Joe Ingles had a fantastic game against Portland Thursday night, scoring 26 points in front of a national TV audience on TNT. After the game, Ingles joined the Inside The NBA crew — Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith.
Here’s a transcript of a portion of the interview:
Shaquille O’Neal: Mate! How do you do, mate?
Joe Ingles: Here we go again.
SO: Shrimp on the barbee, mate. You had a great game, mate.
JI: You’ve been looking good. Looks like you’ve been doing your correctives.
SO: Yes, I have
Ernie Johnson: We always enjoy, Joe, when you join us, not simply for the comedic factor with Shaq involved. Describe, with your team 19-12 now, tell me how that matches up with where you thought you could be at this point in the season?
JI: I guess it’s hard going in. A lot of people are predicting things and talking about where people are going to be in some point in the year. I think for us, knowing we had a pretty big roster change, it was going to take a bit of time and I think we’re starting to figure it out, we’re starting to figure out each other and just playing with new guys. We had the same roster year for quite a while, so having 10-odd new guys took a bit of time, but I think we’re heading in the right direction. Obviously, our record kind of shows that, but I think we’ve got a lot we can improve on, too.
Kenny Smith: You guys are improved and with Mike Conley being hurt and him coming back, you’re going to have another addition coming back. What does he do differently or is the pace of the game differently when he’s there, is that something that you guys are going to have to adjust to as well?
JI: Obviously, he’s an unbelievable leader out there. He’s almost like another Quin Snyder out there. He’s proven for 12-13 years with Memphis. I don’t think we’ll have a problem getting him back in the flow with our team. Obviously, he’s watched a lot recently, so he’ll keep figuring out ways that he can come right back in and help us. He was a huge acquisition in the summer and we’re excited to have him whenever he’s ready to come back.
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