Every team, no matter if it is a high school team or an NBA team, will go through a practice or consecutive practices where the team just isn’t there. You feel they may be giving the effort but practice lacks a focus. There are too many turnovers, no attention to execution, no attention to details. We all have had and will have these days.

The issue becomes how to fix it. I suggest you talk to your team about the “WANT TO vs. NEED TO” aspect of a team’s approach. We often will talk to our team about the fact that we know and can see that they WANT TO do the right things. This is more of the physical aspect of things — the intensity aspect, the work ethic aspect. But we all know that if a team just has this part of their game that day it may not be enough to win. Or in the case of a practice, it may not be enough to improve.

We may stop a practice and talk to the team about the “NEED TO” part of the game. We NEED TO:

• set better picks
• cut harder
• get to our shrink positions
• come off the pick/roll tighter
• remember our set plays

The list may go on and on depending on the day and the lack of mental focus, and that is what the “NEED TO” is. It is the mental part of the game.

The best teams at any level are those teams that have the physical matching the mental. They have the WANT TO and the NEED TO every night out. They understand that to be the best you must be prepared to execute physically and mentally.

It is our job as coaches to get our teams to understand this. The best way to do this is to explain this to them. Talk to them about the importance of both. They need to know that not only the great teams, but the great players match the physical with the mental. We have three of the best in this regard in Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett.