2021-quotes

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On the challenges he has keeping his team in a positive mindset:

“It definitely can be a challenge, but not with this team. These guys are together. They understand the big picture. They understand that we’re trying to build a program here. I’ve spoken about it to them in the locker room, but even here, we have to go through it. It’s the only way. It’s the only choice, but adversity builds character, and we’re building right now. These same losses that we’re having, we’re going to win some of these games in the next couple weeks – three weeks – a month down the line, and it’s going to help us build as a team.”

On the performance of the Pelicans bench in tonight’s game:

“Yeah, our bench was huge. Everyone that stepped on the floor contributed to tonight’s effort. Once again, we fell short, however it’s not necessarily just wins and losses for us. It’s wins and it’s the opportunity to learn, and we’re learning from ever single game. I still feel in my heart that we’re getting better and things will turn around. Our guys are staying upbeat. It’s tough. It’s tough in the league to win a game, but we’re fighting and we’re right there. We’re knocking on the door.”

On staying positive despite the slow start to the season:

"It's just about learning it right now, keeping our spirits up, keeping our heads high, because we're in it. It's going down to thestretch every game. We've just got to figure out ways to close games, and that's ultimately what it comes down to. Those lastfour or five minutes and making plays."

On is it hard to stay positive while the team is losing:

"Yeah, we've got a bunch of guys who want to win, who come from winning programs and, who are used to winning. So that'salways hard to hear. When you are right there and you feel like you could have had two or three wins, and you just let them go.So, like you said, you’ve just got to keep learning and keep growing."

On how he's felt physically these past two games:

"Feel solid. Obviously getting back to it, not 100 percent (yet), but just want to go out there and help my team. So, (I) feel solid.(We have) two days, off-day tomorrow, practice on Monday, so hopefully I'll be full soon."

On if there are things the team could have done better defensively in tonight’s game:

"I mean, a little of both. A team that shoots 52 percent from the field and 58 percent from three, part of it is you’ve got to tipyour hat to them. But I feel like late in the game, we didn't execute our game plan the way we wanted to. Obviously, everyonein the league knows RJ Barrett is going left and (in a) game like that, when it comes down to possessions you can't let thathappen. You can't let him get left constantly and he did. Obviously he's a good player, but we have to make sure we are able toexecute our game plan a little bit better.”

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Pelicans vs. Knicks Postgame Quotes 10-30-2021

Pelicans.com

On the offensive struggles in tonight’s game:

"I didn't think in the first half we ran a lot of offense. We ran offense with pace and purpose. I thought the ball was sticking. We took some extremely difficult shots, and when we do that, it fuels their transition opportunities. We
    have to do better at running stuff, setting screens, and creating for each other. We had six assists at halftime. I talked to the team about it. We came out and did a better job; had 12 in the second half. So that's the difference in
    the game for us."

"I love our character. I love our fight, and you know I'm willing to go into games and battles with our opponent with this group. They don't give up. They continue to fight. I've talked to them before and just said 'Look, things are
    going to turn. We are going to get better.' We're going to win some of these games, but I love our character. High character guys in our locker room. I love our fight. We're just coming up a little short right now."

“(I improved) a whole lot. I started out in my junior year of college, I shot 70 percent from three. I bumped it up my senior year and, I feel like it’s only improving as long as I keep working and keep my head up.”

On the adjustments the team made in the second half:

“We just wanted to get some defensive stops and in transition get some easy buckets. Try to get our execution with more movement and try to get the best shot on the floor.”

On what worked for the Kings in the fourth quarter:

“Well, when you run a play and it continues to work, you go right back into it. I’ve been under Luke Walton and that’s something that he does. He ran a play and he kept going back to it, and we didn’t stop it, so they continued to
    execute it and get different options out of it. We never adjusted.”

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Pelicans vs. Kings Postgame Quotes 10-29-2021

On the Pelicans fight in the second half…

“It’s something we just have to continue to work on. I love our fight. Our guys went out and they fought, especially in the second half we climbed back into it, but we do have to take care of the ball and we got to execute better.”

“We are just shooting ourselves in the foot. We have to keep the game simple. Come down, run our offense in transition, keep the game simple. When we do, we get really great shots, quality shots. It’s something we have to continue to
    teach, continue to talk about and frankly continue to get better at. If we take care of the basketball, if we get quality shots.”

On minutes the Pelicans starters had to play…

“Well hopefully we’re not in this situation where Brandon [Ingram] and Devonte’ [Graham] and Jonas [Valanciunas] and those guys are playing heavy minutes like this on the back-to-back but they wanted to play and we needed them out there
    in order to give ourselves a chance to win the game. We’ll continue to get better, like I said. Our bench will get better. We’ll get healthy. We’ll get guys in the rotation. It’ll help those guys so they are not playing heavy, heavy
    minutes, especially on a second night of a back to back.”

“I mean it’s just the obvious, you can’t win games like that. So, you keep saying that every game, it’s kind of like beating a dead horse. We was in the game, that’s the crazy part about it. If we cut the turnovers in half, we could be
    up 15 points. We obviously keep saying the same thing, ‘we gotta take care of the ball, we gotta take care of the ball.’ Until then…we gotta live with our mistakes.”

“I’m still good, like I said. This is the NBA, you got us, you got Dallas. The fact that we were in the game, obviously we were defending well. We didn’t make shots tonight, I didn’t make shots tonight and we turned the ball over, so we
    take care of that and we put ourselves in even better situation.”

On how he’s feeling now about how the team is offensively...

“Well, as you said, we need to stop turning the ball over. I felt like the second half was good for us. We were in the game. Just those again, turnovers. If we can take care of the ball better, I think we’d win the game.”

On how things are with adjusting to young players playing and his spot on the offense…

“It’s not just the young guys, you know, we all do it now. We’ll try to figure out how to play with each other. New group, new players, new coaching staff. It’s going to take some time. It’s not going to be overnight. Some teams are
    struggling to start, especially the fresh groups, new groups, so we got to just stay humble, fight every night. You know, I think today we put up a great fight. You know, the result is not what we wanted to, but we fought ‘til the end,
    and you know, we gotta keep building that. Sounds like a broken record but most important thing to stay together and keep believing what we do, keep believing in ourselves and coaching staff and everybody who’s in the locker room and we
    going to be good.”

pelicans-at-timberwolves-postgame-quotes-10-23-2021

Pelicans at Timberwolves Postgame Quotes 10-23-2021

Philadelphia 76ers at New Orleans Pelicans postgame quotes from October 20, 2021.

On what you would’ve like to see differently in tonight’s game:

“Credit to Philadelphia, that's a veteran team and they have been doing it for a while. Nine/eight minutes left in the 4th quarter, they just turned it up. A couple of mistakes on our part but our guys went out and played extremely hard for three and half of four quarters. It is something to build on. We do have a lot of positives to build on, but a tough night overall not winning the game. There are a ton of positives we can take from this game.”

On the evaluation of the starting backcourt and if it is a working progress:

"Yes, it is still a work in progress. We will continue to look at which lineups play well together. I like what this group did, and the starting backcourt took care of the ball. We got quality shots, and I thought we got to the basket but didn't necessarily get the whistle. We need to earn that. That's a veteran team, and they have been in these moments before. They know to win down the stretch, but we will get there. We will definitely get there."

On what went well in this game that they can continue to build on:

"Executing. I think we did a pretty good job especially out of time outs. Play with a little bit more pace, coach was telling us. But I feel like guys had a rhythm, playing well together, sharing the ball, having fun out there, so we just got to get that last quarter and half together."

On what the team needs to do to address that stretch where the offense got stagnant in the second half:

"Yeah, that's on me. I’ve got to do a better job getting guys, putting guys in a better position, calling out different plays, getting guys situated whether that's just getting into rub pick and rolls, or getting BI (Brandon Ingram) or whoever, so that's definitely on me."

On how he felt the back court played tonight:

"I mean, I felt comfortable from the beginning, just because everyone is trying to play to win. I think we're all great players, and I trust our offense, I trust each other. So, we play together, we talk through things, we might see something different, but it was our first official game together. We're still kind of learning and growing. A lot of changes are going to come, and we’ve just got to grind away."

On his first game in the starting back court with Devonte' Graham:

"I love playing with Te' (Devonte' Graham), great player, confident player, sees the game well, and very unselfish. He's a true point guard, wants to get his guys going, can shoot the ball, scoring threat. I didn't see anything I didn't expect because that's the type of player I know he is, and I know he can provide for us any given night."

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Pelicans vs. 76ers Postgame Quotes 10-20-2021

New Orleans Pelicans head coach Stan Van Gundy and Pelicans players recap the team's season finale against the Los Angeles Lakers on May 16, 2021 at the Smoothie King Center. The Pelicans fell 110-98 to the Lakers and finished the 2020-21 NBA season with a 31-41 record.

On his assessment of his first season with the Pelicans:
“There is some good and some bad. We came a long way defensively…from next-to-last in the league before the All-Star break…I don’t know what it ended up, but for most of the time until we got guys hurt, we were the top-seven or eight defensive team in the second-half of the year. That is a tremendous improvement and I felt good about that. I think that one of the biggest things is – and as a coach you certainly look at yourself, because you can look at every single play, but particularly the second half of the year – our inability to win the close games [was a big one]. We lost games that were decided either in overtime or by three points or fewer, or one possession games. We were in ten of them and lost eight of them. As a coach you are going to question every single decision that you made down the stretch in every one of those games. That was a big, big frustration, and then the other thing I think is we had long stretches of games where we were an outstanding offensive team. As I said, in the second half of the year we had long stretches of games where we were an outstanding defensive team. We never really, for any stretch of games in the year, of any length of time did we put together offense and defense. We were either playing really good offense and really bad defense, or really good defense and pretty bad offense. I guess the positive of that is that we can go in and certainly show them – as we get into next year, we can certainly show them what we look like playing good offense, as good as anyone in the league, and we can show them what we look like playing really good defense. That is the positive, but somehow, we have to find a way to put it all together, and I clearly must do a better job at the end of close games and so do they. Become more disciplined, make better decisions…so we all have a long way to go. I think as a coach, quite honestly, I am not happy. I think that, in terms of a record, we should have had a better year and so as coach you are not going to feel good about that, and I am pretty self-critical. I will outline a lot of areas that I think that we need to get better and we will start attacking those. How I would characterize my first year? Some things were good, but overall I need to do a lot better job.”

On his postgame message to the team:
“I just told them I appreciated the way they hung together and supported each other throughout the year.”

On not giving up down the stretch and battling in all the games late in the season:
"I mean, I think this team has been amazing all year. We had some important guys out with injury, so it was just another opportunity for other guys. Everybody was working really hard, did all year. I think everybody shows up ready to play; not just today, all season. So, I think like coach said a couple times, one of the positive things about this group is the resiliency we have. Even tough losses, even with a lot of guys out, we kept fighting, kept believing in us. So something really good, something special, and I'm really excited to be around those guys."

On getting extended minutes to show what he can do:
"I mean, I'm really, really happy with the season. I'm really happy with the opportunity that I had. I'm going to be truly honest, it was really hard for me. You know I’ve got to be a little patient, but I bet on myself, I tried to work hard. I tried to always keep a smile and keep believing in myself, and keep listening to my teammates, my coaches, and Stan (Van Gundy). At some point I knew my opportunity would come, so I just tried to use it, play hard, and have fun. I'm just really happy to be around these teammates, this group of guys, the front office. Everybody was amazing. You guys too, and it's how I felt from the beginning. You guys are my family, and my teammates too."

On how he would summarize his season and what he learned:
"It was a good year, learned a lot. It was one of the toughest years obviously, with COVID and all that, but everybody taught me along the way from when I first got here…on the court, off the court, how to take care of my body, training. I learned a lot, and I just can't wait to instill everything I learned from this past year and what I learn in the offseason going into next year."

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Pelicans vs. Lakers Postgame Quotes 5-16-21 | 2020-21 NBA

On the resilience of the team after the Pelicans ended the game on a 29-14 run to close out the victory:

“Look, I have been talking about that all year. Certainly, we have had a lot of games we have not finished well and everything else, but for this team, it is really just about how well we play or do not play in situations. We are coming off a loss last night, it was a bad loss, and we had to talk about it last night, and I said it will come down to whether we play well or not. It is not like our team is going to die, or let go of the rope. They have not all year, you guys have watched it. It is a resilient group. It is the third time in what, the last five or six games, that we have made really good comebacks late; Denver, Minnesota, tonight. This is a group that fights. Last night we took a beating, but we came right back tonight and got down nine in the second half and just kept fighting. I am really happy for our guys. I am really, really proud of them.”

On whether the defense changed in the second half against the Warriors, especially on Steph Curry, and whether there was a different approach to close out the game:

“Well, we really did not approach it differently. We just kept playing hard at the end. You know, he played 37 minutes and is on back-toback like a lot of guys are and he was tired. That probably helped too, but everyone on both teams was tired, so it is not like he was the only guy out there tired. We did not really try to do anything differently and we just fought hard. We came up with that huge loose ball I thought, where we got the clear-path foul, which was really what decided the game. It is one of the things we talked about today, it is not all about numbers. By the numbers, Zion [Williamson] did not have a huge game for him. He really did not. He is only 8-of-17 from the floor and had six turnovers, but that loose ball was a winning basketball play and that is what we talked about today, was over these last seven games, counting tonight, we want to focus on playing winning basketball. We talked about taking care of the ball…only 12 turnovers
tonight. We talked about our defensive commitment. We talked about getting back, which was a lot better tonight. We did not necessarily play pretty basketball. We did not necessarily play real well at times, but we made more winning plays tonight than we did last night. That is stuff that we can control, and I was proud of our guys and really, really happy for them tonight.”

On Lonzo Ball bouncing back from last night's performance with his performance tonight:

"I don't usually say stuff like this, but Lonzo, he texted me last night. He just said, 'My fault about last night, but I'll be there tomorrow.' I think that those are big words and it shows what he's all about today. He came today and he showed out. A lot of respect for that."

On his mentality when he knew Brandon Ingram would not return to the game:

"Next man up, especially in this win, trying to make the play-in tournament. Praying for my guy BI (Brandon Ingram) of course. You never want to see that happen, but we had a game to win and it was next man up and we got the W for my man, so just happy we could do that."

On seeing Lonzo Ball have a performance like tonight following his performance in the previous game:

"I think that's just basketball…never too high, never too low. There's plenty of ups and downs in this, and Zo (Lonzo Ball), he's
never going to stop shooting. He never gets down on himself. He knows the work he put in and he had full confidence in the
game, just as well as me and the rest of his teammates, and it shows every night. I mean, you can see he came out tonight hot.
It just shows how great of a player he is."

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Pelicans vs. Warriors Postgame Quotes 5-4-21 | 2020-21 NBA

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Pelicans vs. Warriors Postgame Quotes 5-3-21 | 2020-21 NBA

On Golden State scoring 29 points off of Pelican turnovers:

“The game was basically decided in the first quarter. After that, there were runs both ways. We did a good job in the third quarter getting back into it early, but then they made another run. We were just in too big of a hole. It was a frustrating night … disappointing night. We have to come back tomorrow. Our part of it is, as coaches, to give them a clearer plan. Players have to be locked in, and we’ve got to be better offensively taking care of the ball. Defensively, we just can’t give them everything. Stephen (Curry) gets 41 points and makes eight threes. The rest of the team goes 9-of-26 from three, which isn’t awful, but then we give them all kinds of layups because we’re trying to get out on Stephen (Curry). We talked about that before the game, but clearly we didn’t do a good job as coaches. We weren’t clear enough on our plan and gave up way too many layups trying to get out and take away his three. We’ve got to make some adjustments on that. That was a really poor game. We did a good job, and I thought our guys kept fighting in the second half. I give them credit for that, but we just didn’t play anywhere near well enough to beat that team.”

On the message to the team to bounce back tomorrow:

“We’ve been a resilient team, so the first thing is that it will take some resilience. You’ve got to come in ready to play. You’ve got to be locked in to whatever we’re going to do plan-wise, and we’ve got to play a more solid game. We’ll make some adjustments, but it’s not like we have two days of practice here. We’ve just got to be better. We’re usually good off the start, but our last two losses were terrible first quarters where we weren’t ready to play. I have to look at how much of that was us and if we weren’t clear enough with our plan. If guys were confused, it’s hard to play well. We have to make some corrections and get back at it.”

"We didn't start off with the right intensity, but, I mean, that can happen in NBA games. I think our problem was we saw what was going on in the first quarter and we kind of let that dictate the rest of the game when we should have just said, 'Alright, that's over with. Let's start new in the second quarter.'"

On having this result with the importance of this game:

"I mean, it's all in the game. We're in that lucky situation where we get to play them tomorrow, so we don't have to wait a couple games or wait till we see them next. We play them right here again tomorrow, so I think it's going to show what kind of character we have as a team, what we do tomorrow."

On how he assesses his offensive game tonight:

"I think I just missed shots. I'll shoot the same shots tomorrow. Hopefully, it's a better result."

On what he thinks the team needs to do tomorrow to get Brandon Ingram more involved on offense:

"Better movement, probably more handoffs getting him the ball. They were denying a lot of his catches tonight, so just finding better ways to get him the ball."

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On the solid defense against Paul George:

“Our defense has gotten better, and our guys are playing harder. They’re trusting each other a little bit more, but it’s always a combination. You play better, and they have to miss shots. They had some really makeable threes and missed them – particularly in the first half – and it allowed us to get out in front. It’s always both, but I thought our guys were really getting into Paul George. I thought Lonzo (Ball) and Naji (Marshall) did a good job getting into him and didn’t give him anything easy. I thought our bigs did a good job of being up on pick-and-rolls and not letting him come off and shoot the ball. I thought the defense was good, and we were fortunate. That’s usually what happens, and I’ll take it.”

On stopping the Clippers run in the second quarter:

“They made their run, and momentum was going their way. To take that lead back up at the half just gave us a different feel. I’m fully aware they didn’t have Kawhi Leonard, but over this eight-game stretch of which Kawhi had missed seven of those games, they were still the number four offense in the league in that stretch and the number one three-point shooting team in the league in that stretch. They won six and lost one in the games Kawhi had missed, so this team as they currently are has been playing great. Obviously, Kawhi is a different story, but we’re not whole either, so that’s just the way this season has been. You don’t see very many games where both teams are whole.”

"Nobody likes to lose. Nobody wants to come into work like 'Alright, we lost the day before, like, so let's just lose again.' Nobody wants to do that. Everybody wants to win. So I think we all – in this locker room, we all share that common goal, that same feeling. So when we come in the next day if we have tough loss, it's like, 'It's a new day, new game. Let's get the W.'"

On Willy Hernangómez stepping into the starting lineup:

"If you know Willy as a person, whether Willy plays or not, Willy's always a positive energetic guy and he's just a great dude to be around. So when we said that Willy was going to be in the starting lineup, nobody had any worries about Willy. We knew he was going to come in and do his thing."

"I don't know. It's just, I think that I come from a family, the way my parents taught me since I was young. I think my brother and sister, we have the same energy, the same attitude. So (I) just try to enjoy every day, to have fun out there playing the game of basketball, and when opportunities are there, just try to play hard."

On the team being able to bounce back after tough losses:

"I think one of the good things about playing in this league is that we have too many games. After great wins like today or tough losses like we had last week, you've always got to keep focusing on the next one. And now, with the situation with COVID, you have too many games in two days, so you’ve got to be focused on what you can do better, what you can improve. You don't have too much time to practice. You are going to be always in film sessions, in stuff like that. So just try to be ready, just try to learn about those mistakes we are making and keep getting better, getting better, and we're helping each other to get better too."

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Pelicans vs. Clippers Postgame Quotes 4-27-21 | 2020-21 NBA

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2021‑quotes