HEAD COACH ALVIN GENTRY
On the Pelicans overall play in tonight’s comeback win against the Bucks in the final scrimmage game:
“I wasn’t very discouraged in the first half. Even in the first quarter because I thought we were getting shots that were very makeable shots that we just weren’t making. Coach (Chris) Finch told the guys tonight that against this team, you got to get up 40 threes. I think we shot 44 [three-pointers] or something, I’m not sure. They take away all the inside stuff, but they give up a lot of threes, and our guys did a really good job. You can’t turn the ball over against them, and I think we ended up with 10 turnovers. If we have 10 turnovers, and we can get out and run, I thought we played well. I got to give credit to our bench. Our bench was really good. Frank Jackson, I thought, played one of his better games for us. Jaxson Hayes was really good. Nickeil (Alexander-Walker) had his moments. It’s one of those deals where it was a total team effort, but I was really happy with the young guys. I thought Sindarius (Thornwell) came in, and he did a great job defensively. That’s who we think he can be as a defender. There was a lot of good things. They (Milwaukee Bucks) did play a lot of their guys. I think that was one of the good things about it is that they played their guys, and we were still able to score 120 points.”
On if the Pelicans are ready to resume the regular-season after playing the final scrimmage game tonight:
“I think so. Honestly, the game against Utah is going to be a completely different game. The ‘ramping up’ part is going to be – the intensity level is going to be much, much higher. I think our guys are ready. I think they’re confident. We’ll see what happens, but I’m pretty confident that our guys will compete at a high level and be ready to play.”
On if he feels that the Pelicans have gotten enough work in to play a real game on Thursday:
“Yeah. We’ve played enough in practice. We’re one of a handful of teams that have done a lot of five-on-five full-court, so I feel like we’ve gotten enough work in. I know it was intentional to sort of limit some guys’ minutes and give other guys more minutes, but we’ll be ready to go on Thursday.
On what it feels like as a shooter to get into a rhythm like he did in the third quarter of tonight’s scrimmage:
“It just feels like you can’t miss. Just please give me the ball on every possession, and I’m going to try to shoot. That’s what it feels like.”
On if he expects seeding game rotations and minutes to look different than the games prior to the hiatus:
“I have no idea. I know that we have a lot of guys on this basketball team that can score the basketball, that can defend the basketball, that can shoot the three. I don’t really think it matters who’s on the basketball floor, as long as we have good spacing, we’re shooting the right shots on the floor, and we’re defending.”
On the Pelicans’ focus going up against the Utah Jazz on Thursday night:
“I feel good about our guys coming into this game. I think we worked pretty hard to play against somebody else and try to battle and compete against somebody else. We’re very familiar with the Utah team, so we know some of the things they like to do. But, we have to bring the effort. We have to continue to bring the effort on the defensive end, continue to share the basketball on the offensive end, and we’ll get the best results out of that. We’ll live with the results and just try to get better from there.”
