Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry: On the key factors of tonight's loss: “I thought, early on, they pounded us a little bit on the inside with their big guys, but I thought we responded and did a good job. We gave up too many baskets in the paint early on. I thought the dribble penetration hurt us. It's something that I thought we took care of the second half and did a good job with. The rebounding, the rebounding, it really hurt us. The offensive rebounding and then the most inopportune things. I thought we played a great second half, but when you spot them thirteen, then it has to be the perfect storm and even when we made a couple of runs here and there, they always came up with a shot to kind of keep us off balance a little bit. Obviously, I thought AD (Anthony Davis) played great. Did a lot of good things for us. Tim Frazier I thought did a good job. We have to make some of the other shots. If they're going to commit three guys to AD then we've got to have guys step up and make shots, but I thought overall, I liked the effort, especially in the second half. Obviously, we've got to try to make enough plays to get over the hump.”
On the struggle at the 3-point line: “We didn't shoot it well at all. Three for nineteen I think is what we were and we're a better shooting team than that. I just thought when they needed a big play, they came up with a big play. We had a couple opportunities to tie the game, had a couple opportunities to get it close enough to make them feel us with five, six, seven minutes left and we just weren't able to do that.”
On the improved play in the second half: “I think what happened is we just got a little more aggressive defensively. We changed a couple of things from a game plan standpoint. We tried to make sure if they were going to play big guys that we got the ball to Anthony (Davis) in space and I thought AD (Anthony Davis) did a great job in space of making the right decisions. It's one game and I think we learned from it. We just got to get better, as I said, with dribble penetration and we got to get better on the rebounding side of the ball.”
Pelicans Forward Solomon Hill: On tonight's overall execution: “We showed that we can make our runs, we can get in there defensively, and we can stay with the team. I just think getting down early put us in a hole and we were fighting an uphill battle. We just have to come out stronger. I think that we have a lot more to handle defensively.”
On what made them pick up the momentum in the second half: “It was just desperation. It was the first game, a home crowd and you don't want to lose a home game. Everyone on the team was desperate, and Anthony was going after it, and that's what everybody feeds off of.”
Pelicans Guard Buddy Hield: On his overall feelings about the team's first game: “We just have to learn from every mistake we make, we also need to watch a lot of film. We'll do a better job, and when we watch the film we'll make those changes.”
On his thoughts about Anthony Davis: “It was fascinating. He made a lot of great shots, he played inside out, and he had tough match-ups. He's the superstar and that's what you get. He brings it every night, he works hard for it, and it's unfortunate that we lost.”
