Willie Green recaps game against Phoenix | Pelicans-Suns Postgame Interview 4/1/2024
Right which one of y’all mentioned Booker with 52 points earlier today what me all right next question yeah sorry to bring it up the first first person here uh look was that just a great player making great plays were there things you could have done better defensively what do you think um yeah
For sure you know you don’t want to take credit from these guys when they go out and have a performance like he did he he hit some he hit some shots that we gave him and he also hit some tough shots um we have to do better I mean there’s
No there’s no excuse to get 50 put on us twice and so um our our mentality coming out especially in the first quarter cuz both games it’s been the first half where he’s really done some damage against us and you know quite frankly we were soft guarding we just had a soft
Mentality when it came to being physical on him and and he’s a he’s a great player you can’t allow him to be comfortable and that’s what we did tonight yeah we’re coming right down to it you know the end of the regular season anything you can put your finger
On why you guys came out a little bit flat um I can’t I can’t put my finger on exactly what it was um but we’ll we’ll definitely look at it look at the film and try to make some corrections on that seemed like a lot of that comeback
Happened when you guys went small just what do you think of those minutes kind of with with z and then you know some some fours and guards around them I thought it looked better there was more space it made nage have to guard Zion a
Bit more um and he had to honor our wings and guards that was spaced out uh we have to do a better job of finishing defensive possessions so when we are small or big it doesn’t matter um they outrebounded us and that’s just unacceptable so we we have to have a a
Tougher mentality our guys know it um so a tough loss the positives a Lev of resiliency um from second quarter on it was a better game for us but we really they really came out right away in that first quarter and and and it was a gut
Punch Yeah we saw it in this game and a lot against Boston where they were just leaving their big under the basket and kind of you know ignoring the center and just having two guys on Z I guess when you see that coverage what do you want
To see from your guys to kind of respond to that well first keep the floor space and Zion got to continue to to navigate those those Concepts and it’s okay to hit our fives spaced out cuz our fives can can make plays to our wings guards
And it’s hard for the big to get back to them but another adjustment for us is just going small and making them have to guard Us and how much do you think those offensive rebounds at the start of the fourth really hurt you when you guys were starting come back for sure they
Hurt us you we have to be better um they’re bigs do a great job they they seal you down there and collectively when we go small we have to be tougher um we have to be more physical we have to gain rebound and tonight they were a
Better team um give them their credit we’ll continue to adjust get better and and go from there and we talked a lot coming into this homestand about you know the opportunity playing against some of the elite teams in the league starting off you know one and three I I
Guess what have you seen so far in these games and what’s kind of the message to this team you know we still a couple games left um first and foremost I love that group in in our locker room they they bring it every night even when they
Get down they don’t quit they stay together they don’t complain they go out and fight so the resiliency is at a high level but our margin for error is small without Brandon and without Jose um we’re missing 20 plus points our leader and assists so we have to start the game
Better and we’ve done that the last few games but we didn’t we didn’t tonight um so we got to put together more of a 48 minute game and right now it’s it’s around 32 to 35 we got to get in the 40s that’ll give us a better opportunity to
Win Dyson plus 10 tonight build out the box score uh what do you make the job he’s done since he’s come back from injury particular tonight he was really good he was physical defensively you can see he he something clicked and um he was active getting steals getting
Deflections and he’ll continue to grow and get better but um we all we all like what his what he did on the floor tonight and you know another kind of abnormal night where you guys only got about 273 up um is there something you know like Phoenix was taking away the
Paint how were they able to also close out the shooters and run you guys off the line normally you know it’s a pick one type of situation um what could you guys have done to perhaps maybe reg generate some some more of those looks more of what we did in the second third
And fourth quarter we we attacked the paint and we got layups or we got kickouts and um our first quarter we just didn’t do enough of that and we we have to get more threes you know and we can generate them with Rim pressure with driving the ball with sharing the ball
You know we did that for the most part but we have to double down them in that area how would you measure the team sense of urgency going up against a team where you guys are close in the rankings and standings and trying to not get into
The playing tournament I thought it was good for three quarters you know but the first quarter they come in and they’re up eight 18 points now you you’re trying to play perfect basketball to get into the game so tonight we needed to better start um they came out made shots uh
What I loved is that we didn’t we didn’t allow that to stop us and put our heads down we kept fighting got back into it we we have to have better starts um to to one of the earlier questions uh when Zion seeing two and they’re they’re
Playing helps out off Larry I think tonight I think they did you guys did a really good job of Larry running a dho with Trey and he got a shot in the corner now you might have missed it but is that something you guys kind of talked about or just something to
Players are doing during the game no it’s definitely something we talked about is spacing nerkish we know he’s going to sit in the lane put Zion at the elbow and just hit Larry and now you got CJ you got Trey you got herb coming off and now the dominoes fall and once you
Do that you can loosen him up a bit he’s got to make sure he guard those plays but they did a great job of just keeping him at the rim and and really just Shadow and Zion wherever he went he figured it out throughout the course of
The game but we may have to to get more to a smaller unit to to make him guard us all right thank you
New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green’s postgame interview after the Pelicans’ game against the Phoenix Suns on Monday, April 1 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
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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7 Comments
This team will never win nothing until they get a trey young type point guard and trade cj mcwashed and Zion going too have add a midrange or 3pt point shoot to his game and get a younger athletic back up PF that can knock down open threes constantly so they stop playing Larry Nance meanfull minutes 💯
Zion does not come out hungry. Stop it, with all this trying to get my teammates involved first. They should have at least gave Booker a hard foul. And Willie, you never said nothing to the refs about the Sun's playing illegal defense. BI is weak and want be back until Zion get hurt like always.
Wow !!!!!!! Another beat down 😂😂 with all that talent that the pelicans have at the forward position they don't have a legitimate young scoring point guard CJ McCollum with all the experience that he has has seen his better days these young guards in the league is running circles around him 😂😂😂 and Dyson Daniel with all the sides and that letter system that he has needs to improve his shooting ability and please tell Zion Williams that teams are game planning against them you're not going to continue to let him drive to the basketball goal it would help if he could develop a mid-range jump shot between 10 to 15 ft but let's just face the truth coach green was just out coached he had Ohio State All American EJ Liddell on the bench add All-American Jordan Hawkins from Connecticut and yet he get blowed out he has all his talent but he's just not a coach
58,52,52. ZION POKED THE WRONG BEAR 🤦🤦🤦🤦
They need trae young or ja, this team will be scary.
Fake Pel fans in the comment area will get fully muted in the playoffs!
Our defense does not come to play night in and night out, we miss to many shots, our 3 point shooting isn't consistent at all, we allow teams to be physical with us and don't return the favor, we're just to soft, definitely not 504 mentality