Willie Green on late game execution | Pelicans-Thunder Postgame Interview 3/26/24

Willie Green on late game execution | Pelicans-Thunder Postgame Interview 3/26/24

Coach really good job down 20 in the third coming back five-point lead late um the offens of rebounding though for the Thunder at the end seemed to be a very important part of that game late down while you were trying to close the game out was that a big key for you as

Far as that instra yeah that was that was one of uh several big keys for us but um they they executed better than us the last two and a half minutes of the game um like you said offensive rebound offensively we we couldn’t get anything going to the basket or get a

Quality look um miscommunication on us defensively they get a couple open threes um so you know give them credit they they executed late game better than we did uh but our guys battled and um they know that that sense of urgency has to be there from the start and when it is for

Closer to 48 minutes um those are games that we we normally win and we probably played about you know two and a half quarters of of really good basketball yeah the third quarter you got on a 20 to2 run you had 1.8 straight stops what were you doing defensively that were

Able to kind of pile up those stops and get you back into the ball it was a combination of picking up our uh physicality um I felt like the first half we just let them get to their spots we just let them run their offense um they didn’t necessarily

Feel our physicality in the first half and in the second half we picked it up and just continue to trust each other so we’re all extremely proud of the group in in the way that we fought back that game could have went any either way and

For us to climb back into it and give ourselves a chance to win the game it’s a credit to the guys in the locker room unfortunately we didn’t do enough to win it and that’s um you know this is a great learning experience for us we’re going to play more teams like this

Coming up what do you feel like you guys could have done better from an execution standpoint those last three minutes of the game well started with our defense um it’s an offensive rebound um so they they get offensive rebound and opportunity um they get a couple wide

Open threes where we don’t continue to have multiple efforts and then offensively we we got to come down and execute our plays and executed with some force and we just didn’t do it they they picked up their physicality the last couple minutes took us out of sets they

Denied Z didn’t allow him to catch the ball we have counters for that but you know it’s it’s one of those deals where our guys know when we execute um on both ends we’ll more than likely have a chance to like come out that come out of those games with uh

With a win and when we don’t and other teams do it better than us which is what happened in the last couple minutes you know it’s tough to win those games then after halftime we saw Larry and JRE at the big spots just what went into the

Decision know going with with those two guys after halftime ET C we needed to be faster against this team um they’re basically playing all wings and in order for us to get back into it we felt like we wanted to be faster more athletic on across the board and and

Both Larry and uh JRE provide that for us well we saw Jose have to leave exit out of the arena is he okay do you have any update on him I I don’t I’m not sure yet I don’t have an update on on how he feels but you know hopefully he’s

Okay when you talk about the pace of the offense um in that fourth quarter those possessions that ended with you know shot clock violations and things like that what was slowing down the execution and the ball movement in those situ just holding the ball holding the ball

Instead of just swinging it to the next guy and that’s the that’s the key for us if we hold the ball they’re good defense it allows those guys to load up on us and get their hands on us but when we play fast and we play five whether

That’s swing it drive it or shoot it it’s harder for them to get their defense set and we we started to hold the ball a bit more and then just um what has been the you know you come back home again and it’s just this season

Last season you had 28 home wins this year it’s going to be impossible to match that what’s just been the difficulty in coming home and closing out these games especially in the clutch I like where we are just overall whether it’s home or road I think this team is

Is is balanced um you know look we we like to win more home games but right now we’re focusing on the positive and um the positive for us is that we put ourselves in a position uh with our wins um to to set history and and that’s the

Focus and we got another couple games here that we really want to take care of home court like you said is it’s important for us um you mentioned offensive rebound specifically for them but uh for you guys uh unable to capitalize on that um how would you diagnose was it something

OKC was doing to kind of keep you guys off off the glass thing I don’t I’m not necessarily sure it was something they were doing I I’ll go back and look but it’s a mentality with us we we we have to double down on going even though we

Have the court more spaced with our perimed guys and not having JV in the game we still have to double down on trying to go and that’s an area that we can continue to improve at okay thank you

New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green speaks with the media following the team’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, March 26, 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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