NEW ORLEANS PELICANS HEAD COACH ALVIN GENTRY:
On tonight’s win: “I thought we were good defensively, I really did. I think they’ve got a heck of a player. I think Zach LaVine is a heck of a player. He can get his own shot. He’s as athletic as they come. I thought Jrue (Holiday) did an outstanding job on him. I really did. I don’t know how many baskets he actually scored with Jrue guarding him, but I know he made it very difficult for him. So that was really good. I thought AD (Anthony Davis) really started the game out with a lot of energy and doing a lot of good things. I thought Julius (Randle) was really good off the bench. I just thought it was a good team effort and a good team win; a win that we really needed.”
On if he thought the team did a better job of managing turnovers tonight: “Yeah, we did. And I thought we did a great job in the first half. We had a few turnovers, but obviously they couldn’t have been live turnovers because we didn’t give up very many points on them. I just think that’s key for us. I still don’t think we shot the ball as well as we’re capable of shooting it, but I thought we did a good job of moving the basketball and getting it to the right people. Although we ended up with 32 assists, which tells me that we’re really passing the ball, but we probably missed eight wide open shots that we should have made. So that’s telling me that we’re playing – we’re going back to playing the way we did at the start of the season and that’s to move the basketball and find the open guy.”
NEW ORLEANS PELICANS GUARD JRUE HOLIDAY:
On what it means to the locker room to end the six-game losing streak: “It’s big. It gave us confidence being back home after a long road trip, so just being able to come back here and lock in, even though we slipped a little bit. Being able to finish out the game like we did was key.”
On what it’s like being able to play against his brother in an NBA game: “It’s cool. It’s a blessing, really. There’s not many people who can say they went against their brother. Any chance I get to, I try to take advantage of it. That’s why I tried to dunk on him. He’s the type – especially if I beat him – he’s the type to try to block it, so I’d rather me dunk on him than him block me.”
NEW ORLEANS PELICANS FORWARD ANTHONY DAVIS:
On tonight’s win and ending the losing streak: “It was good for us to get back into the win column. I think we did a good job defensively. We battled. Jrue (Holliday) did an excellent job on Zach (LaVine). He made some tough shots, but we just went out there and competed and tried to protect home court.”
On what is was like putting up “AD” numbers: “It felt good. I was thinking too much and wasn’t playing like myself and playing how I usually play. Coach brought me in and talked to me a little bit to get me back to being me.”