LIVE: Pelicans vs. Celtics Postgame Interviews 3/30/2024

LIVE: Pelicans vs. Celtics Postgame Interviews 3/30/2024

E e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e coach you held a pretty good offensive team to 104 points uh what was the difference offensively in the latter stages of the second quarter and and into the third uh we just lost a little

A little bit of our way um like you said second quarter third quarter only 11 points I have to go back and watch um before I make a a true assessment of of what kind of happened but we definitely lost a little bit of our juice during that time and

And that’s the difference when you’re playing against a top tier team you have to uh on both ends of the floor you have to execute and score for sure that uh play at the end of the first half you know like a one second difference and

Then they got the the white three is that one like you look back on as like you know maybe the the game could have like Shake Shak it out a different way if that had gone differently or anything like that it could have but that’s those those are definitely momentum shifters

Um and that wasn’t a a next play mentality for us you know they’re picking us up full court making sure sure we don’t get the two for one and then we allowed him to just inbound the ball and they hit a halfcourt three so oh honestly he wasn’t even half court he

Got cross half court and just pulled up for three with no one on him so plays like that that those are those are areas that we have to grow up um I know the uh you guys lineup after halftime has kind of shifted in the past few weeks just

For tonight what went into deciding hey we want to we want to go with Larry in the third here it’s the same as has always been uh it’s more speed on the floor and um it gives us a different look and continue Center talk you guys

Just didn’t play any centers at all in the fourth quarter what kind of went into that decision well trying to play faster spread them out give Z more space to operate and um you know small is is a part of our unit that we want to

Continue to try to look at and uh it’s games like this when you playing against you know Boston they pretty much playing all perimeter guys so see if we can match up better with them and in that second and third quarter I think Z went like one to seven from the field

Something like that what were they doing uh to kind of make things difficult for him they’re a good defensive team and they continue to throw uh different looks at them as far as their players you know they put holiday on them put Brown on them uh Tillman guarded them

For a little bit but just trying to be physical with him and he missed some he miss some easy ones shots that he would normally make and you know sometimes that’s the difference in the game um we missed some easy ones they made theirs just kind of going back to that that

Starting unit um they were they were plus eight tonight they’ve been pretty good you know even though bi has been missing um is there sometimes consideration like hey maybe we should get them a little more run if they’re playing well to start the game off yeah it is we we did

That in Milwaukee we started the second half with JV um the starting unit they were really good together and and we continue to try to have a feel for it for sure Willie where do you need to look when for instance tre’s moved in since bi’s been hurt in the starting

Lineup where where can you get that bench scoring I think tonight it kind of really hurt you guys um that’s those are the questions and that’s what we searching for um but our look we trust in our group we know our guys are more than capable when

You’re playing against I think Boston is top two three rated defense uh in the NBA they make it difficult on you so uh everyone has to do a little bit more uh we have to be willing to step up and take some of those shots we have to

Continue to trust throughout the course of the game that’s the only way for us to achieve our goals um but give them credit they’re a good team they’re a good defense um I I liked our effort and our competitiveness we we just fell short tonight just kind of bigger

Picture when you measure yourself up against you know an elite team like Boston where you feel like some of the steps yall need to take to kind of get to where those guys are I feel like we’re right there um and we all have to remember we’re

Missing 20 plus points in our leader and in assists plus Jose so you add those guys into the factor and um that helps us out for sure how would you kind of how’ you kind success his first three games of his home stand just what your thoughts about these are playoff L games

That that we relish and um you know Oklahoma Milwaukee Boston all tough teams and they all came down to you know execution pretty close games tonight got away from us a little bit but we battled back and uh this is what you want you want an opportunity to play against the

Best teams and see where you you stack up as as we continue to prepare last time you guys played Boston in Boston U Joe Missoula talked about the law of averages when it comes to like leaving certain Guys open know every team kind of does that to to an extent but you

Know when they’re kind of playing off some of your guys as aggressively as they do what do you guys have to make sure you’re doing offensively to keep get good looks we have to be willing to and and I spoke to our guys about this

In the locker room we have to be willing to trust our work our guys work hard be confident in it and that doesn’t always mean shoot sometimes they’re in rotation and because they’re helping off somebody and when the ball touches you it’s a0 five you got to make a quick decision

That’s drive it shoot it move it and then the dominoes fall from there and so that’s those are areas that we will continue to grow in will I think Zion um set a new career high for minutes played is he at that point where you no longer

Have to worry about him how much run he’s getting out there yeah he is he’s he’s in phenomenal uh condition and you know we still want to be careful 40 is probably a bit much but tonight um we we needed we needed to ride them A bit thank you e e e e

E e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e so

Yeah what did you just see uh in the third quarter when they really you know create a lot of that separation um kind of goes back to what I kind of say over past few press conferences uh they up their intensity and we we didn’t match it and when we

Started to match it the game was kind of out of hand at that point Point um it just shows what type of team they are a great team yeah I mean what do you just think about like the other pieces fit one through five and they starting line

Up arguably is the best um they can switch one through five um especially when they have uh a starting unit out there um they can switch one through five uh they don’t really have like a a pigeon you can really pick on you and if they do you have to watch film

And see where it’s at but um n they just they’re all like size and they can switch and Willie talked about kind of answering that in the fourth quarter by just playing no Center kind of playing you at the five for most of the time uh

With those units what are you kind of seeing out there and how I guess how different it is when it’s you and pretty much four perimeter players um it allows us to play faster U but it also allows us to kind of switch one through five and not really have someone

To pick on so but the small ball unit it works for us but the third quarter when they up their intensity we we should have matched it but we didn’t and kind of getting the chance to measure yourself up against you know the team was by far

The best record in the league what do you kind of see some of the things that makes them who they are that y’all kind of want to get to at some point um their consist their consistency on a uh nightly basis um you know the things that they mess up with they don’t

Mess up twice um and you you can see it in their record um they know when to pick up their intensity they know when they’re playing sloppy and uh they make adjustments quick and that’s what makes them great you got off to a fast start on the offensive and then like you said

They kind of turn things up defensively what were they doing to kind of make it tough for you on offensive um you can just see it uh where we were starting our offense from we were starting our offense near half court versus starting close to the three-point line so just them making

That small adjustment by applying pressure higher up uh it changes the offense for anybody you play against um so then you know we’re not really getting the shots we want we’re just kind of forcing up shots their coach talks about the law of averages when it

Comes to leaving Guys open from three I know every team kind of does that to an extent but it seems like the Celtics really really ping in on a couple key players and they’re just going to live and die by like if they’re hitting shots

Just what do you make of of that kind of like defensive strategy and just stick into that aggressive of a game plan just no matter even if a guy’s hitting um I think that’s just the mindset of if they lose like that they’re they’ll be able to sleep at night but if

They don’t lose like that then they they look at film like n that wasn’t okay so I mean if that works for them I mean that record shows us but you know I think that’s the route they go it works for them so it yields results got to

Give him that respect is you mentioned the not matching their intensity are you surprised by that considering you know kind like what’s at stake this point season um yeah uh you know coaches talked to us about when we start the third quarter and starting it faster with more

Momentum and uh we started slow and they didn’t um but you know it’s not even just about intensity just making basketball read we uh we became stagnant they didn’t you talked about where you’re starting the offense from but a couple times in a game Boston went big where you saw hor for pinkas

Together than tman was out there with one of the other bigs did that present any kind of more challenges to you personally or to you guys running that offense um did you feel that I wouldn’t say so I was just more so say just that that third quarter for

Us uh that kind of was the game for us we we didn’t come ready to play in the third quarter did the end of the second quarter at all kind of affect what happened in the third quarter you guys were I think leading 55 51 you stepped a

Free throw line and before you knew it they’re walking in with a lead in a halftime um I mean that’s basketball it’s a game of runs and that’s halftime it was what one two-point game so there’s nothing to go into halftime worried about about it’s when you start

That third quarter and we started slow and they didn’t and they were able to get like a 10 13o lead thank you guys have a great night e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e you want to say hi yeah say who are these

People I think it was a two-point game at Halftime just what you see in the third quarter yeah I think that last shot at the end of the second quarter hurt um dere got that three off at the Buzzard big momentum swing and then let him go and then in the third quarter Uh then in the third quarter he um he was a part of their run you know what I mean they got stopped I think we scored 11 points in the third quarter or something like that so we got to do a better job of coming out with energy in

That third quarter that’s a that’s a really good team that we played against I don’t know that they lost three games all season long to be honest with you and I think we competed but we got to do do stuff a little bit better a little bit harder a little bit more

Consistently throughout the game in order to beat a team like that um but I mean I thought we did well defensively offensively we could have did a little bit better but you know credit them they played well um and we’re not going to win too many games you know scoring 11

Points in a quarter yeah do I mean that that sequence you alluded to at the end of the first half do you feel like hey if that goes differently maybe the the rest of the game looks a little bit different yeah I mean they had been inbounding the ball fast all all game

And then he inbounds the he gives him the ball quickly and uh you know credit Advance pass couple dribbles into a three and you know they responded well in the third quarter I we out scor them in the fourth quarter but second quarter and the third quarter hurt us and I

Think that’s what really turned the game around for them and Willie went you know small ball pretty well not pretty much the entire fourth quarter without a center y’all haven’t done that too much this season with Zion as the center when y’all go to those groups what do you

Kind of see and some of the things y can kind of improve on when y do I think we just got to rebound the ball we had a couple possessions that we didn’t get the rebound or we didn’t rotate on the backside and jayen Brown gets a wide

Have been D um me pingis is really tall so when he gets those switches we got to you know show him bodies but um the Celtics they play a lot of guards in then porzingis and a lot of guards and Horford so you got to be able to match

That at times throughout the game and and figure out how to uh take advantage of you know some of the talented Wings we have on this team and Will’s kind of going back and forth a lot this season with Larry at the five JV at the five

Yall start some second halfs with Larry at the five what do you think about just the way those guys have kind of handled that kind of that uh I guess uncertainty from night tonight just how they’ll be used yeah they’ve been the ultimate Professionals in terms of their

Mentality and how they show up to work every day JV other plays 15 minutes or 20 minutes you know he’s still getting his work in every day he’s still um showing up for us and really just taking advantage of his skill set when he gets the opportunities to and obviously Larry

Has been a pro um throughout this entire process and has done whatever it takes for us to be successful as a team whether that’s starting whether that’s coming off the bench or whether that’s finishing games or not finishing games last time you guys played them in Boston

Their coach talked about the law of averages when it comes to letting certain guys shoot from from three um they had a similarly aggressive game plan tonight in terms of just leaving Guys open just what do you make of of that overall like every team kind of

Does it to an extent they seem to be a little bit more aggressive than other teams and and just what do you guys got to do as an offense when they are playing off some guys pretty aggressively yeah just take advantage of spacing they they don’t match up um

Their fives on fives sometimes they’ll switch they’ll put a five on her but they’ll put a five on nii um so that mess up the flow you’re picking rolls and your Cadence and they’ll put a guard on you know a Larry or a JV at times um

Well not JV cuz he’s so big but they they try to mess up your offense with the switching they try to get you stagnant they try to get you playing iceo one-onone and get you in the late clock and I think that’s what the good teams do defensively and they funnel you

The areas and I hope that you kick it out like like he he said before lot averages I thought we did a good job um of trying to find the open man and trying to make the right plays I think um it comes down to you know getting a

Little bit getting out and run a little bit more in transition that would have been helpful for us and then just being able to get some stops in that third quarter to get out and run to open up the game cuz once we open up the game

And get out and run I think it’s it becomes more free flowing but it’s a good half court team it’s hard to score half court you think they’re a little bit unique as a team in terms of like you know sometimes the guys they leave open they’re making a lot of Threes but

They hold fast to that approach I feel like some teams will like okay this guy hit two threes maybe you got to change up the scheme a little bit yeah I mean her was four of nine from three so I mean he’s shooting like 43 on the year

So they can play those law averages all they want we’ll live with that um I think it’s just about us making the right plays getting stops and um just learning from these types of games we won’t have we won’t be playing them again unless it’s in the finals so

We’ll learn from these types of games it’s a good defensive team um they’re unique in terms of how they switch in terms of you know them having a you know super seven-footer in porzingis but most teams are going to be switching as you get closer to the playoffs CJ Z had it

Rolling in that first quarter but then I think he only maybe scored one bucket in the second and third quarters was it something you think Boston did more so or was it just your lack of offensive execution probably combination um they had a they did a good job protecting the

Rim porzingis protected the rim really well and you know he’s one of the best shot blockers in the league and I think that was a part of it some of it was our ball movement some of it was us not getting downhill just kind of playing on

The perimeter I think it was a combination of things with the team that good when you see them you trying to avoid three games in a row when they kind of get to that mode uh what are the steps you guys feel like you have to

Take to kind of get to where they are right now yeah just continue to to fight their physicality with physicality I continue to hit first I think we hit first tonight and we hit last but in the middle there was a little law on that second and third quarter but just

Getting down to execution getting down to rebounding and then when when the offense does B down it helps to get some stops so we can get some flow and not have to call plays say byebye byebye buddy come e e

New Orleans Pelicans vs. Boston Celtics post game interviews with head coach Willie Green and Pelicans players as they recap their game on Saturday, March 30 during the 2023-24 NBA season.
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New Orleans Pelicans Roster
———————————————–
Jose Alvarado #15 Guard
Dyson Daniels #11 Guard
Kaiser Gates #12 Forward
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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