Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry
On tonight’s loss: “I think the big thing was we were trying to get into some kind of roll space so that we can create a shot – just weren’t able to do it. Once again, we played hard. We played with a lot of energy. We made some mistakes that cost us and we don’t have the luxury of having that margin of error so we have to do everything almost perfect. We just weren’t able to do it. Lost our men a couple of times, on the defensive side of the ball, trying to help, trying to dig, they relocated and we lost them a couple of times. There’s a couple of rebounds that we had to have that we didn’t get. So, for us, not only do we have to play hard and kind of try to grind it out, but we just have – those kinds of plays we have to make in order to come away with a win. You know, everything is great and playing hard and everything, but, at the end of the day, we’ve got to try to find a way to win games. We’re playing hard and we’re playing well for some stretches, but we’ve got to be able to do it over the course of 48 minutes where that eventually turns into wins and not hard playing games.”
On the depth of the current roster and if that’s taking a toll: “It is. We’re playing guys, once again – we played Jrue (Holiday) probably four or five minutes more than we wanted to, but if we don’t, the separation comes too easily for the other team and now we’re battling uphill the whole time again. So we don’t have any depth because obviously the guys that would be playing for us, from a depth standpoint, are out on the floor. So, you’ve got Ian (Clark) playing 30 minutes, you got Frank (Jackson) - probably would have played a little more minutes - so you have those guys out there playing close to 25-30 minutes each then, you know, we really don’t have any depth because everybody else is in a suit.”
Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday
On playing against little brother (Aaron Holiday) for the first time at this level: “I mean it was cool you know… Felt like at home, really. Just him being aggressive. He doesn’t back down to anybody, and that’s one thing that I love about him. He’s always going to be a pit bull and be aggressive offensively and defensively.”
On if there is a common thread between any of these recent games: “I think tonight if we would have knocked down half our three’s it would have been a different game. We also played a lot of guys a lot of minutes that probably have only done five times this year. I’ve done it for all last year and these games so I’m a bit used to it. But think just having guys who are coming in and taking care of themselves and preparing and going out there and fighting because again, this is hard. Especially for rookies who probably never thought they’d be playing this much or even given the chance to go play against some really good players. So (I’m) just proud of them man. They go out there and fight; we always go out there and fight. If we continue to do that, we can string some wins.”
On embracing this challenge: “It’s been fun; it’s been fun. A lot encouraging things. Again, a lot of us play very, very hard and we try to play together. We make little mistakes here and there, but that’s a part of growing with each other. Like I said, a lot of these guys didn’t really play together. Even like in practice… it was… and I didn’t play with them much. I guess I was the only starter out the starters that are playing right now. So, again, it’s been fun. They’ve been doing a great job. I think as a team collectively we’ve been very energetic and patient with each other. It’s been fun.”
Pelicans forward Jahlil Okafor:
On another game where the effort is there, but coming up a little short in the end: “Another frustrating loss. You know we really were right there at the end. You know we had a couple mental lapses late in the game that pretty much costs us the game like a couple offensive rebounds we let up, we lost our man a few times. But in all the effort is there. We’re all playing the right way. We’re all playing hard. We missed some shots we usually make as well. But, overall, like you said, the effort was there and we’ll keep building off of that.”
On how the frustration when the effort is there, but the wins aren’t coming: “It’s pretty frustrating, especially when the losses start being in a row. It’s not like we just had one loss. We want a winning streak. It is frustrating for sure.”