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25	September 2018

And why Elway stuck with him.

Draymond Green saw Klay Thompson limping on his tender left ankle a day before Game 2 of the NBA Finals and quickly texted Nick Young to tell him the Golden State Warriors would need big minutes from the backup.

But Golden State�s most durable player and understated star once again managed to play through the pain and scored 20 points to help the Warriors beat Cleveland 122-103 to take a 2-0 series lead Sunday night.

�He came out there and gutted through it http://www.washingtonredskinsteamonline.com/ryan-anderson-jersey ,� Green said. �Even if you saw him take the first lay-up he took in warmups and ran back to the locker room. It�s like he�s not going to have it. Sure enough he did. I mean, that�s just a microcosm of who he is, one of the toughest guys if not the toughest guy I�ve ever played with. He�ll never get credit for it because he�s not going to physically beat you up. But one of the toughest, if not the toughest guy for sure.�

Green might be the loudest of Golden State�s four superstars and Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant are the most accomplished. Thompson often flies a bit under the radar, just delivering lockdown defense and long-range shooting that help the Warriors thrive.

He�s so consistent and always available, having played in a franchise record 100 playoff games without missing a single one, that he sometimes gets overlooked. But after Cleveland�s J.R. Smith awkwardly fell into his left leg in the first half of Game 1, sending Thompson to the locker room following the scary fall, there has been plenty of focus on if he�d be able to play.

He made it back for the rest of Game 1 and scored 24 points in a 124-114 overtime win Thursday before the injury got worse the next day. But he still managed to play in Game 2 and shot 8 for 13, making three 3-pointers to become the sixth player with 300 in a career in the playoffs.

�Being on the training table for, it felt like, three straight days. That�s something I�m not used to,� Thompson said. �But at this point in the season http://www.washingtonredskinsteamonline.com/matthew-ioannidis-jersey , any means necessary. And the ankle feels great. I won�t do much tomorrow and I�ll do a little bit Tuesday. But I�m just going to conserve all I�ve got for Wednesday because I don�t want to play with it. It�s something that you use a lot. I didn�t realize how much you use your ankle until you hurt it ��

That drew a quick quip from Curry, who has been plagued by ankle injuries throughout his career.

�You should have asked me,� Curry said.

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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) No, Vance Joseph never felt as if he was drinking out of a firehose when the Denver Broncos stumbled through a 5-11 season in his first year as head coach last year.

That�s how general manager John Elway has repeatedly described what it must have been like for a first-year head coach in the NFL.

�That�s not my personality, so I didn�t feel that way,� Joseph told The Associated Press. �My focus was purely on trying to flip it and get us back on a winning path. I think being a young head coach and being a young coach is a different deal. I�m not a young coach. I�ve been a part of teams that have gone through adversity so I kind of knew what the issues were.�

Turnovers.

A sieve of an offensive line.

Locker room rifts.

A lack of chemistry, the byproduct of another protracted quarterback competition.

Still, �I think overwhelmed, that�s not the word,� Joseph said.

Denver�s dive, which included eight losses by double digits, was a shock to a city and a franchise that had a ticker-tape parade just two years earlier http://www.dallascowboysteamonline.com/zack-martin-jersey , and Elway acknowledged that he pondered firing Joseph at season�s end.

�That�s the direction I want to go, but it�s my responsibility to think about other options to see what would be best for the football team,� Elway said in January. �We thought about different options, but ultimately, my goal was to stick with Vance and give him that shot.�

Elway, who had riled up his players by calling them soft during an eight-game skid, said he shared in the blame for Joseph�s deficient debut and needed to surround him with better personnel.

Joseph replaced nearly half of his coaching staff while Elway embarked on a massive roster upgrade .

He signed quarterback Case Keenum in free agency and all 10 members of his ballyhooed 2018 draft class spent four years in college and most were captains. That�s a far cry from the previous two classes that were loaded with raw athleticism, long-term projects and plenty of question marks.

Joseph seems much more comfortable in his second season.

�I don�t see it as a do-over. It�s hard in this league. You don�t get do-overs, unfortunately. But it�s a new year and obviously last year wasn�t good enough,� Joseph said.

The hands-off philosophy Joseph brought to Denver last year has vanished.

�I think it�s a fine line between micromanaging and coaching coaches. And I didn�t want to ever be micromanaged as an assistant coach because in my mind I was doing the best I could for that head coach and the best I could for that football team. And I took great pride in coaching my guys and being the best group on the field every day in the meeting rooms or on the field,� Joseph said.

�So, in my mind every coach would feel that way and every coach would want to coach that way. So, I was cautious in interrupting coaches� drills Cody Parkey Jersey , interrupting coaches� ways of doing things because I had an experienced staff.�

That led to the notion that Joseph was still acting like an assistant coach last year while offensive coordinator Mike McCoy continued operating as though he were still a head coach before getting fired at midseason.

Joseph vehemently denies that was the case.

�I thought Mike did a great job every week of accepting his role and we talked every week about the game plan, so that�s not true,� Joseph said.

�I worked for a lot of coaches who didn�t micromanage me, Gary Kubiak, Marvin Lewis, great guys who have won a lot of games. So, that�s not true. Our staff last year we discussed every game plan that we put forward and again it was the best thing for our players at the time.

�So, our thought process early on was to be an explosive offense. We were 3-1. It wasn�t perfect. But it was working. Now, turning the ball over, not protecting the quarterback, those things affected how we played on offense. But not Mike trying to be in total control, that�s not true.�

Still, Joseph said he has to coach his coaches better Rafael Bush Jersey , and by that, he means challenging them.

�I don�t coach the receivers, I don�t coach the running backs or offensive line. I�m a defensive backs guy, I�m a defensive guy. So, I think asking the right questions and triggering more thought process on how we can do things better. Or simply seeing it differently than the coach and saying, `Why don�t we do it that way?�� Joseph said.

�Now, I can be wrong, but I think simply asking more questions is a simple way of helping the coaches get better and helping our football team get better and not letting anything slide.�

Joseph realizes he won�t get another chance if things don�t change.

�Winning football games is a must this year,� he said. �We have to do that. That�s why they hired me.�

And why Elway stuck with him.

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