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Jan. 9, 2004 |
Maurice Taylor Mini-Interview
By InsideHoops.com
The Houston Rockets just visited the Knicks and racked up a convincing win in Madison Square Garden. Houston forward Maurice Taylor sat down with InsideHoops.com for an exclusive interview.
InsideHoops.com: Talk about the Rockets in general. You guys are coming
along, still learning what Jeff Van Gundy wants, doing well, obviously still making
adjustments.
Maurice Taylor: We're putting it together. Just like any team that learns a new system, new coach, it has some ups and downs, but we're trying to be more consistent. We're trying to get our consistency together, and get our offense up to where our defense is playing. Our defense is playing good, but overall I think we're doing pretty well. We still got lot of improvement to make, but I think we can be a real good team.
InsideHoops.com: Your defense is great, all season. No one scores on you guys.
Maurice Taylor: Our defense is at another level right now. We're playing really well, defensively. Offensively, we just have to just get more consistent. Like tonight (in New York), we really had it going. On the nights we're not shooting good, we still have to be able to get buckets, get easy buckets and not make it so hard on ourselves. But our offense will catch up. We've got scorers on this team, so it shouldn't be long.
InsideHoops.com: Talk about Jeff Van Gundy's changes. Yao Ming is more of a focal point, generally. A bit less Steve Francis as far as plays go.
Maurice Taylor: Steve still has the ball 90 percent of the time. Just because a play's not called for him doesn't mean that he's not going to get the ball and not have the ball in his hand. We have a 7-6 guy that has a lot of skill, so we definitely want to take advantage of that, but at the same time we know Steve makes this team go.
InsideHoops.com: Do you see this team ever running more, and speeding up a bit?
Maurice Taylor: Coach wants us to run, but at the same time we're trying to get into our offense as much as we can. It's on us to get out and run. He definitely wants us to run a whole lot better, and we definitely got to improve in that area.
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