Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry: On the Pelicans: “I really appreciate everything that they did and how hard they played. I thought we kept trying to battle our way back into the game. We just couldn’t quite get over the hump. I would say the only negative was at the end and we kind of had a little miscommunication on a couple of things. I would not take anything away from this group. We were shorthanded. I thought we did a great job. Lexi (Alexis Ajinca) stepped in and played great, I thought. We did miss some shots that we normally had made. Luke (Babbit) missed a couple he’s made. I thought the effort was tremendous. I thought everything we did was really good. We just couldn’t quite get over that hump.”
Pelicans Center Alexis Ajinca: On Myles Turner: “It’s just like every other team with a young kid, he was able to just make shots. He played a good game tonight. It’s not like he was un-guardable.”
Did your defense change without Paul George in the game? “Not really. It changes their style, if anything. They move the ball a little bit more.”
Pelicans Guard Alonzo Gee: On playing shorthanded: “I thought we came out and competed, played hard. They made some big shots at the end. But we were in it until the end of the game and I thought we played hard the whole time.”
What was the strategy without so many guys? “Coach just told us to be aggressive, to move the ball, share the ball, play together. I thought we came out and competed and played hard. We came out tonight to try to get a win.”
Did you change your defense with Paul George out? “No, not really. They got a lot of real good wings. C.J. (Miles) is a good wing and he was able to come in and make a lot of shots. I just tried to stay locked in defensively.”
