cadence of games because of the Olympic year so their learning laboratory is in games a lot and that’s not easy to do when you’re learning in front of 10,000 people every night uh that’s pressure and anxiety and and so um you ask you know what are some of the things that you know they have to learn from well they have to learn from the physicality they have to learn in game uh with a lot of pressure on them with a lot of eyeballs on them with a lot of people right writing about them and they’ve just handled it with a ton of um Grace they we’ve given them Grace um so just excited about the future cam is impacting us night in Night Out defensively and with her motor offensively uh she’s got more in the tool bag than than maybe what she’s been able to show consistently but you see flashes of it Ria opposite uh a really impactful offensive player that can go get a bucket when plays break down she has the ability of putting the ball in the basket um defensively hard because she’s playing two positions not only is she seen the uh physicality and the athle athleticism at the three then she’s guarding fours and that’s the best position in the world in women’s basketball right now are the incredible fours around this league so um not easy you know as a veteran playing to different positions but she’s playing two different positions as a rookie so um oh just can’t be more pleased um and the consistency will come and they will continue to get more comfortable and grow and get better but they’re tremendous in our locker room our players love them and we are very fortunate to have them coach I’m wondering how do you mentally and physically approach this game when you know that the aces are going to be without two of their four Olympians thank you reminding me that they have four Olympians um yes I think you know for us um this league has incredible players from top to bottom on rosters and it’s these uh situations that are the unintended consequences that open the door for pros to really take advantage of an opportunity and you know my career in Connecticut was the unintended consequence of an injury opening the door for other people who are now Allstars because of a situation like this so you know players are now ready to step up in replace that so um you’re we’re going to see a lot more of Tiffany Hayes tonight right we know how good Tiffany Hayes is you know there’s G to be more minutes for Kate Martin there’s going to be more minutes for Megan gusterson there’s going to be more minutes for Sid Coulson um and you know like now does Kelsey and and Asia try to shoulder even more and they go try to get I believe you’re going to see them go try to get 50 or more between those two tonight and can we keep those two under 50 combined um you know so um you watched them win a championship when they were down in numbers and injured and you watch Kayla George and other people last year step up so like any team around the league you know that players are going to be ready and Vegas will be no exception tonight hey coach DJ from infan TV a couple games ago we talked to you and there was a little bit of frustration around how aggressive the team was playing and how hard the team was playing in the last game we saw a change in that what was the conversation going into today’s game in the locker room with just coming out and and playing as hard as possible um for the first half of the game yeah I think you know from the Minnesota game to the Dallas game there was a lot of Pride um simple conversation as much as possible is like remember who you have across your chest and what an opportunity that we all have to be called Los Angeles Sparks coaching staff down to the players and uh and and we played with more Pride we played with more physicality we played with more urgency so we’ve talked about that urgency again tonight we’ve talked about how we’re going to get a spirited Aces group um and so again you know like this this league you just watch New York who’s on a winning streak earlier today um playing great basketball playing against Washington and it’s anyone’s game right like that that it’s anyone’s game in this league at any night so you’ve got to lay it on the line we’ve got to play with a bunch of physicality a bunch of Pride um and you know it’s not easy to play all these consecutive games uh but we have to find the energy that it takes to be to team like Vegas more hey coach Jackie Ray Jackie Ray TV you talked before about this is a copycat League people are running the same buckets of play but the physicality is different have you talked to the team how are they going to level up a little bit more physically in this game especially going against a team like the aces yeah I you know again um you know you can talk about it but they’ve got to go out and execute it um I think we’re prepared um I think they’re energized coming off of that win we know that we’re going on the road after this game for seven straight road games um don’t get me started on how to pack for that um um so um you know it’s an opportunity to to hold serve at home which is important I’ve always uh preached how important homec court advantage is and in protecting home court as you build teams and we don’t have the record at home that we would like uh but we can’t look back we’ve just got to keep moving forward and really try to protect home cord and we know some of the things that you mentioned that’s going to take tonight hey coach when you’re going up against a player like Asia what’s the message to the team kind of when you have a player at that level yeah we got to give her different looks um it’s not one person guarding her um you don’t guard the superstars with one person around this league you can just that’s anyone that’s been around me know that’s our you know first pillar in our defensive approach that we try to shrink the floor we try to make it look congested um so we’ve got to give her different looks uh throughout and then the the hardest thing about Asia is keeping her off the foul line and so can we find a physicality that will be allowed by the officials um and at the same time try to keep her off the foul line but if we play her the same way for 40 minutes she’s too talented and then also like if Asia goes gets her points tonight um and we make them as difficult as possible like gque a little different for post players but if you can make them be a little bit inefficient or take a lot of shots to get their points again we you know we I I forget the stat now but I think gque scored 44 points on 58 shots um so we’d take that any day if if Asia gets 30 tonight but she had to take 22 shots or 20 you know 20 plus shots uh you know make we might take that because of the efficiency or non-efficiency so um but if she starts to have a big night we can’t let anyone else have a big night so um you know we read that in kind of the chest match within the game thank you Kurt hey last thing I’ll say hey Pride night tonight obviously very special to me uh I’ll talk about this at the end of the game also but for 22 years um has a long time to division one head coach and then Pro coach um I remain the only out gay male head coach at D1 or pro basketball men’s or women’s college men’s or women’s uh G League all included and so I really take my role seriously I become more popular this month um um but you know it’s in all seriousness it’s like um you know it’s it’s really important to me to continue um to provide visibility and representation to the coaches behind me I didn’t have a role model I didn’t have someone that I could call and reach out to to navigate as a gay male in sports and I’ve watched so many gay young men in basketball both men’s and women’s including the NBA and G League drop out of chasing their dreams because there’s not a lot of visibility or representation um beside myself and so I’m going to try to keep um carrying that Banner until the decision makers uh open the door more and advancement as possible for young gay men that are in the sport of basketball we are losing too many because they don’t see advancement opportunities and they’ve only seen me for 22 years and I am hellbent to keep plugging away so those barriers are broken down um for others and you personally as someone that’s recently out of a relationship with an active Pro aete um knowing what they still worry about in a pro lock PR men’s locker room and just wanting to be one of the guys um and watching them potentially struggle is is really difficult for me and understanding that it is really hard still for men active Pro athletes uh to be themselves in that locker room and uh I can’t wait till the day that that changes thank you
