Willie Green on win over Houston | Pelicans vs Rockets Postgame 2/22/2024

Willie Green on win over Houston | Pelicans vs Rockets Postgame 2/22/2024

All right all right coach we’re going to start this off on the defensive end I know that’s where you want to start first play of the ball game herb Jones with a deflection you got the steal in the Layin and you really picked you know really never let up with with all the

Turnovers forced tremendous job defensively tonight yes Herb was fantastic tonight um six steals deflections rebounding the ball he he fueled our team defensively and it allowed us to get out and and in transition we had 29 fast break points so um really good effort from all of our

Guys defensively holding this team to 43% from the field and 105 points so solid by our by our guys by the way they gave herb another steel he’s got seven oh seven okay yep so that he set a career high tonight um JV uh you know played really well against the Rockets

Last time out it was almost like he continued what he did in that in that Houston win uh had nine rebounds almost had a double double at halftime but continued his post presence and and just was really solid again tonight yeah JV he he was great for us um we wanted to

Feature him early by trying to throw the ball to him uh he got singun in foul trouble um he was he was excellent rebounding the ball make good decisions from the post and when we throw the ball to him it allows us to get you know clean looks either he’s scoring or he’s

Kicking it out for teammates and you know we’re making good plays from there Z had the the Block in Dan F couple other defensive plays from him I mean how does that help youall when he’s being as active as he was on the defensive end tonight you know we’re seeing Zion get

Better and better um as the season progresses and really on the defensive end to your point um the blocks you know the the moving his feet standing in front of guys contesting shots uh love the fact that he had 10 assists so he had an allaround solid game but it his

Plays like that you know you come over block a shot you know herb getting steals guys coming up with big rebounds 50-50 balls it allows us to get out in transition once again and that’s some of our best basketball yeah and then you know his his night offensively how do

You think he did finding that balance between I’m going to go score the ball and I’m going to give my teammates involved I thought he was great and this is what happens when we put the ball in his hands especially early you know he he’s finding CJ he’s finding Trey um

Looking for herb JV whomever it is and then he has moment where you know he he sees something that he likes and he’ll continue to attack it but uh you know when he’s playing like this he’s tough to stop and just continue talking about Z I mean he’s talked about how much he’s

Looked forward to kind of being in these type of games this point the season how much do you kind of sense his excitement about just being a part of this stretch run and kind of showing the world what he’s capable of he’s definitely excited uh about the opportunity in front of us

And uh we’re all excited to be in this position and we’re grateful to be in this position at this time of season have you know Zion healthy bi pretty much the the majority of our team um and now it’s on us it’s on us to continue to

Work together and you know look at areas that we’re we’re having success and then the areas that we can improve we we try to get better in and keep stacking up wins and obviously Herb’s not going to get seven steals every game but I mean when he’s playing the way he plays

Tonight the way he play tonight do you think it’s fair to say you guys just are a different team when he’s making an impact the way he did her brings it every night he really does on on both ends of the floor you know we’re never questioning his effort but when he has

Nights like tonight where he’s guarding everybody and uh getting steals getting deflections getting blocks rebounding the ball shooting the ball well you know we can see how important he is to this group Willie the starters really carried the day but they especially stood out in that third quarter where you guys came

Out really strongly what stood out to you most about those first few minutes of the third well the sense of urgency that the starters came out with to start the quarter um we’ve had a tendency to have leads and come out at halftime and sort

Of be flat but uh it was a different mentality tonight you know I thought CJ was great he hit big shot after big shot he made big play after big play we talked about yonis and even though Trey struggled he found it a little bit and stayed with it throughout the course of

The game but you know Kudos are those guys coming out in the third quarter with the mentality to dominate the game we had a little lapse and I talked to the group about it um when they brought in their substitution guys and but you

Know we did what we needed to do to win the game and that’s important for us I’ve got another herb question for you seems like herb is becoming more vocal we’re seeing more emotion from him from the court is that almost an important step for him to to elevate his game to

Become you know kind of one of those key guys out there on the court that everybody can feel his emotion I believe it is and that’s the next step for our group you know in in general is for all of those guys to be be uncomfortable enough to be

Vocal and have those Communications and and and conversations on the floor where you know they see something they’re talking about it before I even get to the Huddle and um we’re starting to see that more and more with this group and and you know that’s that’s the beauty in

Having a team keeping them together for you know going on our third season coach team’s now 4- one when bi doesn’t play and seven and4 when Zion doesn’t play just talk about how the role players are stepping up to a larger role to get victories even one of the stars are out

Well it’s it’s a credit to the work that all of those guys put in and um Trey nii haulk Matt Jeremiah Larry um We Trust putting these guys on the floor Dyson who who’s out now but we trust putting our guys on the floor and they

Do it our coaches do a tremendous job working with them watching film and there’s no let down you know you put guys on the floor they understand the moment and then what we ask for is effort give us effort compete every play you know we’ll make some mistakes but as

Long as we doing those things you know it usually comes out in a wash did you get a sense of you know whether the chippiness late was just you know division rival type of thing or something in particular in general how do you like the way I guess your guys

Rally uh or respond when that kind of stuff happens yeah you know it’s part of the part of the game and um I think they it was a little frustration you know based on the score we we were up pretty big uh but you know for us it’s it’s being the

More mentally tough team in between the lines and um no matter what happens we’re not backing down from anybody but we also we we need to be smart in those moments which we were coach I want to combine a couple things that you referenced earlier you talked about the mental toughness and

Also how the players step up in Bron Ingram is at then it seems like every time you guys turn the corner there’s some kind of some kind of adversity to get through not having bi coming back from the All-Star break but the team responds and plays the way it does what

Does it say about the growth and development you guys are having well that’s that’s a part of an NBA season um most teams at some point are going to deal with guys being out here and there and um when you face that type of adversity you know we talk about

It as a group but you know those are preparation meet opportunity moments and um as long as guys are preparing they’re working with the coaches we’re getting on the floor in practice and we’re bringing it you know that carryover into the game we’re seeing it especially at

This point in the season and that’s what we want to see from our group there was a moment in the second quarter where herb yonas and Zion had their own mini Slam Dunk Contest after being on the road for so long what’s it like feeling the energy here after something like

That it’s great it’s great playing in our building in front of our fans um I think our guys get pumped up to play here and uh you can feel it you can feel when Z’s on a break lob herbs coming down the middle JV uh the the fans they

They get us going so it’s always fun to play on our home floor and what’s it like kind of getting that Rhythm back after being on fire before the allstar break and now having a week off and coming back and clearly you guys didn’t

Lose much of a step at all we had two uh really good practices before tonight’s game and um I’m pleased with the carryover that we had tonight you know this is a really good wind coming out of the break like you said like you mentioned and we want to continue to build from

Here um speaking on um kind of building off of that obviously you had a long break but now you’re going into back to back games with Miami having a long break um how do you think you can bring the same energy or more tomorrow especially with um no IA well yeah

That’s that’s the challenge is um you know being able to win a game like we did tonight and then have a quick turnaround and be ready for you know a tough opponent coming in you know tomorrow night and so you know we’ll get off our feet and get back here tomorrow

Watch film we’ll have a walk through and get ready to go again thank you

New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green recaps the win over the Houston Rockets on Thursday, February 22, 2024.
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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
E.J. Liddell #32 Forward
Naji Marshall #8 Forward
CJ McCollum #3 Guard
Trey Murphy III #25 Guard
Larry Nance Jr. #22 Forward
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl #50 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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