CJ McCollum talks team defense, Herb Jones being vocal | Pelicans vs Rockets Postgame 2/22/2024

CJ McCollum talks team defense, Herb Jones being vocal | Pelicans vs Rockets Postgame 2/22/2024

Uh it’s not every game that guy gets seven steals just what do you think about what herb was able to do on defense if he don’t make first team defense some might need fire man he’s great defensively you know gotten so much better on offense a minutes in

Transition finishes while R the basket shooting 40 from three I mean he does a little bit of everything for us and um I think you got to see some of that tonight yeah I mean did you like just the the team defense overall it seemed like it was kind of everyone tonight

Yeah we had some time to practice um to really just work on our game plan displine understand what we want to accomplish these last 27 games and I thought we got off to a great start um would like to finish the game better I got to do a better job of staying ready

Um you know until it zeros on the clock but I think all all in all I like the way we play I like the way we compet it and we gave ourselves a chance to to win against a good team in in the first night of our back to back and since you

You came here to New Orleans you talked about how you know the young guys on this team need to embrace being more vocal you know showing their emotions more we saw that from herb tonight we saw that from Zion tonight how much do you kind of see that as a sign of

Maturation for them and just being just more comfortable in their skin on the court yeah I mean herb herb talks more than y’all think um in general and so does z z talks a lot too y’all just don’t see it so the for them to be able

To be demonstrative out there in the court U vocal obviously celebrating you know good plays whether that’s dun finishes around a basket block shots or just celebrating your teammate success I think that’s a a sign of growth and just comfortability everybody’s just getting more comfortable getting more time together on the court

Um playing later into Seasons together I think all those things help and I we talked to year before about you know when you flip the calendar pass Allstar how you know everything changes what do you think uh kind of how in what ways do you think the focus changes for good

Teams when you get to this point in the season I think this sense of urgency has to has to increase um every game matters we’ve been in the playing game a few times so we understand how one game can kind of shift the season literally so

You know being able to beat teams under 500 winning games at home is important and even though we got five and seven I feel like we should be able to compete at a high level and give ourselves a chance to win these games um and that’ll

Carry over as we get closer and closer to finishing the regular season CJ how much did you like the start of you guys’ or your guys’ uh third quarter first few minutes that’s been a kind of a trouble for you guys for most of the Season yeah

We did a great job of just giving Z the ball and getting out the way so um it was it was the game plan it worked it worked pretty well got some stops when we needed to I think we fouled a little too much in that third quarter they

Gotten a bonus quick but outside of that I think we we defended well in the half court tried to limit their second chance points and um did what we need to do to get a win CJ in the second quarter herb Zion andon had their own little Slam Dunk

Contest kind of back to back to back when the don’t when the ARA get rocking like on thead so long what does that feel like oh it’s amazing the fans have been great all year uh continue to support us even though we had some some really great wins and some not so great

Losses I think they’ve been consistent and obviously we’ve had some some spectacular plays throughout this season and that was a great stretch of you know really good basketball on defense that led to transition offense and I think zap it with a with a lob which was you

Know when they end up calling a timeout big momentum swinging the game JB was great all night easy double double for him tonight um just kind kind of got whatever he wanted to establish his presence down low goton fou trouble and and made the game very easy for us seenot

Suful I think everybody just has continued to figure out ways to get better collectively um I think we’ve gone long periods with one of them not playing and I think you you kind of figure out offense game Flow Game Plan discipline and how to be effective individually and how we can be effective

As a team and I think that’s the sign of a good team being able to win games even with guys being up CJ HBC hcu draft2 do you yeah that’s a great question I think you know I went to a small school in in Lehigh I think the Scouts have

Historically done a pretty good job of of finding Talent so I think it’s just about continue to put more focus and Spotlight on it hopefully they continue to get more TV games and uh better caliber players continue to choose to go to HBCU schools I never was recruited by

HBCU school so I didn’t have a chance um I was recruited really by anybody to be honest so my situation was different but I think there’s been more of a point of emphasis on it more of a spotlight and you know broko was one of my good

Friends so he’s he went to HBCU and he always talks about his experiences and stuff and I think that’s cool people need to share their experiences more often and um I think it’s only a matter of time um before someone is drafted from HBCU

New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum 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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