Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry:
“I thought we started the game out great. Our whole thing tonight was that we were trying to see if we could turn off some of the other guys, but they just hurt us with multiple guys making a bunch of threes and we decided that we would just have (James) Harden do it and try to lock in on all the other guys. (Associate Head Coach Darren) Erman had a great game plan. You look at it and Harden got his 41 but they didn’t have another starter in double figures and that’s what you’re kind of looking for.”
On if Harden’s 41 points made him nervous:
“No, not really. I mean they are going to score; they’re a great scoring team. But you know our whole deal was like, ‘It doesn’t matter how many we have, we have to continue to score,’ because they are that kind of team. Being down 20, they don’t really feel the pressure. But also you’re down 20 to them, you don’t really feel the pressure because you can always get back in it. So I just thought we were really good at what we tried to do. We tried to get them off the three-point line and did a good job with that. They ended up shooting 40 of them, but they shot 50 and 60 the last two games we played them and they were very effective in it. If you can hold them to 13 three-point shots, I think you got a chance.”
On a season high of 128 points and a career-high 30 points for Solomon Hill:
“Yeah, he played great. You know defensively, I think he did a great job. You know obviously Harden ends up with 41, but what we were trying to do was find him inside and try to get him off the three-point line. I thought we did a good job. Our whole thing was that we can survive Harden even with a 50-point game, but we can’t survive with him having a 30 and Trevor (Ariza) having 18 and somebody else having 21 and Ryan (Anderson) having 20. That’s where you really get in trouble so, like I said, I thought Erman did a great job planning and our guys did a great job moving the ball and finding open guys and any time we get to almost the 30-assist mark, I think we’re in good shape.”
Pelicans forward Solomon Hill:
On how he attacked Houston’s defense:
“They kind of just stayed with the same thing, so I just stayed aggressive. Ryan Anderson and James Harden were guarding me most of the night, and they put Trevor Ariza on (Anthony Davis), and (I) just (tried) to take advantage of it. Every night AD or Jrue (Holiday) is going to get their best defender. I just have to take advantage of what they give me.”
On if this is the role he envisioned himself in when he joined the team:
“I think just the pace. Winning, and the way we’re playing, the way we’re playing defense and the way we’re getting out in transition, that’s what we want to do. I think we had a couple of points and stretches where we played that style of basketball and it’s good to see we’re playing it at the right time.”
Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday:
On if he thinks the Pelicans have to worry about the other teams contending for the eighth seed:
“Obviously, you can hope and pray, and see if they start losing or whatever, but at the same time we have to stay prepared.”
On the team’s performance:
“I think we played well. I think the ball moved a lot, obviously Solomon Hill came out and gave us that spark, that energy. I think their game plan tonight was to kind of stop AD and let everybody else score. I think we took in the challenge and moved the ball a lot and got a lot of easy buckets, and a lot of transition layups and points. We just kind of locked in on defense, so I think we played really well.”