Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry:
On Utah’s final surge and its impact on the Pelicans’ finish:
“It did (have an impact). I think it was a 12-0 run or a 14-0 run. We couldn’t get any stops and we had a couple of crucial turnovers and they took advantage of it. It was just an uphill battle the whole game. We couldn’t get stops at the start of the game and then we had trouble scoring. I thought we played well (in) the second quarter. Came out (in) the third quarter and we just didn’t have the energy that we needed. I thought our energy could have been much, much higher, especially since they played last night. They executed well in their half-court offense and they slowed us down. We have to have the pace of the game. We tried to get the pace of the game up more, but they slowed the pace of the game down and I think that hurt us also.”
On the offensive struggles for Anthony Davis:
“I think they did a good job, defensively. They played (Rudy) Gobert on him who is a long guy that can challenge shots right away so I thought that he made it a little tough on him. Then I thought he got going pretty good in the third quarter and came up with some baskets, but they’re long and they forced him to put it down. I still like the fact that he’s not going to shoot 11 for 31 most nights. If he gets that many shots, he’s going to come away with a lot of the baskets so unfortunately, we didn’t play well enough to win. They played well enough to win and we didn’t.”
On Eric Gordon:
“I don’t know for sure what happened, but it looked like he might have done the same thing again. That would be really unfortunate because he worked so hard to get back and I really thought he was playing really good basketball. So for that to happen to him again – and if it’s going to be six-to-eight weeks and I’m just speculating right know because I don’t know for sure – but if that’s going to be the case, this takes him to the end of the season, and that’s really unfortunate because no one works harder to get back and, like I said, I thought he was playing really good basketball for us.”
Pelicans forward Anthony Davis:
On the turning point in the game in the second half:
“They made shots, and they went on a 14-0 run. We’ve got to really look at the film and see what really happened. It went so fast, I’m not really sure. We missed shots, they got a couple of easy buckets in transition, some offensive rebounds and they got to the line a little bit. When you’re not making shots and they’re making shots, that gap starts to get bigger”
On the outlook for the rest of the season:
“I’m playing every game. I’ve still got hope in this team and faith in these guys and I still think we can do it. We’ve just got to believe it. We can’t get down. It’s going to be tough for us, but we’ll have the most fun and try to meet that challenge.”
“We’ve just got to keep believing and keep staying together. This is not a time where we start falling apart, we’ve got to come closer and keep fighting and whatever happens, happens.
Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday:
On the turning point in the game in the second half:
“I really couldn’t tell you what happened like that. The next thing I know, it’s 70-84. We’ve just got to look at film and see what we did wrong, and come back next game.”