Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry: On tonight’s game vs. Pistons: “I made shots. I tried to do as much as I could to help the team win. They kept trying to feed me the ball and I was just trying to make the most out of it and after a while you feel like any shot you put up is going to go in. I definitely felt like that tonight and I’m just glad they did go in.”
On conversations during timeouts: “We were still just playing. Jrue (Holliday) was doing a good job of making them switch into a defense that required their bigs be down low, (Davis) was able to pop and roll to the basket, and get a lot of baskets. We had Ryan (Anderson) out there and I know Ryan didn’t shoot the ball well tonight but he creates a lot of spacing when he’s out there. Just having him (Anderson) out there allowed us to do some of the things that we did.”
Pelicans Forward Anthony Davis: On his 59 point, 20 rebound game: “We passed the ball and got good shots. We really pushed the tempo to get as many attempts as we could. We also had a lot of energy, because we knew that this team had a lot of energy so we tried to set the tone.”
On if he was keeping track: “I wasn’t keeping track but the bench definitely was telling me in timeouts – one more rebound or might as well get 60 and all that. I just tried not to worry about it. They hit two three’s towards the end, I was worrying about winning the game.”
Pistons Head Coach Stan Van Gundy: On Anthony Davis scoring 59 points: “No he did, but that one’s on me. You’ve got to come up with something, the guy can’t get 59. That’s on me. That’s terrible coaching, terrible.”
Pistons Forward Tobias Harris: On mindset when Anthony Davis is scoring the way he was tonight: “Try to make it as tough as possible for him out there. Try to force him into some different looks but you have to give credit to him, he pretty much made every shot he put up. A lot of them were contested, a lot of them we had a hand in his face. He has a great repertoire and great skill set so we just have to find a way next time around to stop him.”
On how to get Anthony Davis out of his rhythm: “You can sit here and say be more physical with him but really tonight he was just in a zone. It’s a team thing, all five guys. He didn’t score 59 points on one guy; he scored pretty much on everybody out there. We have to take it as a team. There’s a lot of little things that we can get better at: pulling in a little more, pick-and-roll, which is where a lot of his points came from, getting back to the ball faster, and getting more help on him. Some of the little things that we need to get better at.”
