CJ McCollum on the win, Brandon Ingram | Pelicans Jazz Postgame Interview 12/28/23

CJ McCollum on the win, Brandon Ingram | Pelicans Jazz Postgame Interview 12/28/23

How good was it to have uh Larry back in there what do you think you brought to the game tonight it was good Larry’s Our Savior it was good no it was good he was he was joking he was like uh you guys need me to come

Save the day I I’ll save the day for you guys but no he’s he’s been working really hard behind the scenes just making sure he was ready when when um when his rib and everything kind of healed you see the explosiveness his back and um he had a long summer of you

Know kind of getting some surgeries and and getting stuff situated so the time off was with his rib healing was good for him to ramp up and and go through a real preseason cuz he didn’t have a real preseason but you see the effectiveness the versatility um obviously the

Basketball smarts he had five steals he had nine points seven rebounds um just the ability to kind of manipulate a game uh without even having to touch the ball um just a another smart guy who’s been the league for a long time and obviously gets the respect from the referees too

Which is what you want uh but I thought he played great and he was a huge boost for us today what you like about what you guys did from an exec ution standpoint offensively down the stretch I mean we’ve been we’ve been watching the film like like everybody else and

Just trying to figure out how to not be so stagnant how to find matchups and we got some high picking roles we got the the ball in the right guys hands and we made the right decisions when to finish when to pass I think against Memphis

They had 17 blocks which is crazy so being able to kind of make the right decision on when to go up when to kick it out I think was important and then part of it is just making shots you know if we make shots no one really talks

About it when we miss it’s like what’s wrong so I think the execution was was better but we also like trade hits a three I get a floater we kind of like had momentums he finished around the basket got to the free throw line um we

We made the right plays I think uh Z set a screen for bi he got to step up as he pull up so like when we score those are not similar shots but like we had some of those same shots we just missed them we had some finishes around the basket

We missed we had some mides we missed we had some threes we missed historically in some of these fourth quarters so when they go down it’s it’s obviously nicer but we we’ really worked on late game execution and you know really honed in on how to be more successful down the

Stretch yeah only the third time ever you bi and Z all scor 20 in the same game what do you like about just the way y’all were working together and you know just getting good shots I think it was the pace man the pace was really good

And we’ve talked about it we got to play faster we play too slow pace makes it easier for us to score in transition find matchups get threes um I tried to be really aggressive in the first quarter um understand the importance of this game and how we’ve just kind of had

Lackluster starts um but I thought we all did a good job of balancing you know when to make the right play for somebody else when to score generate in threes bi got to the basket was aggressive Z was finishing everything like he normally does and then he had some great passes

Um he had to pass to Larry for the dunk he had to kick out to Trey and the the the great part about it was you know we had some actions where Z is screening you know sprinting into screens changing the Angles and those are tough to guard

Whether he’s screening for me or be easy for us to make the decision on you know score get downhill make the pass and on on one of those plays you know B hits the middle to z z looks you know draws the defense in he hits Larry for the

Dunk and then he drives and kicks it to Trey um on the ball screen which is a sign of um us kind of learning where where everybody’s going to be out on the court and Larry’s one of those guys where people say like it’s hard to measure his impact with the stats right

I guess there somebody out there who shares the floor with him what do you say just about the things he brings to the team that people wouldn’t notice unless up close like you guys are well he’s another adult the 30y old old old man now in the league uh who understands

How to prepare he understands U the importance of each possession he’s a team guy he’s a defensive minded player obviously rent protector he has some blocks he can finish um but he’s really just versatile defensively understanding like wi switch how to kind of talk through that stuff sense of urgency

Right like we’re on you know I’m not going to say we’re on the back of our careers but we’re closer to the end and the beginning so like the understanding of little moments the understanding of preparation practice shoot around is is heightened for us because we’ve had so

Many right like I don’t know if probably played 800 games now at this point so you really understand the moment more than than most because you you had so many so I think that that really helps for us and then just he’s a good basketball player and I know we haven’t

Seen many instances of it but you mentioned it tonight the pick and roll Boling Z then Ubi rolling off of it see do you feel like that can become Maybe one of the most important parts of your offense that go to like see that future clutch moment it’s going to be very

Important for us in our development um being able to have our best players in the actions together um instead of standing I think it’ll be helpful there’s other actions we can run out of it but that’ll be something that we really take advantage of and Z is so

Dynamic rolling to the basket he’s hard hard to guard and the matchup is you know if I got the ball as a point guard or a shooting guard I mean they have no chance of guard if they switch so it just creates a lot of difficulty in then

For bi with his height and versatility he usually has a tall guy on him but it’s not a tall heavy guy right so if they switched it’s it’s trouble so we got to just continue to to drill it and then replicate it on the court for games

CJ you talk about wanting to start this game with more Pace you took it upon yourself is that kind of the thinking behind it is because of the bad kind of poor starts you guys have had recently yeah I mean I haven’t played as aggressive as I probably should

Consistently trying to figure stuff out trying to get people touches trying to you understand our offense a little bit better but but I just got to be aggressive and take the shots out of there try to get up threes we don’t shoot a lot of Threes in our first unit

So I got to get threes up I got to get paint touches and we got to play fast so I’ll make sure that we do that you know for the rest of the season I don’t know we got 50 51 games left or whatever the

Case may be but we’ll be better um going forward CJ coach stresses building everything off the defense generating offensive good looks off of that defense I think this is seven games in a row that bi’s had multiple blocks and steel can you just speak to what he’s doing in

D in on that end of the Court yeah be I can guard man he’s he’s engaged he’s blocking shots uh he’s accepting matchups ston was getting to the paint he was hitting threes and bi took the challenge and and got some crucial stops for us he’s switching on marketing I

Think a lot of our defense is predicated on Switching as we continue to you know get more healthy and have long wings and and forwards who can guard so uh I think you’re seeing his total game he got the Mia he get to the basket he’s shooting

Threes now um and defensively the good part is that the more active he is on Def def the easier it is for us to start the break right he’s initiating the offense cuz he can get the rebound and push and you see how well he finishes around the basket so that’ll be

Important for us got you and then on the other end um sorry I just had a brain lapse uh how the team just get over the hump they had that over for six you know tight games I think pulling out a tight game tonight just celebratory

Moov in the locker room yeah I mean it’s a part of your learning curve in the process we dropped some games we should have won I mean you could argue we should have won all three of those games Memphis twice and um and H Houston but

We lost and now it’s about learning and moving forward and taking the steps that you need to take to be better in those moments which is practice film discuss it figure out what we need to do better and then it’s going out there and executing and making shots you going to

Miss some shots you going to make some shots but if you get stops like we did tonight then it really doesn’t matter as much on on Larry’s dunk in the fourth quarter he mentioned that he thought earlier in the season because you know maybe he wasn’t 100% that he would have

On that play he might have tried a hook shot or like a you know a layup or something but inad he was able to dunk on one of their bigs what was it like for you guys to see him you know just kind of demonstrate how how much back he

Is physically he been dunking like that for about three weeks now but throughout his career we could tell he was you know healthy again just based on watching him work out you know playing in those stay ready you know Fitness games and U I

Asked him today I said you going to do a floater he said no I’m going dunk it I said oh okay so you feel good he said I’m good I’m I’m I’m back I’m ready and uh he did he dunked on him and he said he was going to dunk on somebody tonight

And he saved it for for a a a basket we really needed we’ve seen Z rebounding go up lately as well how that help it’s important and I think we’ve addressed it and we’ve challenged him to to go be aggressive be athletic right like you are athletic go be an athlete

Go get the ball and when you rebound it starts to break he’s a good passer he’s got vision and he’s you know like a freak train coming down like Fast Break he he probably run a full four four 540 coming down you know with that type of

Speed and power it’s really hard the guard like nobody wants to get in the way everybody’s jumping and moving so the more he rebounds the easier it is for him to start start the break and play with an advantage but it’s also a sign of his motor right it’s a sign of

Him being in tune with you know being in shape doing the work and as he continues to piece together these days that he’s piecing together behind the scenes you’ll see 12 rebounds 15 rebounds and it’ll only go up from there thanks

New Orleans Pelicans post game interview with guard CJ McCollum after their win against the Utah Jazz on Thursday, Dec. 28 during the 2023-24 NBA season.
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New Orleans Pelicans Roster
———————————————–
Jose Alvarado #15 Guard
Dyson Daniels #11 Guard
Jordan Hawkins #24 Guard
Brandon Ingram #14 Forward
Herbert Jones #5 Forward
Kira Lewis Jr. #13 Guard
E.J. Liddell #32 Forward
Naji Marshall #8 Forward
CJ McCollum #3 Guard
Trey Murphy III #25 Guard
Larry Nance Jr. #22 Forward
Matt Ryan #37 Forward
Dereon Seabron #0 Guard
Jonas Valanciunas #17 Center
Zion Williamson #1 Forward
Cody Zeller #44 Forward-Center

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