Willie Green recaps OT loss to Memphis | Pelicans-Grizzlies Postgame Interview 12/26/2023

Willie Green recaps OT loss to Memphis | Pelicans-Grizzlies Postgame Interview 12/26/2023

Coach get an explanation uh at the end of the game on the on the herb play after the challenge was successful um he got the rebound is why was there a jump ball yeah that’s what we asked the same question nor we I thought the rule was when the whistle

Stops whomever has the ball they they take possession of the ball and I was told that because the whistle stopped and everybody stopped play it doesn’t matter so um obviously you talked about Miss free throws the last game uh it’s it seem in a rear it’s ugly head again

Especially tonight such a close game yeah I mean it was a part of it and um I’ll tell you guys what I told our team for three and a half quarters you know our game plan discipline was at a high level we were executing and as the game start to get

You know a little close we get tired little fourth quarter what whatever it is um teams they up their level of physicality and we started to turn the ball over and not execute as well and we let them right back in a game and that’s

What it is is our free throws it’s our execution it’s our turnovers and it’s not one guy it’s all of us we’re all in it we’re all a part of it it’s an opportunity for all of us to get better this this crap hurts losing games like this but you know it’s

A part of it and and we have to learn from these moments and you know hopefully it doesn’t take another three or four games but you know we haven’t been winning these and this is a moment where we we go back we watch film we don’t finger point we’re in it

Together and we we we figure it out together in those kind of moments you know when you when you really need a bucket I mean who do you who you look to I guess to be like an organizer for for you on offense well we got three guys

Out there that are all capable uh Zion bi CJ and the ball was in all their hands at one point um to settle us down and get us good looks and they did for the most part but we didn’t do enough to win the game that’s what it boy was down

To and what was just your Vantage Point on the uh the inbounds uh pass with point4 seconds left uh I take I take responsibility for that um in hindsight they didn’t have enough time to throw it back to the the inbounder so we should have took a guy off the ball and just

Tracked whomever and then just stay at The Rim and if they throw it to the rim we got a guy there plus we got four guys so that’s on us that’s on me as a coach that’s that’s an area where I need to get better and uh overtime in particular

It seemed like so many of the possessions came down to right before the shot clock buzzer you’re getting a shot off I guess what did you see just the way that the offense kind of slowed down so much at the end it did it slowed

Down we got stops we we stop running but the biggest thing is give them credit those guys are physical Bane um um Marcus Smart jiren Jackson is tracking everybody coming to block shots Tillman and they when they got tougher when the game got tougher they picked up their

Level of physicality and they made it difficult on us and that’s this is where we have to grow we got to learn to get to our spots execute with force and Pace um make solid passes and then when we get to the free throw line make our free

Throws and you know like I said for three and a half quarters we did it and the last five minutes five six minutes we we didn’t and you mentioned the free throws how frustrating is to see how much these free throws are cost you games it’s frustrating it’s frustrating

For our guys it’s frustrating for everybody but um we got to keep working on them you know and when you see these issues popping up reply where you’re allowing these games to slip away late in the fourth quarter I guess what do you do to to address the team and try to

Find a solution the biggest part is having a level of honesty about it you know why is this happening um um watching film on it getting on the flooor and practice and working on it and then showing up the next day and that’s the goal for us

Like that’s the deal show up the next day be ready own it and we still got games in front of us and Coach when a game comes down to the end with a team that you know admittedly the Grizzlies have been further than you guys lot bigger playoff runs and stuff like that

Bigger game movements so is that something that you guys have to hit you have to find that level how to fight how to fight every minute and um it’s not just like running in offense but doing everything possible because it seems like the Grizzlies were able to do

Everything they needed to to hch out that win yeah they did give them credit um this is twice in the last you know five or six days or what have you but they did what they needed to do to win they executed they came up with big

Plays and they have the experience you know they they’ve been there you know more times than we have and um we’re a team that we’re going to learn from this and we’re going to be better uh when it counts but right now we got to go through some of the some of these

Growing pains well are you surprised that these issues are still coming up late in games though or I I don’t want them to happen I I would have lik to have won this game but you know sometimes they’re unpredictable you don’t know that it’s going to happen the way it does and like

I said we own it we’re honest about it um I’m going take ownership on my part and our guys will too we’ll get back to work tomorrow coach Z had 17 and 10 at halftime but in the second half only six points one rebound but he was bringing

Up the ball more like more of a point Zion sort of experiment was that matchup dependent or something you just wanted to get reps of no matter what at this point of the season um it was a combination of just looking at some of the matchups and

Where we could get him the ball and certain spots and that’s it I mean he’ll have the ball Brandon CJ so those guys kind of alternate and another double digit lead going by the ways side defe what’s the mood of the locker room and how have they taken these defeats is it

All been the same there is sound of like evolution of they just getting upset or first it’s correct mistakes and now it’s just how have they taken these losses it all been the same um it’s tough you know they don’t take these losses lightly and they shouldn’t um but we also have to

Have a level of big picture and big picture is is we can learn from this we can grow from this and so we we’re all upset we’re all going to be down about it uh but the beauty is we get to come back to work tomorrow watch

Film have a practice and have an opportunity to get better thanks for okay thank you

New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green’s post game interview after the Pelicans’ overtime loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Dec. 26 during the 2023-24 NBA season.
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