Pelicans Coach Monty Williams
On the win tonight
“To get this win against the defending champs you feel really good about what you are trying to do as a coaching staff. I am proud of our guys to be able to do that on a back-to-back, no Eric (Gordon) and all the other guys who are out. To have so many guys step up and make plays, it is just really cool to do that in front of your home crowd.”
On what helped you win tonight
“Turnovers. They (the Heat) are number one, I think, in the league on getting points off turnovers and tonight we only turned it over nine times for 11 points. That is a big deal when you have a young team. Trying to make sure you get a shot, I thought Tyreke (Evans) was key in that. I think he had eight assists and no turnovers. Obviously A.D. (Anthony Davis) was stellar again and our bench production was solid. Alexis (Ajinca) came into the game in the second half and made some timely plays. Austin (Rivers) was good at the basket. Our defense, we only had one quarter that got away from us. The third quarter they had 29 points.”
Pelicans Forward Anthony Davis
On the win
“We did it with defense. We just tried to contain LeBron (James) and stop guys from getting open threes. We rebounded the ball and attacked the basket. Guys stepped up and made big plays. Luke (Babbitt) made some big-time plays. Anthony (Morrow) came in and made some big plays. We just have to keep playing with this energy. I’m just playing hard. I try to do that every game. My teammates tell me that they feed off me and want me to be great every game, so that’s what I try to do.”
On the limited amount of turnovers
“This team feeds off of turnovers and fast break points, so we wanted to limit turnovers so they couldn’t get into transition before we got our defense set. We wanted to control the tempo and control the ball every time down the floor, so that they couldn’t get buckets and we could turn up our defense.”
Pelicans Guard Tyreke Evans
On the win and the start of Luke Babbitt
“We stayed focused. We stuck to our plan and played hard. We stayed out of foul trouble and made some shots. A.D. (Anthony Davis) put the ball in the hoop. We were aggressive on offense and did a good job on defense. Coach (Monty Williams) always says we have to stay ready, and Luke Babbitt got the call last night. He was ready and played hard. He’s a stretch four, came in and knocked down some threes to open up the lane for us. He was determined tonight. He struggled at first, but I tell him to keep shooting it, because I knew what he could do. He did a good job tonight.”
On the play of Anthony Davis
“He helps us a lot. He does it every night. His energy and focus makes us all play harder.”