Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry





On tonight’s loss:



“I thought we played hard. I thought we competed at a high level. You can look at one stat that would be the difference in the game; the offensive rebounding. We gave up 28 points on the offensive rebounding. We hold a team to 41% shooting. Their best player has a good shooting night, but their second best player goes 3-for-19. In those situations, we come up with stop after stop after stop, but it doesn’t matter if we’re giving the ball back and they’re putting it back in the basket. Our defense was great. I mean they shot 41% with 28 second-chance points. We really did a great job, but we’ve got to find a way to come up with the basketball. Got to find a way to, when we get stops, to not have to then go back and play defense again.”





On E’Twaun Moore’s two three-point attempts in the final seconds of the game:



“Well I was trying to call a timeout, but to be honest with you, we’re not going to get two better looks than that. We got two wide open three point shots with the guy we want shooting so I think it was the right decision on their part to play on. We got a good look and then we got a great look and so if I do take a timeout, they have a chance to set their defense or whatever so I would take those two open shots.”





Pelicans Guard Jrue Holiday:





On the blocks at the very end:



“(I) saw an opportunity. Obviously didn’t want them to score, so either it was going to be a block or a foul. So, I think, how he went up, I just kept my eyes on the ball and from there I got the block. So good stop, wish we would have got the score at the end.”





On keeping the Blazers off the offensive glass:



“It’s tough especially when AD (Anthony Davis) is trying to stop Dame (Damian Lillard) at the basket. (Jusuf) Nurkic is a big dude, so just for all of us to go back in there and try to box him out and get a rebound is tough.”





Pelicans Forward Solomon Hill:





On whether or not tonight felt like a playoff game:



“It’s a close regular season game. We understand that when we play small with teams like that, we’ve got to rebound. I take it personally. I had a couple of opportunities with Al-Farouq (Aminu), guarding Al-Farouq. Him getting to sprint in there and getting a tip on a couple of balls or getting another possession for his team is huge. It’s what they did against OKC (Oklahoma City). They won at the end of the game against OKC because they got Dame a second shot. We’ve just got to do a better job of getting that done.”





On the difference between a win and a loss tonight:



“I just think offensive rebounding. I think that we gave up [28] points with offensive rebounds. You are talking about holding a team to low 40%. Whether Dame gets hot or not, I think we did our job defensively. We just have to make sure we take care of business on things we are used to doing. We know that they’re a top five offensive rebounding team and that’s what they are going to do. They are going to get up a lot of shots and it’s going to be a lot of long rebounds and give themselves second opportunities.”

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