HEAD COACH ALVIN GENTRY

On the great effort by his team tonight and despite never trailing how his squad stepped up and made some big shots down the stretch to close out the game:
“Yeah we did. They’re going to play hard. [Golden State has] a bunch of guys who are trying to establish themselves in the league also but I thought that we did everything that we needed to win. JJ (Redick) made a big shot, Nickeil (Alexander-Walker) made a big shot, Jrue (Holiday) made a couple of big shots. For us to come away with a win is what we wanted to do and that’s what we accomplished. Obviously we didn’t shoot the ball very good and neither did they. Struggled with the shooting part of it and we still continue to struggle keeping the ball out of the paint. We need to do a much better job of guarding the ball and keeping it out of the paint.”

On how he is enjoying seeing his young players starting to respond as they get more and more minutes on the floor:
“I don’t think anything can take the place of experience of being in the game and learning from your mistakes or just figuring out what you can do to help the team in a positive standpoint. Hopefully this is going to be something that helps us down the road because when we do get healthy and all the players get back then I think our depth will help even more because these guys won’t be put into situations where they have to play 25 to 35 minutes, they’ll be back to a normal role that they would be accustomed to anyways.”

CENTER JAXSON HAYES

On his thoughts and feelings about being a starter in tonight’s game:
“It means a lot. I’ve dreamed about this my whole life, starting my first NBA game and actually being able to do it and go get the [win] actually feels a lot better too. It means a lot and for my dad to be there for it too.”

On where he thinks he’s improved the most in the last couple of weeks:
“I feel just like in the mental parts of the game, just being in the right spots, putting my hands back on some drives when people are driving at me, not getting fouls, and then rebounding the ball.”

GUARD JRUE HOLIDAY

On what it’s like to see the young players starting and playing so many minutes in games:
“It’s fun honestly. Just for them to have the experience, I feel like I was in their position at one point so I know they are excited to be out there are play, and to play so many minutes and to play against good teams. I think they actually like the fact that they are playing meaningful minutes and when you do that and get wins, it really builds confidence, and really builds something for this team.”

On if he thinks the games when the young players played mostly in the fourth prepared them for tonight:
“I think it was big. They always fight and they never give up. I feel like that’s important to have that characteristic, that structure right now when sometimes you’re down like that to still fight. Even when we are up, not to give up. Sometimes you can get [comfortable] when you’re up big and that’s when teams come back. But again it’s been good.”