Pelicans Head Coach Monty Williams
On coming away with a loss after a good team effort:
“I just feel so bad for our guys. To fight like we did on a back-to-back. To have a game in your hands and then to lose it in regulation like that. Then to fight like heck in overtime and not be able to pull it out, I just feel bad for the team. I have no complaints about anything. The edge was there, we competed. It wasn’t about rebounding or any missed assignments tonight. It just didn’t go our way.”
On if he was worried about his team’s morale after regulation:
“No. I think we have been in these situations before. The thing I was concerned about was Jrue’s (Holiday) foul trouble. With five minutes to play he had five fouls. We didn’t want to take him out, but at the same time we were concerned he would pick up a foul and he would be done for the game. That was the one thing that bothered me more than anything. Our guys’ natural instinct is to feel down and feel sick to your stomach, but that’s the NBA.”
On his team’s struggles offensively in the first half:
“We hadn’t played our game at all. We had 28 points in the first half. I knew once we started moving the ball a little bit that we would start making more shots. The ball wasn’t moving at all in the first half. I thought that if we got to that point in our schemes and our package, we would have a chance to get back into the game. Unfortunately on the road it is a lot tougher to dig yourselves out of a hole. When you have a chance to win the game you have to seal the deal.”
Pelicans Forward Anthony Davis:
On if it’s difficult to explain what happened down the stretch:
“We wanted to get this win and start the year off right. They made a great play at the end. I’m not sure who tipped it, I think O (Omer Asik) probably tipped it in with Tim (Duncan). It’s a tough way, especially when we thought we had the game won. Then had it in overtime, Jrue (Holiday) fouls out, I miss a free throw. We got a shot at the end to try to win it. It’s a tough loss. We wanted that win, but we fought and that’s all that all of us can ask for.”
On if his reaction was that after his putback dunk near the end of the fourth quarter that the Pelicans had won:
“Yeah, I mean 0.7 seconds left. We knew that they were going to try and throw something at the rim. With me on the ball and everybody on top of the defense. Have O (Omer Asik) guard Tim. When it went up I saw O have his hand right there. It was tough, but stuff like that happens. Time to play another five minutes. We battled again, but didn’t come out with the win.”
On how the Pelicans have played against the Spurs this season:
“We just try to go out there and compete. We know that they’re a team that’s in our division and in our conference, so these are big games for us. Try to come in and steal games and get up in the standings. If you don’t get up for the Spurs it’s tough. They’re a championship caliber team. They bring it every night. That makes you put out your best performance and that’s just what we try to do when we play them.”
Pelicans Guard Jimmer Fredette:
On helping the team and scoring off the bench tonight:
“We needed a spark and I wanted to go in there and try to provide it. My teammates did a good job of finding me, Ryan (Anderson) hit me in the corner with a nice pass and that got me going. They had some nice screens. That foul shot started to get me into a rhythm. We needed to have something happen off the bench, so I was able to come in and provide that and have a good game up until the ending.”
On if he’s ever been a part of a game like this with the tip at the end of regulation:
“No, not really. I haven’t seen that really. It’s something that doesn’t happen too often. It’s the way that the ball falls sometimes and there’s nothing you can really do about it. We tried to come back in the overtime, we had a lead and we let that up as well. We had chances to win. It doesn’t just come down to that one play or anything, but it’s definitely tough to swallow.”
On the month that the Pelicans have had with many back-to-back sets and games against playoff teams:
“Yeah, it’s been a tough month travel wise. The teams we’re playing are all really good teams. We’ve had a lot of back-to-backs. I think we’ve done a decent job. We’ve let some slip away that I think we should have won, but like I said there’s nothing we can do about it now. We just have to worry about what’s ahead and go out and get those wins.”