Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry
On when the energy started to shift in the game
“When we lost Anthony Davis. Obviously, that changed everything. He did exactly what we told him to do which was take the ball strong to the basket.”
On emotions on both sides of the ball:
“We tell our big guys to take the ball to the basket hard and try to create contact. I’ll leave it at that.”
On how they changed their approach/attack after losing Anthony Davis:
“We tried ball movement and everything. Obviously, you can’t lose a player like that and think that things are going to be the same. The guy had 17 points in 17 minutes. When you lose somebody like that and go back and look at the history, he’s played well against this team every time.”
Pelicans Forward Dante Cunningham
On playing without Anthony Davis:
“He is definitely a big part of our team, but we have to play games without him. We play games when he is hurt. We just have to find ways to get it done."
On what led up to Anthony Davis’s ejection:
“It was kind of a building thing, and it kept escalating from one thing to the next.”
Pelicans Forward DeMarcus Cousins:
On your reaction to Anthony Davis’s ejection:
“You know, it was tough. We had to adjust like that on the fly, but things like that happen. We just should have done a better job. We needed to gather our thoughts and gather ourselves and go out and finish the game as a team.”
On Davis’s frustration with refs:
“You all saw it. It’s obvious, it’s a complete joke. I don’t have to speak on it, you saw it. What I don’t understand is that players are punished for playing off of emotions or showing their emotions during the game, whatever the case may be, but other people are allowed to and it is totally fine. It’s okay to coach off of emotion, judge a game off of emotions and its bogus.”
On the importance of keeping composure:
“It is a game of emotions. Everyone that goes out there loves their job and loves the game of basketball. Just like anything else you love, when you put your all into it, it is going to have emotions behind it. It is the same thing with the game of basketball.”