Alvin Gentry – Pelicans Head Coach
On the game:“Well, we just were struggling, you know? We were like playing in mud and then I thought we woke up and had some good run outs, had some good ball movement play. You know it was a struggle. We just couldn’t seem to get ourselves going, but we found a way. I thought we were really good down the stretch. When we were struggling, Darius gave us really valuable, valuable minutes. I thought Jameer (Nelson) came in and played great. When we needed it most, Cous (DeMarcus Cousins) made a few plays. And obviously, AD (Anthony Davis) was just really solid in what he did: rebounded the ball well, scored well for us. So, it was a big team win.”
On the minutes played by DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis:“It’s tough. We’re asking a lot of those guys. Especially AD (Anthony Davis) and DeMarcus (Cousins) playing those kind of minutes. We’ll have a whole day off where we won’t do anything, give them a chance to rejuvenate and recover a little bit. In order to win games, we got to have them playing. It’s kind of a catch-22. Do you take them out? Or, do you try to win games and then try to find rest for them? We chose to leave them in and try to win the game.”
On the end of regulation:“We had to try to close out to the 3-point shooters with a little more urgency...Jrue (Holiday) got a great shot at the end of regulation, a 10-foot jump shot. In that case, you go with what you think can win the game. And if it doesn’t, you get into overtime. You got to find a way to win in overtime.”
On Darius Miller:“The thing about him is that he worked really hard and always has himself prepared to play. And, I think in that case, you put him in and he takes advantage of being able to play. He made some big shots. When we made that big run back, he was probably more responsible for it than anyone.”
On Jameer Nelson:“We have a lot of confidence in him. He’s such a veteran guy. You don’t really have to tell him things. He knows how to run it. He knows how to make the play.”
DeMarcus Cousins
On struggling early before playing well late in the game:
“I struggled early on. That being said, you just gotta go out there and find the ways to have an impact on the game. That’s what I tried to do, and it was a great team effort all around. We pulled out an ugly, gritty win.”
On the difficulty of playing a back-to-back on the road:
“Back-to-back, on the road, against a team like Chicago, I feel like they’re a better team than their record shows. They’re probably top-three hardest playing teams in the league at this point. To have a record like that and still come out and play with the tenaciousness and the edge that they do, it’s all credit to them. They’re a lot better team than their record shows, and I think we pulled out a tough win.”
On impact of bench players like Darius Miller and Jameer Nelson:
“Guys stepped up. [Darius Miller] was ready to go when his name was called upon. He hasn’t been playing the significant minutes that he wants or would like to play, but his name was called upon, he came in, made huge shots for us and gave us some great minutes. Jameer (Nelson), just being the veteran, savvy guy that he is, he came in and made big plays for us. He’s done it on numerous occasions. Like I said, just a great team effort all around.”
On sweeping the back-to-back:
“It’s a good feeling. We didn’t win in the fashion that we wanted to, but a win is a win. It’s hard to win on the road in the NBA. We’re gonna carry these two wins to the next game, we’re gonna use this momentum and hopefully we can be 3-0 the next game.”
Anthony Davis
On the key to pulling away in overtime:
“We just defended. Our motto was, ‘If we don’t score, they don’t score.’ We came up with some big possessions, guys made some big shots and made some big plays. We just wanted to make sure we defended. We were constantly playing for each other on the defensive end, and it translated to our offense. We just wanted to make sure that we played hard on the defensive end.”
On winning two straight games in ugly fashion:
“No matter what, it’s tough to get a win on the road. We wanted to make sure that we just come out and play. That’s right, how our offense was going; both games the offense was kind of sluggish. But we just trusted in our defense and that it would translate to our offense. I think we did a good job tonight on the defensive end. They made some big shots, ran a couple of great plays for some shooters, but we just stuck with it. No one pointed fingers or anything like that. We just tried to come back and get it on the offensive end, and then when it was time to get a stop, we came up with the stops.