Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry
On the win:
“It does. These guys have been playing well. The big win in LA and the nice win home against the Bulls. To come in here and play the way we did, I thought we did great for 44 minutes and then the last four minutes I thought we kind of let it get away a little bit from the standpoint of staying true of who we are and running back and being solid defensively, but that’s going to happen. Just to get a road win and we’ve been struggling on the road, so that was all good for us.”
On the improved bench play: “I thought Jrue came in early and got us off to a good start. He played really well and then Ryan, we were able to free him up some. He hadn’t been able to shoot the kind of shots he shot tonight for a couple of weeks really. Just to have him in a position where we could get him open shots and get him going, it was really big for us.”
On managing Holiday’s minutes: “It’s hard to take a guy out of the game when he’s going great and he’s got 20 points an d he’s made seven out of his last eight shots. That become really hard to do, but for us, we’ve got to be smart enough long term what that means. I do have an assistant that will take him out regardless of if I want to take him out or not. I had to assign a guy to do that because it would be hard for me to do, it really is. Especially when he’s playing at the level that he is and the game is still teetering either way, it’s just hard to take him out. So I did assign a guy to say he’s got to come out and send a sub in, even without my permission.”
Pelicans forward Ryan Anderson
On the difference between the first and second half: “First half, zero open looks. Obviously it’s their game plan to take me out. Second half, obviously guys were so aggressive. Jrue had such a great start. AD played so well, it took a lot of attention off me. I think it freed me up for some shots. That’s what we can do. If you shift your game plan to something else, we have another guy that can step up and score and be aggressive. We did a great job of moving the ball. Guys found me and I was feeling it a little bit. I think we just moved the ball, we played team basketball tonight, played great defense. It’s the way we need to play to win.”
On the difference between the first and second half: “Jrue and I have both made a commitment to make a spark and to make a difference. We both are very confident players and we’re players that have had experience starting and coming off the bench and everything. For us we know that we need to bring a consistent effort and energy and aggressiveness off the bench. He makes the game easier for me, I make it easier for him and I think we balance off each other well.”
Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday
On his minutes limit: “I don’t really think he’d be taking me out. I think at times he leaves me in there because he knows that we’ll figure out a way to work around that, which I appreciate him for that. He is always looking out for me. But I don’t really think about it. Obviously when I have it going, he tries to leave me in there as long as possible and I appreciate that.”
On if he has a preference between starting and coming off the bench… “As long as I finish the game.”
On the second unit’s success: “It was great. Once we get Tyreke (Evans) and Eric (Gordon) back and really to be able to develop the first group again, and then I think we’ll be really very, very even. The first group and second group or first group and coming off the bench.”
Pelicans forward Anthony Davis
On the luxury of having Holiday and Anderson come off the bench: “It’s good for us. When you have two players like that who can score the ball that well and good on the defensive end too, putting the ball pressure on their guards, it was good. Even when we have bad starts, we have guys that can come in and make plays, so we’re very grateful for them too.”
Timberwolves Interim Coach Sam Mitchell
On defense: “I thought tonight our pick-and-roll defense was probably the worst it’s been all year. We’ve got to work on that tomorrow. It felt like nobody really played well. It seemed like for whatever reason we didn’t have any energy, we didn’t have any life. It seemed like in that third quarter when we were getting a little bit of life, we just couldn’t get any stops. Jrue Holiday and Ryan Anderson - you expect some of those guys to do some of the things they did and you know Ryan’s going to make some shots, but we just gave too much space to Jrue Holiday and Ryan Anderson.”
On the game: “We were just kind of overmatched. That’s the thing that we’ve been concerned about when (Gorgui) or (Karl-Anthony Towns) getting into foul trouble early, but it’s awfully thin. We go from 6-11-7-0 to 6-8-6-9. We’re not as small, we’re not as athletic, it just makes a difference. Give them credit, they came out, they played, they beat us. We were flat tonight. For whatever reason, we never got to the point to where we made enough of a push after we got down to get back in the game like we normally do. It just seemed like nobody had energy. We just did a lot of things that… We didn’t pass the ball as well. I can recall us setting maybe one good screen and that was in the fourth quarter. We didn’t set screens. All those things we’ve got to go back and clean up in practice tomorrow, watch the tape. I’m just going to say it’s one of those clunkers. You get two, three, four a season. I think we’ve had one earlier. I can’t recall, we haven’t had one in a long time. Just one of those nights where nobody really played well. Nobody played bad, but nobody played well. We just kind of played. Those are the kind of results you’re going to get.”