Pelicans Coach Monty Williams On Utah's performance
“They did an unbelievable job of overwhelming us at the basket, and then they started knocking down threes. They scored 38 points in the fourth quarter, and that’s just unacceptable. For us, we have to learn how to win these games on the road, or anywhere. When you have a team down by 14, possessions are so important. Some of the costly turnovers we had, we missed a bunch of shots. We just gave up 38 points, and that’s on me. Bottom line is we have to play defense a lot better than we’ve played.”
On playing back-to-back
“There’s no excuse. We had the game up by 14. Like I said, that’s all on me. I’ve got guys out there playing their butts off, and I have to do a better job putting those guys in position. But, at the end of the day, we had the game up and just had to … I thought we settled for too many jump shots, outside of Tyreke (Evans) and Jrue (Holiday). Everybody else was just jacking up jump shots on the road. Especially here, when that ball bounces, it bounces long, and it fueled their fast break.”
Pelicans Forward Anthony Davis On giving up the momentum
“We had (the momentum) the whole game. We had a 16-point lead. They kept chopping wood, but we kept scoring. We kept getting stops. When they go on a run we have to calm down and get the crowd out of it and get another stop and score again. It all starts coming out of halftime. We got to make sure they have no life in them. I’m not sure how much we were up but we have to come out in the third quarter and put it on them. We have to play the whole 24 in the second half.”
On struggles defensively
“Gordon (Hayward) was hitting tough shots. Guys were in him, Eric (Gordon), Tyreke (Evans), Jrue (Holiday), and he was making tough shots. That got him going so we all joined in on him and he got it out to Marvin Williams and he hit some shots and Favors got to the basket and Enes (Kanter) got to the basket. We got to look at the film and see what we were doing wrong. It’s tough as a defensive team and they score 100-plus, 110-plus. We can’t allow them to do that.”
Pelicans guard Tyreke Evans On the game “We couldn’t get stops. They came in and ran the pick-and-roll. They got into the paint and they got 3s.”