Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry:
On the game:
“I thought we started the game struggling a little bit. We righted the ship and I thought we started to play good basketball. Then it got into an exchange of baskets situation and they made the plays down the stretch. Goran (Dragic) made plays, Dion Waiters made plays and they came up with rebounds. Obviously, I thought Wayne (Ellington) got them going but even in that situation I thought we matched the baskets. We just didn’t make the plays when we needed to most.”
On the Pelicans offense drying out in the final five minutes:
“You have to make shots. They made shots, we didn’t. We had a couple of turnovers that really hurt. I thought our defense was really good and solid. I didn’t think that Wayne Ellington had any looks that weren’t highly contested and he made them all.”
On DeMarcus Cousins’ status:
“I think he’s fine. He’s okay.”
Pelicans Forward Anthony Davis:
On taking any positives from the game:
“There are not really moral victories. We turned the ball over down the stretch, gave up some open looks. We can’t afford to do that. We missed a lot of shots in the paint, free throws. We get a good look, we just got to convert them. Defensively, 120 is too many points against our defense. We are top-10 defensively, we can’t afford to give up 120, even though that team is playing very well. We got to take pride in our defense and hold a team (to) way less than 120.”
On the HEAT:
“(James Johnson) made two big ones down the stretch. Wayne Ellington played extremely well for them, Dion (Waiters), (Goran) Dragic, it was an overall team win. All the easy stuff is what we have to control, turning the ball over, easy looks on fast-breaks. All the stuff we can control, we got to control. I don’t think we did a good job of that tonight. Add on top of that all the shots they were making throughout their entire team. It’s just hard to win like that.”
Pelicans Center DeMarcus Cousins:
On the difference down the stretch:
“We let them get hot. Once shooters get going like that, it’s pretty hard to stop. I believe we gave them too much space. We know what they’re capable of behind the line and I don’t think we respected them enough. They took advantage of it.”