Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry
On tonight’s win:
“I liked the energy that we started the game with and I loved the pace that we started the game with. One of the things that we talked about is that the more pace we play with, then the more chances we’ll have to get AD (Anthony Davis) or Niko (Nikola Mirotić) into space. They did a good job on AD early on, but I thought that also, when you’re helping that much, that also freed up Niko and I thought Niko really got us off to a good start. Once again, I thought our guys – and it was a total team effort – our guys did a great job on their two guards. They made some really tough, difficult shots, which they’re very capable of doing, but I thought that, for the most part, we did a great job of trying to keep them under control. If we can have them shoot well, but have 12 turnovers between them then, I think we’ve done a great job on them.”
On the Smoothie King Center crowd tonight:
“It was great, but I witnessed this before when I was at Golden State and we played here in the first round of the (2015) playoffs. It was very similar, but I just thought tonight that there was so much energy in the crowd and they were so much into the game and I don’t think they understand how much that helps. We want to have it that way every single game here, but it really, really helps when your crowd is into the game like that and that kind of energy is in the building. Hopefully we’ll have the same thing on Saturday.”
On Nikola Mirotić’s hot streak:
“It’s Gillette…Gillette. Gillette should take all the credit. And I’m giving them a plug so Niko (Nikola Mirotić) maybe got a sponsorship out of this. No, but I just think that he’s just been locked in. He’s done a good job. Our guys really have a lot of confidence in him. I think he’s in a good place now. I think he really is well aware of where he fits in with this team and what he’s capable of doing. It’s not just him shooting the ball. I think he’s made a lot of really good plays, lot of nice cuts and he’s been very good, defensively. He’s part of the reason that we’ve been able to slow (Damian) Lillard and CJ (McCollum) down.”
On the team’s level of focus:
“I think a lot of it is (Rajon) Rondo and I think a lot of it is AD (Anthony Davis). They talk a lot about it all the time that we still haven’t accomplished anything. Once again tonight, they said we hadn’t accomplished anything. We still got a game that we have to win, some kind of way, and we understand that. There were a couple times where we may have lost a little bit of focus, but I thought I took a timeout and before I said it on the bench, they said it, ‘Hey. We got to get refocused. Let’s go.’ I think when you have that kind of leadership that it’s going to be great.”
On the defensive effort on Damian Lillard:
“Well, in defense of him, we sent a lot of guys at him because you know he’s very capable of taking a game over. We try every way that we can not to let that happen because we’ve seen it before. Our guys have done a good job, but it’s been a total team effort. It hasn’t been one guy or an individual performance. It really has been a team effort where we’ve tried to do as much as we can not to let him get started. You can even see tonight, he’s still really capable of making some really tough shots, but we still have to try to do everything we can to keep him in a box and not let him get outside of that box because once he gets going, you can’t turn him off.”
Pelicans Forward Anthony Davis
On the team’s defense:
“We knew they were going to come in and play desperate. We just tried to match that desperation, honestly, and play more desperate. They came out early and made some shots but we were able to counter, then start playing a little bit of defense. We were able to separate and we just didn’t look back. We wanted to make sure that we came out with a mindset we were going to come out and play hard and play for each other.”
On team’s confidence right now:
“We’re very confident. We’re very confident in every shot that we take, as a team. No matter who takes it, you know it’s a shot you work on in practice or pregame. We feel comfortable with you taking shots. We’re confident that shots are going in. Any time shots are going in, of course, it helps.”
On how the team is covering Damian Lillard:
“We don’t want to give him the same look every time, so every game we switch it up. They might game plan for one thing, but we come out and do something else. We just want to mix it up, but I think we’re just doing a great job of just making him take tough shots and being physical with him. Then we’re going at him and trying to wear him down a little, so if he does have an open shot he’s a lot more tired shooting shots then if he’s well rested and we have to knock them down. We just try to make him play on both ends of the floor.”
Pelicans Forward Nikola Mirotić
On playing well in front of the Smoothie King Center crowd:
“It was just amazing to play at home with all this crowd and I think that they were just great tonight and they really helped us with energy and everything and I think they deserve this success and hopefully, you know, they’re going to be even better next game and we can be even better, so we are really thankful for that.”
Pelicans Guard Jrue Holiday
On the home crowd tonight:
“It was pretty good, pretty good. It was loud pretty much the whole game. I feel like that’s what we expected and then some. So, it was definitely awesome to come home and feel like they were part of this win.”
On if the crowd was better tonight than the Playoffs in 2015:
“It was a little better. I think as the games go on it will probably get louder. Again, it was a great start.”
On the importance of ending the series on Saturday with a win:
“We’re obviously just taking it a game at a time, but to be able to come out with that same energy, have the fans have that same support system and energy from them as well, to be able to come out and distract them. Man, it’s fun. It’s fun playing this game.”
On Nikola Mirotić tonight:
“Man, I really was just looking for him, honestly, at that point. He gave me the night off. I didn’t have to score as much. When he’s playing like that, man, we’re definitely hard to beat.”