Zion Williamson on home crowd, big scoring night | Pelicans vs. Clippers Postgame 3/15/24

Zion Williamson on home crowd, big scoring night | Pelicans vs. Clippers Postgame 3/15/24

Yeah how crazy was the uh the her block rid of that ranking like defensive plays you SE in her that might have been the greatest defensive player I’ve ever seen herb do just because of who he did it to Paul George Paul D is an elite shot maker Elite player and

You know he knows how to get his shot off and knows when somebody can block it so he must have felt like he had a clean look so for herb to get there I was just like wow I didn’t I didn’t run in transition I didn’t do nothing I was

Just in shot like he really got that yeah Trey mentioned the you know like I think the fourth quarter he was like I got kawhai and then he said you told him no let me get kawhai um just for you why do you feel like you really

You know took a bunch of Pride defensively in this game and were able to to defend at a really high level uh I got a lot of respect for uh the players they have over there and in m in a moment like that I felt like I was the

Better matchup defensively um and you know coach our defensive coach JC said now you match up with Kawai so I said I got you so I think we we uh we had a mix up on a match up to play before so Trey was looking around saying nah I got him

That’s all that was you feel like over the past few weeks you’re making a bigger impact on that end just what you’re doing whether the blocks or one-on-one standing in front of dudes got to ask my coaches see what they say I don’t want to say yeah and then they

Show some film like ah I don’t know about that and then for about 3 minutes left uh will they went to that lineup that y’all used in New York with you at the point the three wings and then Larry at the five what did you like about just

The way y’all executed with that group you know during some of the bigger possessions the ball movement uh the ball didn’t uh stand still uh we had great ball movement and allowed us to get big shots and easy layups and just you know since you’ve been here how much

Have you seen Willie kind of grow as a coach and just his willingness to try stuff like that or just do something unconventional knowing the depth y’all have and just being like hey I’m going just throw this group out there and see what it looks like uh I mean I think he

Just trust us I me we trust him so in moments like that uh when he puts a lineup out there like that you know we don’t throw up any question marks it’s all right we about to do this this the group that’s about to do it um and like

You said went out there and we executed hey Z there was a moment when you made a floater and then you got pretty excited I think you said they can’t guard me I don’t want to put words in your M but um what’s the kind of like when you when

You get going like that um it’s one of those things where I’m just getting myself riled up um just saying whatever I can say to myself like whether they can’t guard me or come on Z like get to it I just kind of try to force myself into that

Zone and it worked out for me and then at the end of the third quarter can you kind of talk us through that play when you score with it was like three seconds left and you thought you were going to shoot a jumper and you got

All way to the basketb so me and my stepdad actually work on that drill all the time especially a lot during offseason um where you just it’s like less than 4 seconds and you got to get down the court so every dribble like every step matter and you got to pick

Your spots wisely so when I saw I looked up and saw it was like 3.5 all I say was murf murf murf got it and saw the gaps cuz nobody wants to foul at the end of the quarter so I kind of figured everybody would kind of reach or

Go for a block but not really and when I got to it uh first thing I thought of was yeah now I work on that we saw diving on the floor really I think there might have been what five 10 roarers out of you tonight you’re really

Also pumping up your teammates did this game mean a little bit more to you um it’s just getting to that part of the season um just kind of letting my teammates know I’m here uh I’m with y’all uh whether it’s diving on the floor defense passing scoring uh just

Letting them know no I’m with y’all and we’ve all often talked about clutch minutes kind of being a problem and to what was question earlier do you feel like today was like a step in the right direction I think it was a four-point game with 6 minutes left and you guys

Really closed out strong on both ends uh absolutely um that was that’s definitely been an area of struggle for us so for us to execute the way we did today was was real big um the Clippers coach had very high praise for your performance in the third

Going into the fourth um with the with the intensity of this game did you feel um anything in your game or the energy shift um I was just able to get to my spots um the plays coach was calling um the screens my teammates were setting and uh our defense especially uh just

Trying to get stops and go and we we executed that’s that was the big thing for us we Executed he uh I say this prefacing not trying to get you fine or anything just trying to talk about you know the reality that you’re obviously a unique size uh basketball player trying to adjust to the officiating the way the game is played the way things are being

Called uh how do you how do you do that have you navigated that over the course of your NBA career especially when you know teams put specific guys in their lineup just to try and defend you um just talking to my vets and then whenever we play teams with guys

Been a league like a long time I I’ll ask for they advice on how can they draw fouls uh what the refs look for cuz you know with the refs it all it be happening so fast that the questions I want to ask I don’t have time to ask it

Cuz the game is still going so uh the best I can do with that is just just keep asking for advice and how how do you communicate with the officials in the moments that you do have the time to uh my whole thing is uh with it AC and

If it was a foul why was it a foul and if it wasn’t then why wasn’t it like was it I was off balance uh did I go into the defender like just trying to get quick answers and uh T mentioned another game that y’all were going that play

Kind of over and over again where where uh Larry was set the screen on the right side and y’all kind of had that whole side to yourself he was like they kept doing it over and over really couldn’t find the answer do you kind of enjoy that feeling when the defense kind of

Throws their hands up and then like we really can’t figure out what to do with this dude they’re running the same thing over and over we can’t figure it out I think any player would enjoy that feeling but um just got to execute cuz I mean the

Play could work but you can’t score on the possession then it was almost pointless uh cuz a team like that if you don’t score I mean they capitalize so like I said just kind of go back to us as a team executing and I think that was

The right step in the right direction you think about the enironment tonight just it’s the crib um we didn’t play too well for them the game before so come out here and have the energy that we had and the energy that they brought it was great I think

New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson speaks to the media following the team’s win over the LA Clippers on Friday, March 15, 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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