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Pelicans vs. Spurs Postgame Quotes 4-13-2022

Pelicans Head Coach Willie Green

On the contributions from Herbert Jones and Jose Alvarado:

“They have really grown up in front of our eyes. Credit to Griff (David Griffin), Trajan (Langdon), Swin (Cash), and our management team that went after these guys, because they recognized how special they were. At one point, I had three rookies on the floor at the same time. I was nervous as heck with those guys on the floor. They worked at it and improved to earn the opportunity to be on the floor.”

On how long will the team celebrate before preparing for the LA Clippers:

“We will celebrate tonight and tomorrow morning we will get up and start preparing for the Clippers. We have a good idea of who they are as a team, but it's going to be another extremely difficult challenge for us. We just have to get ready.”

Pelicans center Jonas Valančiūnas

On playing in front of this crowd tonight:

"Wow, it was really, really loud. Some moments I had to cover my ears. It was great. I mean great atmosphere, great support. That's what we need and it's fun to play in front of this crowd. I said earlier, this was as loud as this has been here and now we've got to keep building on that. This is great. We need the fans and I hope we didn't disappoint them, and we need them every game."

On seeing how the young guys, without postseason experience, responded to playing in this game:

"It was great. We've been talking about locked in, being ready. It's a different game. It's different, low scoring game, position by position, more strategy in the game, so we just got to be ready, be locked in on what we're doing offensively and defensively and good things are going to happen."

Pelicans guard CJ McCollum

On playing with Brandon Ingram and Jonas Valančiūnas:

"Yeah, I told BI (Brandon Ingram), he's got to get back out here because we need to get in rhythm for the playoffs. He looked great. He looked like he didn't miss a beat. He was fresh. He got to his spots. He showed some explosiveness around the basket. JV (Jonas Valančiūnas) was great. We got him some touches in that third quarter. I think he was really aggressive. Obviously, he rebounded the ball well finishing with how many rebounds…14. So, he was very aggressive. I thought Herb (Jones) was great. I thought everybody was really locked in. Jose (Alvarado) did a great job playing in a hostile environment. You could tell he was excited about the opportunity and he delivered. So, I was excited to really obviously play a meaningful game with fans and to really see how our team was going to respond being so young. You know, sellout crowd at the crib, you never know how it's going to go, but I thought they went out there and they hooped."

On how he was feeling in the first half:

"Yeah, I understood the magnitude of this game and how the Spurs were always going to go on a run at some point. They're well coached, they execute, and they got a lot of great players who can shoot and score. So, when you get a chance to get up double digits, you've got to continue to put the pedal to the metal and that's what I tried to do, tried to be aggressive. I'd have liked to have been more efficient in the second half, but I thought we did a great job of staying steady, mixing the ball up, hitting the pocket, hitting the weak side. JV was great around the basket. You know, he made some great passes, and BI was elite in terms of his finishing and getting to his spots."