HEAD COACH ALVIN GENTRY:
(On why the 19-point lead evaporated)
“I didn’t think we had the energy to start the third quarter that we had played with in the first half. We started to slow down, started to hold the ball some. The ball movement that we had in the first half wasn’t there. Then we had trouble scoring. I thought they did a much better job defensively in the third quarter. That got them back in the game. We didn’t have enough plays at the end to finish the game.”
(Were you surprised that it fell apart in the second half?)
“Yeah. It surprised me because I thought we played well. We put ourselves in a position, especially on the road, to win a game. We just couldn’t make a shot, and didn’t do a very good job defensively of slowing them down. They also started to make some three’s. We gave them a couple open three’s in the first half, but too many in the third and fourth quarter.”
JRUE HOLIDAY:
(What turned the game around in the third quarter?)
“They started scoring and we didn’t. I think they hit some pretty good shots. A lot of times, we got to the paint. Some shots that we made in the first half, we weren’t making in the second (half). They played hard.”
(Did you like your team’s shot selection in the third quarter?)
“Yeah. I think we had a mixture of both (good and bad shots). Some were a little tough. But a lot of them were wide open. A lot of them were shots that we usually make, but ended up being short or long or off. There’s no excuse for that. It’s just tough – up 20 (19) on the road, you kind of want to take that home with you.”