Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry
On what he took from tonight’s game:
"Not a whole lot really. I thought this was the first game or practice where we didn’t really compete. I thought they out-competed us, number one. Number two, once again careless with the basketball is something that is a big concern of mine. 24 turnovers, 39 points. You give up 40 points on your turnovers, you’re probably not going to have an opportunity to win. You’re not going to win. I thought the pace of the game was great. You shouldn’t be able to shoot 56% and then 49% from three and not be in the game and we were basically not in the game. It doesn’t matter what the final score was, we just weren’t in the game. I thought the last group that we put in played hard and competed the way we should have all game. The rebounding bothered me. The defense overall, pressure on the ball, I don’t think they felt us at all. I know we didn’t have three of our main guys out there, but that has nothing to do with competing. We still have to compete with whoever we run out there."
On what he liked about the last group:
"I just thought they played hard and tried to do the right thing. I thought defensively they tried to pressure up a little bit. I thought they did get into the ball. We just talked about, ‘hey let’s go and see if we can win the fourth quarter.’ I thought they did a very good job at that. Like I said, offensively we can figure it out. Defensively we’ve got to be much better than what we did rebounding-wise, individual defense, just overall. We’ve always been a good screen-and-roll defensive team. Last year, one of the top-5 in the league. I didn’t think we did a very good job of that tonight. It was the first time in practices or in and other games that we’ve played where we didn’t compete at a really high level. The team that we played out-competed us."
On Julius Randle:
“I thought he had some moments and stuff. I thought he did a good job. He’s still in the process of learning all of this stuff and it’s not going to happen in eight days. We know there is a learning curve that he’ll still have to process and same thing with Elfrid (Payton). I thought Elfrid did some good things. It just shows us how much work we have to do.”
Pelicans Forward Darius Miller
On how well he’s been shooting the ball:
“I’m just comfortable. After having a year under my belt, I know where my shots are going to come from. My teammates are doing a great job of getting me open, so I’m just trying to continue to shoot with confidence.”
On playing alongside Julius Randle:
“He definitely gets shooters a lot of looks. He can push the ball in transition. He draws double-teams in the low-post. He’s just a great passer. So I know he will be a huge part of the team and a huge help on offense.”
On if the turnovers tonight are due to the team not being familiar with each other:
“Definitely, I feel that when we get more comfortable with the offense, especially the newer guys, we will be fine. We play at such a high pace, it’s easy to turn the ball over and make mistakes, but we all feel like we’re all making good mistakes and trying to make the right play.”
Pelicans Guard Elfrid Payton
On how he feels after tonight:
“There is still a lot of work to be done, but I am confident of where I am at right now. I feel like the team is starting to get more comfortable with me and how I play. I am getting more comfortable with how they play and where they like the ball and things like that. I feel like we’re making good progress.”
On if the turnovers tonight are due to the team not being familiar with each other:
“Yeah, for sure. It’s exactly that. Obviously, we can lock in a little bit better, especially on the road. However, a lot of that has to do with the pace that we play at, also us getting time with guys that we usually don’t play with during practice. We just need to get familiar with each other.”