Willie Green Recaps Win vs. Utah | Pelicans-Jazz Postgame 1/23/2024

Willie Green Recaps Win vs. Utah | Pelicans-Jazz Postgame 1/23/2024

153 just huge number you guys offensively tonight uh you guys started this with that conversation we had earlier about the offense exploding so we wanted to make sure we we held we held up our end of the bargain but um it was it was just an incredible

Performance uh by the guys in that locker room you know sharing the basketball touching the kick out for threes rebounding the ball and um I continue to say it it goes back to our defense when we can get stops when we can rebound and we play play in the open

Floor it’s some of our best basketball it’s really fun game to be a part of and you guys got two days of practice there like was there anything you guys tried to work out an adjustment wise that you felt like you put into that game and you

Saw it out there or anything like that um play harder that’s number one we we have to play harder and consistently no matter who we play against um we know we’re more than capable defensively play together communicate finish possessions and offensively share the basketball continue to play with confidence and share the basketball

Tonight was a good step in the right direction you talked about the three-point shooting doing practice on Monday but it seems like you know shooting is contagious you guys make 26 threes CJ has nine of them how much did his individual explosion link to the ENT

Team yeah CJ ignited the whole group uh he got us going early um he did the same thing last time we played here he got going early shooting the basketball with confidence guys started to look for him and it’s it’s like you said it’s contagious now other guys are getting a

Part of it and you know it’s once again it’s beautiful basketball to be a part of and it’s fun to watch and since the start of training camp you talked about the importance of increasing the volume of three-pointers one one of those teams and you guys have experienced some ups

And down B with that but just seeing how consistently just been going up and up throughout the course of the Season how gratifying has that been it’s extremely gratifying to see the team buy into what we’re trying to accomplish um we go over it over and over and over again on film

We get on the floor we work on it and um it it’s great for them to come on the floor have some practice days and then have that carryover in the game where we continue to trust that these shots are open for us we’re going to take them I

Thought CJ Brandon Z they do a great job of finding their teammates Z with 11 assists tonight career higher for him so that’s what it’s about for us continuing to get stops and and make sure all all the guys are involved yeah I was you talk that practice yesterday about get

The ball in his hands early career hiring assist how much did that kind of play into that him just getting involved early getting the feel for it and kind of being able to put front the game you know it as we continue to learn our team

Put the ball in his head hands for the first few minutes of the game is is important because now you have bi and you have CJ you got herb who shoot the ball well too all of those guys are spaced uh it allows Z to attack attack

The basket touch the paint and if they help he’s going to make the right play uh 99% of the time and and that’s what he did tonight one of the things we saw from you guys was was going to Larry there to start the second half can you

Just explain what would that decision there um we’re we’re continue to evaluate our our first unit and um we want to try to as best we can continue to help that group be the best as they can in in the minutes that they play and

Um that’s a a way that we can shorten the minutes and and see how Larry looks with that group you know JV will continue to start but you know sometimes we’re M Miss kind of matching the groups up to to get the best groups on the floor together will you had a franchise

H assist like but what you what’s kind of been your message this team make them so UNS like that will to make those trust that’s what it comes down to all of us our players everybody on the staff the coaching St like everybody just continue to trust trust in each other and you

Have to do it even more when you play against the best teams like Phoenix um when I say Phoenix that was our last game continue to trust each other continue to trust that if you make the right plays on both ends of the floor the guy next to you is more than capable

And and the energy the ball finds energy so I’m proud of our group we all are we’re proud of this group um you know having the response that they had after the last game and we want to continue to build on it they could have cut it to

Six her makes the block and what what about that sequence I mean I I think that changed the game for us in the second half herb like you said he makes the block on Collins we go down and score I think they take the ball out he

Gets the Steal dunk timeout now it’s a 12-point game um or 10-point game something like that it changed it changed the game for us it changed the momentum and you know you don’t want the game to come down to those plays because we were playing well they got back in it

But herb Jones made two incredible plays that really changed the momentum of the game I know you just talked about it being regard the last three games it’s 47 attempts 42 attempts 46 attempts two of those nights you you know you made 3es is is there something I guess like more

Specific of a catalyst or like was there like more urgency stressed on getting this number of attempts up that that’s a lot of attempts and you guys are generating more than you pretty much ever have you’re breaking franchise records yeah uh it it’s definitely we’re making a conscious effort

To score um when we have opportunities to and and the way the league is is that you we want to balance offense and we know we can get to the paint we know we can get to the free throw line we have to do better at shooting threes is what

We came out of last season with excuse me but it’s a credit to our guys they’re buying into it we’re showing it and they see the results and that’s the biggest thing is when you get results early when they see the difference and when we when

We shoot threes and when we make them um you know it’s hard for teams to to stay in games with us you think it’s easier or more difficult to B bance the floor when it comes to transition defense when you’re taking more threes versus you know you’re get taking more twos it’s

It’s difficult it’s difficult to balance the floor when you have guys spaced especially with the driving capabilities of Zion of Brandon you can throw the ball to JV in the post CJ can he’s a three- LEL scorer herb you got guys that can all Drive the ball but they can all

Shoot it’s difficult to match up well they seemed like you had Utah on their heels all night and you noticed Larry n came in the first quarter seemed like every rebound he grabb he’s trying to push the pace and then right after that when Z reentered the game he was really

Pushing the pace too after that is that really the identity not only getting stops but then just getting up up the court as fast as you guys can it was our emphasis uh coming out of the last loss you know we watch film on it and we got

On the floor and work and and that’s the deal is when we get stops we we let’s get up and down the floor and let’s play Fast let’s play together and um tonight was a was a great example of that does it look like Zion to you maybe has more

Energy when he’s going up and down the court like this in this type of game has the ball more in his hands he does um it’s something like I said we’re learning more and more with our group and how to keep defenses off balance and especially with the starting group

Putting the ball in his hands early helps us and so we’ll continue to look at it but um we like what we saw tonight coach you talked about bouncing back you did it after the uh Nets game also after the Clippers game and now tonight after

The Phoenix game how do you like how your team’s responding to tough losses with big explosive games right after we we we enjoy it we enjoy taking on the challenge of you know we didn’t we didn’t play our best game and let’s come back and and be better and um it’s a

Credit once again to the character in the locker room I’ll say it again I’m extremely blessed to have an opportunity to coach this team uh Griff and his staff they did they’ve done an amazing job of bringing in High character guys and um they make they make our jobs easy

But that’s what you see when these guys go and respond they care about each other they care about the game you seen that was that was crazy the one hand dunk was was uh that was pretty spectacular but you know he can do things like that and and

I I I don’t get used to it for sure I do not every time I see it I’m amazed I know you got multiple Allstar level players but you know I think CJ is now perhaps the highest uh scoring average guy for a guy who hasn’t made an

All-Star game just what do you think about his candidacy for for a guy for what he’s done this season and just you know he’s been able to comish in his career yeah I mean he’s he’s the consumate pro he all he he’s done it all his career and um we would definitely

Love to see CJ get an opportunity to be an All-Star uh but I think he he’ll agree with this more importantly you know we want to have a deep run into to the postseason and playoffs and have have an opportunity to do some damage um in May and June hopefully and so we

Want those things to happen for all of our guys but more importantly we want them to continue to do everything it takes to contribute to winning which they’re doing thanks thank you

New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green’s postgame interview after the Pelicans’ win against the Utah Jazz on Tuesday, Jan. 23 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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