Pelicans Coach Monty Williams
On the win:
“This was one of those games I told the guys at the end, this is a game where you just thank God and move on. I think there were like twenty people who thought we would win tonight and they were all in the locker room. Maybe a few out here, but that’s all we had. We certainly feel good about the win and how we played. It felt like practice. That’s how our practices are. It’s like a fight. Our guys were good when they needed to be. They had a run and we withstood that and were able to get the lead back and guys just made play after play after play. Our defense in the fourth quarter helped us out, hold them to twenty two points. It was just a great win for us. We’ve always been a no excuses, no explanation team and we also never give in. I think our guys are just built that way. We played against a really good team tonight and when you win, you don’t want to get too deep about it but just move on. We had a no quit attitude and we beat a really good team.”
On Dante Cunningham’s play:
“He was tremendous. He was knocking down shots, defensively, on fifty-fifty balls. The thing that stood out to me was he and Jrue (Holiday) on a couple of balls we weren’t getting at the beginning of the game. You can’t coach that. It’s something he has and he innately knows how to make plays and it really helps our team.”
On Anthony Davis:
“Without Tyreke (Evans), we needed scoring right away and AD was knocking down jumper after jumper. They put Dwight (Howard) on him right away and it kind of messed everyone up because we didn’t know they were going to put Dwight (Howard) on him to start the game.”
Pelicans forward Anthony Davis:
On Dwight Howard defending him to start the game:
“It really doesn’t matter. It wasn’t going to stop me from doing what I was trying to do. I was just trying to go out there and play hard, be aggressive. I wasn’t really thinking about who was going to guard me. That’s more so for the coaches.”
On the teams play without Tyreke Evans:
“It was huge, not just for me but all the guys. Austin (Rivers) came in and did well. Dante (Cunningham) came in and did well. All the guys coming in and stepping up was huge for us. That’s what we need, especially when we have one of our main scorers out. Everyone came in collectively and played well tonight.”
On the key to the fourth quarter:
“Defending. We knew late in the game they were trying to go to James (Harden) and Dwight (Howard), so we just tried to keep them away from the ball as much as possible, but it’s tough when you have two stars like that. We tried to keep James off the free throw line. That was the big thing and we tried to make someone else beat us tonight.”
On the win:
“When you hold a team like that to ninety points, I think we did a great job and we have to realize that we are a defensive team and when we defend we are a tough team to beat. When we defend each and every night and realize, that’s how we’re going to get wins.”
Pelicans forward Dante Cunningham:
On the team’s fourth quarter play:
“We saw the numbers of our fourth quarters in the last couple of games and that really stuck with us. We do so well through one through three, but you cant in a game like that and allow teams to go off and have thirty point fourth quarters. We need to hold teams to a better percentage and fourth quarters have come along and really killed us.”
On his play:
“The guys here, everyone every night are always pushing and putting me in the right position and making sure. It’s made my transition a lot easier.”
Pelicans forward Ryan Anderson:
On the win:
“It’s a big win on the road. We just played harder than them and I think we did a good job of eliminating easy buckets for them. We were making it hard for Dwight and James and we didn’t allow them easy shots at the rim. On the other end, we were making big plays.”
On the fourth quarter run:
“We got stops and we ran. That’s what this team does when we’re at our best and we did that tonight at crucial points we made big plays to stop their runs. Ii was just a good all around game the whole night.”