HEAD COACH ALVIN GENTRY

On tonight’s loss and how offensive rebounds and second-chance points contributed to the loss:
“That was an issue, obviously. That’s not really something that they’re known for. They struggle in that department – the last five years, really. That was something that was glaring. The other thing is that we never contained the ball. We just never got the ball under control and never contained the ball. They really just outplayed us in every phase of the game. They outcoached us. It wasn’t a very good effort, all around.” 

On the Pelicans attempt to get back in the game in the second quarter:
“The thing that was most disturbing is that they had three baskets when we made a three-point shot. And two passes and laying it in the basket and that’s not very good transition-wise. As I said, most of our problems came because we never had the ball under control, defensively. We never controlled the dribbler and when we did, they got the ball up on the board and then went back and got it again. First three games I thought we played well and gave ourselves an opportunity to win. I just thought tonight – you look at the game and you look at the score and you think, oh, it ended up being an 11 point game – we were never in the game. We never had any chance at all to win and I think that’s the most disturbing thing to me – especially playing at home. We talk all along about establishing some kind of home court advantage, which is very important in making it difficult to come in here and win. If we’re going to say we’re not going to bow down, then we’re going to have to do a lot better than that from the standpoint of the way we compete when teams come in here.”

CENTER JAXSON HAYES

On making his regular season NBA debut:
“It felt great finally being out there and being able to play. Wish we could have got the dub, but we’ve just got to come back tomorrow and get better.”

On the biggest struggles for the team defensively:
“We just have so many new people. I feel like just getting used to playing with each other, learning the defense, all that type of stuff will just help a lot more.”

FORWARD BRANDON INGRAM

On whether tonight’s result was discouraging after the close finishes in previous games:
“Not at all. We have enough guys in here where we feel like we can win basketball games. I think we just got down a little bit when we weren’t making shots. It affected our energy a little bit. We have the guys in this room that we need so we won’t get discouraged at all.” 

On the biggest issue for the team defensively:
“Rebounding the basketball has been. Just getting it off the glass, trying to get into offense fast, trying to not let the other team have second chance points – that’s been hurting us a little bit, but we’ve just got to stay together. As a new group, we continue to get better and try not to take any steps backwards.”