Willie Green on late game execution, Lakers rematch 12/30/23 | New Orleans Pelicans

Willie Green on late game execution, Lakers rematch 12/30/23 | New Orleans Pelicans

Looking back at the film what did you really like about just the way y’all executed late in the game trying to you know fix some of those problems y’ been talking about I thought I thought it was better um we made some we made some big

Shots down the stretch we got some stops we still had I think a one turnover uh a couple offensive rebounds so there’s still Improvement in there but we made play we made enough plays to win the game and that’s what you got to do the last five minutes what I was just

Going to say I’m sure part of it is like when you guys just don’t make shots like we’re sitting here asking you what’s wrong I mean how much of that last game was you just made shots and how much of it was like you generated the shots you wanted to making shots always

Helps um but just to kind of you know give you a summary we we we have to own the fact that we’re not as good as we want to be right now in those moments we we’ve done that why well offensively the four factors for us was we’re turning the ball

Over where our free throw percentage has to be better the 28th and free throw percentage in clutch games our three-point attempts and our offensive rebounds our our ability to go offensive rebound so we got to tighten the screws on those areas and that’s the Improvement for us those are the things

That we’re working on in practice right now to make sure that when we put ourselves in those moments we try to take a step forward I thought we did that against Utah and one of the obviously the the biggest shot there at the end came off

Uh Zion bi pick and roll how much does that have to be kind of an answer for you guys in some of those situations to say hey let your two guys get involved and go make a play that’s that’s what all the good teams do they put the ball

In their best you know two three players hands or they’re all in action and you keep the game simple and you get a quality look you knock them down you normally you win those games if you miss them at least you want to try to give yourself an opportunity to offensive

Rebound those shots but you got to get good shots of yeah I think and you know he had the P toar where he dunked it I mean how good is he when you just like get it to him in the middle of the floor and let him do whatever he’s fantastic

Really good decision maker he’ll make the right play nine times out of 10 and we we trust putting the ball in his hands with the the free throws a lot of times people think of it as something during the offseason that players can work on you know as far as you have more

Time to but what what can you do during the season is it just a matter of them just practicing and just focusing on it it is it’s a matter of getting in the gym and just keep working on it continuing to gain confidence that in late game situations you have a good

Routine that you feel great about and and step up to the free thr line and knock him down with the way that the game against the Lakers went this last time around how much do you revisit that game or you kind of just focus on how things have been going

Now that’s a trick question huh um we definitely have moved forward but we’re getting ready to play them again and we’re all reminding each other of what happened we definitely give them credit they did what they needed to do to win the game it wasn’t a great feeling for us after

That game and we we know we have to come in this game and be a lot better okay you mentioned at the last uh game CJ got off to a really good start he really said like the tone the pace for you guys is that something you want to see like

From maybe one of your big three is that somebody really is assertive basically grabs the Bulls by the horn and you guys don’t fall behind early for sure um it could be CJ sometimes it’s bi sometimes it’s Z but one of those three guys they

Have to get us off to to better starts and it was really good to see CJ just kind of take ownership of that last game and he got us going right away just a a big picture question last year you guys were top 10 in defense and kind of

Somewhere in the middle and offense and it’s sort of like that again this year you guys top 10 at defense somewhere in the middle on offense I mean what is what is the right balance between those two things for this group do you feel like as you as you keep building towards

The postseason sure um we want to maintain a top 10 10 defense and we want to see if we can get our offense closer to top 10 I think last year we finished 20th 21st something like that this year we may be 15th or 16th somewhere in that

Area so if we can get it closer to 10 closer to 11 12 in that range we feel like you know that’s that may be five six more wins for us coming down the stretch and go back to Lakers when it’s a situation where you got to see a team

Again after knowing it went poorly last time you saw him is it like a hey we want to take this seriously we want to show that that wasn’t who we were or or is it more that we got to keep a same game kind of you know mentality no you

You we want we want to redeem ourselves for sure um and I can get up here and talk all kind of what we want to do we got to get on the floor and we got to we have to do it I I believe all of our guys understand that and you know

Tomorrow will be a great test for us and that’s the deal for us like I can get up here and talk about it but that’s not going to do anything it’s owning it which we do work on it which we do and then get on the floor and put it all

Together and kind of related to Ali’s question we’ve asked a good bit about the starting five this year and how the numbers haven’t been where they were last year what have you kind of focused on to try to improve that the same I’ll let them know that you guys have not

Been great together uh as far as the net rating and um I want to equip them with the information we we can all talk about it what can we all do better to to help group um and then see if we can go out and make some make some adjustments and

Changes to be better so we’re still evaluating

New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green’s interview from practice at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center on Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023.
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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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