Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry
On tonight’s loss::
"We’ve definitely got to get better, defensively. I’m a little bit disappointed because I thought we did a good job in the first two games and we’ve just struggled defensively since then. We’ve got to have more of a presence on the ball and then we’ve got to do a better job – we were one of the top screen-and-roll defensive teams and that seems to be the one thing that’s been hurting us. Then we’ve got to do a better job of guarding our own guys. Offensively, we’re fine. You can’t score 120 two straight nights and then lose by double-figures. That just doesn’t make sense in our league, so we’ve got to get better defensively. The turnover thing tonight was a lot better. Even if we are really good with them, we’re going to turn it over 12 to 15 times. So, you know, we had 17 tonight so I thought we did a good job of managing that. And then even in the first half, they only had three points off of our turnovers because I thought we did it on trying to do the right things, making the right plays so we had court balance so they didn’t have the ability to run out. And most of them were not live turnovers so they didn’t have the chance to run out. But it’s concerning, you know, that you play two straight games, give up over 130 points in both the games…so it’s very concerning. We’ve got to make sure that we, these next four or five days in practice, really zero in and concentrate on that. A little bit our transition defense, but more so than anything, we’ve got to do a much better job of guarding the ball and keeping it in front of us and doing a better job in our screen-and-roll defense."
On narrowing down the final roster:
"It’s close, you know, it’s extremely close because I think all of those guys have done something special, like I said. So we’re getting ready to talk about it right now. Whatever happens, we’re going to have to release two pretty good players – guys that to me are NBA players. They should be on a roster somewhere.”
Pelicans Forward Julius Randle
On what you guys need to do to improve on the defensive side of the ball:
“We’ve just got to lock in. A lot of the stuff. We’ve been working on certain schemes against certain teams, just that aspect of it. We’ve just got to lock in and communicate. Keep guys off the (offensive) O-glass. Technical things. Everything is just coming a little bit too easily. We just have to have a better presence.”
On if it’s lack of energy versus not being familiar with each other:
“It’s a little bit of everything, but, it’s energy. I just feel like the team’s got to feel our presence. We are getting adjusted. There’s a lot of points of emphasis that we’re getting adjusted to. We’ve got to get adjusted to that and sure it up, but we’ll be fine.”
On how confident you are that you will be able to flip it by Wednesday:
“We’ll be fine. The pain is, it’s really been the last two games. We’ll fix it.”
Pelicans Guard Jrue Holiday
On correcting the defensive issues/effort:
““[Jokingly] I didn’t play last game! I think it’s a little bit of miscommunication between what we have to do. We have like six days to go back and correct that. Minor things, but I don’t think it’s anything effort-wise. I don’t think it’s anything effort-wise or anything like that, but miscommunication.”