For Jeff Hornacek and the Phoenix Suns, the grind continues – but in an impressive, willing fashion.
Hornacek joined Arizona Sports’ Doug & Wolf Tuesday for his weekly radio show, and discussed what his team is doing to continue to improve.
“On a day to day basis, we’re trying to get these guys better,” he said. “We’re trying to make them work hard whether it’s improvement for the next game or 10 games down the road. This is the time of year where most teams are kind of in the lay-back mode halfway through the season, trying not to practice much; we’re almost at the opposite side of that.
“We’re practicing more.”
Perhaps more importantly the players have not only embraced it, they’ve been excited about it.
“After the practice they had yesterday, if they were quitters they would’ve left halfway through it,” he added. “They didn’t. They kept going and they were enthusiastic. [It’s] not very often you get a text from one of your players saying that was a great practice.
“I got one yesterday from Tyson Chandler.”
That’s even more remarkable considering the physical practice led to blood. Literally.
“With the type of practice we had, I thought there would be more blood,” Hornacek added. “But there was only one bloody lip that came out of it. We didn’t wipe it up; we just kept going with the blood dripping down his chin.”
This week, the Suns have three games in a row at home against some difficult opponents (Indiana, San Antonio and Atlanta). Hornacek was adamant that the team is working hard and will never give up.
“Guys want to improve,” he said. “They know it’s been a struggle. It’s been a case where we’ve played well for 40 or 42 minutes of the game but [there is a] stretch during the third or fourth quarter where all of a sudden we give up a 12-0 or 14-0 run and the guys start to hang their heads. We just have to keep fighting and try to improve.
“It’s easy to quit and just say it is what it is. But nobody’s a quitter on this team.”
Listen to the entire interview below: