Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry
On tonight’s loss:
“Well I think you’ve got to understand that team (Golden State Warriors) down in that locker room down there, they don’t ever think they’re out of a game and they always find a way to muster up a comeback. The thing that we talked to the guys (about) when we left the locker room is that obviously we felt like they were going to make a run to get back in the game. What it can’t be is a run, a twenty to two, twenty-five to three run, something like that. It’s got to be a run where it’s ten to five, twelve to six, something like that and we weren’t able to do that. I thought the first couple of possessions we had in the second half, it wasn’t the way we started the game. We talked about starting the third quarter the way we started the game and you’ve got to do it with force, with hard cuts because obviously their defensive intensity is going to get turned up and our execution has to match that. I thought we had a little bit of slippage in that area right there, but they’re a great team. They’re the NBA Champs. The thing that I keep telling our guys is that, as bad as this loss is, and I don’t look at anything as a moral victory, what we keep proving is that we have the ability to play extended minutes with the World Champs. Now what we have to do as a team is that we have to now find a way to not do it for thirty-two minutes or thirty-six minutes, but we’ve got to do it for forty-eight because that’s the only way you can beat that team. You’ve got to play for forty-eight minutes and you’ve got to be able to score 120 points to beat them.”
On the offensive game when playing the Golden State Warriors:
“No, I think with this team right here, they’re a very good team-oriented defensive team, but what you have to do is you’ve got to be willing to drive the basketball and when you get into the lane, you’ve got to maintain your spacing. You can’t be close knit (with the) passes that you’re trying to make. They’ve got to be out at the three-point line where you drive and kick and we talked about that. They’re really good. It’s not a team you can do a whole lot with screen-and-rolls because they’re very good at switching screen-and-rolls and then they’ve got good size. You talk about Klay Thompson and then Andre Iguodala, guys like that and Draymond (Green). They’re all able to switch and keep guards in front of them, so it’s more of a drive-and-kick game against them than it is screen-and-roll.”
Pelicans Guard Jrue Holiday
On what got away from them in the second half:
“They made their run. You know, they had a run in the first half, too, but we kind of bounced back from that. They made their run in the second half and we couldn’t bounce back. We need to come out and execute a bit better. (We) were talking about that, how even though we go down and some shots don’t fall, they come back. Any given time during the game, you got Steph (Curry), KD (Kevin Durant), Klay to knock down threes – three threes in a row. The whole momentum of the game changes.”
On how it feels when he’s in the zone:
“It feels good. You pretty much want to throw up everything. Obviously today’s game you want it to be threes all the time, but I feel like at that time it doesn’t matter – you go to the paint and make a play, or mid-range, three coming off a screen.”
Pelicans Guard E’Twaun Moore
On what changed in the second half:
“We got a little stagnant. We have to keep playing through that. You don’t win the game if you don’t win halves. We have to do the same thing we do in the first half in the second half.”
On setting a career high in points:
“Just staying aggressive shooting the ball. That’s basically it.”