PELICANS COACH ALVIN GENTRY
On the game:
“We never really got a rhythm going. We were able to stay in the game. The disappointing thing about it was in the first half, all we had talked about really before we came out was transition offense. These guys are really good at it. We let them get out of the box. They had 18 points in transition in the first half. We held them to 12 the whole game at our place. John Wall, you get him in the open court, not only is he making plays, but he’s helping and making plays for other people. We didn’t do a very good job in that department. In the third quarter, we just kind of let the game get away, a couple of turnovers here and there and they followed that up with three-point shots. From there, they had the separation and we never really got into a rhythm, part of it was us and I thought part of it was they did a good job defensively.”
On Anthony Davis:
“They did a great job on him. Any time a guy gets 59, I can guarantee you game plan for him the next game. They fronted him in the post and they brought a guy weak side to play behind him. They had a guy playing in front and behind him the entire game. We had to have other guys step up and make shots and we just didn’t shoot the ball very good.”
On getting Anthony Davis open:
“I think what we have to do is create space, but he has to be a facilitator more than anything. If we are getting easy basket after easy basket, then we have to make them adjust. We never really got to that point where we made them adjust. They were going to make other guys beat us which makes total sense. In that case, we’ve got to find open guys and they’ve got to step up and make shots.”
On John Wall:
“He’s got that going every night. He doesn’t shoot it well every night, but he’s always a huge factor because the transition offense alone and what he creates when he’s in the open floor is so beneficial. A guy like Jared Dudley, who I had and coached, he’s a huge benefactor of the fact that you’ve got to try and get back and contain Wall and that creates open shots for guys. When JD (Jared Dudley) has his feet set and is shooting threes, he’s going to be pretty good.”
On his early timeouts in the third quarter:
“I just took the timeouts was because what I tried to do, this team is really good at going on runs. We just tried to stop the runs, stop the bleeding and find a way to get an easy basket. We were never able to just get the game back under control.”
PELICANS FORWARD ANTHONY DAVIS
On the game:
“I think they (Wizards) decided to double team me, deny me the ball a lot. We talked about it, we knew they were going to try and do that, and we needed to have other guys play off of that to free me up a bit. They did a good job defensively. Most importantly they had 38 transition points and I think that’s where the game was won.”
On the gap in transition points:
“We just weren’t getting back. Any time we shot the ball they were running and we weren’t getting back, we were jogging back and we can’t do that against a team that feeds on transition points.”
On struggling offensively:
“It’s tough. You never get in a rhythm. Sometimes you don’t touch the ball, but that’s why you have teammates. Other people have to try and play off of that and try and make it work.”
On John Wall:
“When you score, and you’re trying to get back and do defensive things, turn around and he (John Wall)’s on your back. You just have to worry about getting back and try and work from there, but he’s one of the fastest guys I’ve ever seen with the ball. He makes great plays out of things like that. Too bad we don’t see him again, but we’re definitely going to hold on to this one for next year.”
On the Wizards’ defense:
“I think it was just the guy on the weak side, his (Jared Dudley’s) job was just for fun. Everybody else, [Marcin] Gortat and Nene, whoever it was helping on the weak side was making sure we couldn’t throw the over-the-top pass, or any time I would come off a pin down they would switch it. I think it was a team effort with the switching out, so I just didn’t get a chance to get the ball.”
WIZARDS COACH RANDY WITTMAN
On the win:
“Three in a row here, under 90. Again, it was a great focus game even though the first half I told them at halftime, we’re up three I think, 54-51, I said we haven’t played near our best basketball yet. So I said that’s the good thing, you guys work through not playing our best basketball and have a three-point lead. Now let’s go out and play our best basketball. I thought that third quarter, we just jumped right on it. Ball movement, defense, our guys, I gotta give them a lot of credit. We did some things tonight that we haven’t done very often this year in defending these particular guys because of uniqueness of [Anthony] Davis and [Ryan] Anderson on the perimeter. So they went out and really did it to a T.”
On John Wall:
“No, [he didn’t shoot particularly well]. I think if you talk to John, he’s gonna probably say, “Man I didn’t play very good.” To get a triple-double and not in your mind play very good, that’s pretty good. But that’s a testament to the entire team. I thought we had guys step up: Dudley knocked down threes, and we kept moving the ball and finding him. Those are the things that are good. Marcin was really good. We knew that they would probably try to go Anderson and Davis at the four and five a lot tonight especially with Asik hurt and Marcin had his turn guarding Davis as well as Dudley and Markeiff and Nene. This was really an all-around great team win. Like I said, I think they even think we could have played better. So to get out of here with a 20-point win with our defense holding another team under 90, I told them this morning a very simple game plan: They’re 0-25 if they don’t get to 100. So keep them at 99 or less.”
On holding Anthony Davis to nine points:
“We kept a body on him. We didn’t leave him, we didn’t overextend pick and rolls. We wanted to keep somebody between him and the basket. Our guards did a nice job of recognizing when to get under and when to go over. We gave up some shots, that’s what we were gonna give up tonight was perimeter shots to their guards. We weren’t gonna leave Anderson or Davis and let them get going as well, so I thought that was pretty good.”
On Markieff Morris:
“I thought he was really comfortable out there tonight. He even called some plays. He’s adjusting in. It’s just now teammates learning him and him learning teammates. It’s a whole different scenario than where he was at in Phoenix, and now we got our guys trying to find out where he likes the ball, spots on the floor, and he’s trying to figure out our guys so I thought it was another good step for him tonight.”
WIZARDS GUARD JOHN WALL
On taking control of the game in the third quarter:
“I think we came out, got defensive stops and held them from scoring and then Dud (Jared Dudley) got hot. We rebounded the ball, had deflections and steals. We got out into transition like we were supposed to in the first half and then Dud [Jared Dudley] hit three threes in a row and it put us in the lead.”
On Anthony Davis:
“It was the same kind of plan that we did when we were in New Orleans. Dud [Jared Dudley] was whiting him wherever he can. In the past, we usually ice the pick and rolls so that they can throw it back to him for jump shots. We didn’t ice anything because that’s where he makes his killing, mid ranges and then isoing at the top. We stayed attached to both of their bigs, him and [Ryan] Anderson. We just told everybody else to make plays for them.”
On his second triple-double this month:
“It’s good. It’s something I always can do. I think at times I don’t always put the effort towards rebounding, I mean, assists I can always get those and scoring. I don’t think I always give 110% going for rebounds. Sometimes, [Marcin] Gortat gets upset because I’m stealing his rebounds so I try and stay out of the way.”
