Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry
On the change in performance from the third to fourth quarter:“Yes, we played well in the fourth quarter. We didn’t do a very good job in the third quarter so we gave up 40 and (then) scored 44. So that’s not exactly how we would like that to happen, but we’ll take any win that we can get.”
“I just think we did a real poor job on the boards. The offensive rebounding really hurt us and even when we were playing good defense, we just gave them those extra possessions. You can’t possibly think you can give up 22 offensive rebounds and win. We had to score 40 more points to do it. We’ve just got to do a much better job on the offensive boards, keeping them off.”
On Jrue Holiday’s performance and matchup with Ben Simmons:“It was really good, but the reason we were able to do that is because we were coming up with stops. I shouldn’t say stops. We had stops in the third quarter, but we didn’t finish the possession with the rebound. Against this team, you can see they’re a high energy team, got a bunch of young guys. I think you see Ben Simmons is a really, really special player. He gets the ball where he wants to get it to. It doesn’t matter whose guarding him. Does a great job of finding open guys. He’s a special player.”
Pelicans Guard Jrue Holiday
On his scoring in the fourth quarter:“I guess it was just my turn at that time. Obviously, we were down, and I was having a rough game passing the ball so at that point when the starters came back in, I had the hot hand so they just kept on feeding me. I was chasing it a little bit, but they just kept on feeding me.”
On Rajon Rondo’s fourth quarter impact:“I don’t think people give him the credit of him pushing the pace, of how he controls the game, especially down the stretch, and to be able to get everybody a good shot, whoever he wants a good shot. Again, my points are to him. Right when he came back in the game, everything changed for me.”
Pelicans Forward DeMarcus Cousins:
On the fourth quarter adjustments:“I think guys locked in defensively. We controlled the boards a little better towards the end. Jrue got hot. Jrue separated the game.”
On expecting this type of performance out of Jrue Holiday:“We want that Jrue every night. He’s been doing a great job of being aggressive, just keeping the pressure on the opponents, and he’s been on a tear lately.”