Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry:
On the performance he got from his team:
“I thought we played well. We started out the game and we had like three or four mistakes but after that I thought we locked in and from a game plan standpoint, I thought we were great. Offensively, we did a really great job of moving the basketball. The defense won the game, let’s tell it like it is. We were great defensively.”
On if the timeout he called early in the first quarter was the best he’s ever called:
“They probably don't think so. It just seemed like we weren't quite focused and I just know that to play that team right there, the way they score and how easily they can score, you have to be locked in and you have to do your job and I just wanted them to make sure that they were doing their job.”
On sitting DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis for the fourth quarter:
“Yeah, it works out great for us. Hopefully DeMarcus can go tomorrow but to be able to rest [Anthony Davis], the whole fourth quarter and have Jrue [Holiday] rest the whole fourth quarter; we have a game tomorrow night and to be able to rest those guys is great.”
Pelicans center Anthony Davis:
On what made them successful tonight:
“Play defense. I think we locked in defensively. Knowing that that they play through [Nikola] Jokić, and they like to play through him and when he gets assists they are very effective. My job is to try and make it tougher for him and I think we did a great job of that. As the game went on we had to take care of everything we talked about pregame and we were able to get the rebounding and put the ball in the hole.”
On the bench play:
“I think Coach did a good job of trying to keep guys fresh. When you're playing at altitude it can be very tough so bringing guys in and making sure that we’re keeping that same intensity, and the offense did that. E'Twaun [Moore] came in, [Jordan Crawford], all the guys came in and did a great job on both ends of the floor. So when the starters came back in, we just kind of kept it going.”
Pelicans center Alexis Ajinca:
On turning the game around in the second quarter:
“Basically just controlling the game; in the first quarter it was hard with the altitude, everybody was out of breath real quick and we had to do a lot of substitutions. We just stuck to the game plan and defensively we were present in the second quarter.”
On the defensive performance:
“I think defensively we definetly stepped up, not just a couple of games but the whole year. I think we have been in the top ten or top five so defensively we are present. We knew that the last five games they’re averaging around 70 points in the first half so we had to cut that down and that’s what we did. In the second half we stuck to the same thing we were doing in the first half.”