James Borrego on loss, Pelicans rookies | Pelicans-Thunder Postgame 11/17/2025

James Borrego on loss, Pelicans rookies | Pelicans-Thunder Postgame 11/17/2025

Yeah, you know, again, Dort got off to a good start making shots. Then the snowball began, you know, they were very comfortable. Um, you know, I think there’s a there’s a comfort with teams right now when they come in our building and they step on our floor, you know, and and we got to flip that. We got to find a way to flip that physically, mentally as well. This is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical. These teams are coming in with an edge. Obviously, these are two of the best teams. These two teams we just played are going to fight for the NBA title this year. That’s, you know, that’s the reality. I feel like I feel like every OKC team they play, the next morning there’s a players meeting by that team, right? They do this to teams. They’re they’re elite. Um, and you know, winning is something that you just don’t roll into. These are habits. These are identities. These are formed over time. And it took them many, many years to get there. they’ve they’ve been in these days before, you know, and um so we’ll continue to fight. We we’ll continue to, you know, get after it and um there’s no easy solution here. But yeah, to your point, you know, first quarter’s got to be better. We’re giving up 45 in the last two quarters. That’s unacceptable defensively. I don’t care, you know, how many shooters they have on the floor. 45’s too many. 40 is too many. 30 is too many. So, we got to do a better job there. probably just looking at Michael Pavey in the minutes he played though it’s been a struggle for him to kind of get going offensively seemed to kind of find a couple of things tonight. Yeah, I mean I thought he came out gave us great energy, you know, crashing the boards defensively. He really impacted that game, you know, so really proud of him. He responded tonight. That was a bright spot for sure. I thought Fears was good, too. I thought Fears was really good. I thought fears I think his downhill he looked like he belonged in that game, you know, for a rookie to to to look like he belongs right now. That that was that was a bright spot. When you look at the list of the best defensive teams in the league, the Thunder number one for a team as young as they are, how unusual is it for them to have that much separation defensively? What is it that they like how are they able to achieve that? Well, I think it it starts with great effort. They every one of their guys their their their identity is to guard number one. You can see it on each one of them. There’s a responsibility and a pride about them one-on-one. They they take pride in their matchup. That’s where the defense starts. The best defenses I’ve ever been a part of. I’ve been fortunate to be around, you know, in San Antonio. We were at the top of that thing every year. Each one of the go those guys number one took pride in their defense period. There was a scheme in place that they trusted. So having a scheme in place that they trusted night um they understood I’m assuming these guys understand the principles the shots they’re trying to give up. Um there’s a there’s a scramble mentality when there’s a fire they tend to put it out. Even when we had advantage tonight, you know, they’re in rotation, someone covered for them. Um, I think rim protection is obviously a big major thing. They have two rim protectors out there that are big at the rim. They make it tough when you get downhill. Um, they force you into that mid-range, then they scramble out, you know, and and to their scheme, they they give up threes, you know. I don’t know why teams don’t make their threes against them, you know. Um, so, um, and then there’s just an overall belief that this is who we are. and Sam and Mark have done a great job building that identity is this is who we are. Um, you know, they draft to it, they they develop it and it’s a part of their DNA and um, so and I think Sam, you know, Sam had that in San Antonio. He saw a lot of that and he understood the value of defense and to win in this league, you need to have that. So, um, you know, tonight we found we we found some aggression at least. I think we it looks right now like our strength is our aggression defensively. When we just sit back and let teams play, we’re on our heels. Teams look pretty comfortable. When we when we picked up with pressure, we started to deny. We trapped a little bit. They didn’t feel very comfortable there. Um that’s probably where we got to live for a little bit. You know, we can’t do that for 48 minutes, but at least it gave us a little bit of a hold on that game. Just double check, did OKC send you guys into a players only? No. No, we’re okay. We’re okay. Uh, what moments about fear made you think that he it’s it’s just this there’s a fearlessness about him? I I would say there’s just a fearlessness about him mixed with some poise that he’s comfortable getting downhill um and making plays. You know, even against this elite defense, I felt like he was by them a couple times. They couldn’t catch him. You know, he was just downhill to the rim, downhill making plays for others. I don’t think we’ve even tapped into the amount of force. He’s going to be a great playmaker in this league as he as he ages. And I’ I’d expect him throughout this year to to be one of those guys that can simply touch the paint and kick out and spray. He remind you you know the guy I’ve been comfortable with is well there’s two guys I guess Tony Parker had that speed that he could get down there. He was a natural scorer when he came into the NBA at that time, you know, at a young age. He learned how to be a point guard though. He learned how to run the the show and game management. There’s layers to this. We’re throwing this guy. I think he could be I think he could be a a freshman in college this year, you know. That’s And he’s going against these guys. It’s amazing, you know, but um I love his fearlessness, his swagger, his approach to the game. Uh obviously his speed. So he belongs. You mentioned before the game that you really were pushing Carlo and E to do better on the boards. You end up starting Carlo in that second half. Just what did you kind of see from those guys and what do you want to see from them going forward? I think just overall aggression and activity if we are going to if we’re going to do this defensively they have to be a big part of anchoring the paint. And they’re young bigs like they’re they’re Eve’s what in second year? He just he just came out of his rookie year. You know there there’s a there’s a learning curve. there’s got to be a physicality about us and there’s got to be a knack to go rebound and you know we’re trying to get all of that right now um with a young group. So, but I love their activity. I love their activity on the board. They can run end to end. They’re both lobb threats. Um overall, my challenge for them is rebound and bring a physicality to the to the to the table every night. Um, you look at the two bigs we just played against, Chets’s a physical big, Hartstein’s a very physical big, you know, and and uh they anchor that paint. Our our goal is to grow that in both these guys. And um, you know, I the second half I just thought Carlo and and Queen were a good pairing in the first half, so I tried it there to start the third quarter. Uh, unfortunately, we just didn’t get off to a good start. We had some momentum. We just didn’t get off to a good start in the third. There were a few instances during the game where we kind of saw you trying to put your imprint on the game. You mentioned up the pressure in the second half, drawing up a play to start off the third quarter. I guess what’s your kind of goal in those moments as you’re stepping into this role uh just trying to establish, you know, your principles and what you want this to look like? I think my go, you know, my goal in this role right now is to ignite some aggression. When I don’t see aggression, I try to manufacture it in some ways as the head coach, right? So you can do that through your defense a little bit through your offense. Um I’ll get more comfortable calling, you know, making some, you know, offensive calls. We have yet to have a practice on any of this stuff. So this is all new for us. We’re learning on the fly, but I I you know, we tried as a staff tonight to bring our aggression defensively, you know, to flip the game. And if you just sit back on your heels against OKC, they’re going to be downhill in the aggressors all night. I wish I had started pressing earlier. I wish I had started the game in pressure and aggression. If I’m looking back, I said we should be starting in in that the whole time. Um, but that’s what, you know, that’s my job is to try to flip the aggressor um through the offensive end or the defensive end. I think we tried to, you know, help our group tonight. Coach, obviously tough stretch for you at home. Um, as a coach, what’s more important to you? Like the X’s and nos or the psychological side of, you know, coaching, like delivering the right message and stuff? Great question. It’s it’s the spirit right now and and the mindset right now that that trumps all um trying to get this group to believe, to trust one another, um to have resiliency. you know, the X’s and O’s are one thing. We’re going to have to fix that and correct that along the way, you know, as we as we go. We have yet to have one, you know, practice together with this new um this new unit. But more than anything right now, it’s the spirit, it’s the mindset, it’s a belief, it’s a confidence, it’s a trust. That is my number one thing right now on the table. When we get dinged and we come to a timeout, stay the course, stay resilient, tough. Next play, we’re not there yet. We got a ways to go. You got a ways to go to go. But what I’ll say is I’ve seen stretches of it. Last night I saw a stretch of it. We got back in the game down. Tonight out of it we strike back. We come back and we hung in there, you know, against, you know, they this this team beats I don’t even know what they’re beating teams by, but they do this to everybody. So, uh, I saw that resiliency, that response tonight. We just got to do it more. What was your message to the young guys, especially the young guys? Uh, stay with it. It’s a long year. You know, we believe in you. We trust you. Keep growing. Keep asking questions. Stay curious. How do I get better? Um, this is a lot for them right now. You know, this is a lot, and it doesn’t get it easier. We get, you know, a team that’s very good coming in the next the next night. So, um, stay fresh, stay positive, and keep moving forward. James, was it intentional for you to play nine guys at least 20 minutes? I think Trey was the only one that exceeded 30. Are you Is this part of like what you told us a couple days ago? You’re really trying to find the right rotations or is it you’re trying to get everybody out there together. So, it feels like everybody’s in this together because you’re talking about that mental side. Yeah. On a backtoback that was part of it. You know, we wanted to play, you know, some different lineups. We’re trying, we’re exploring some different things. Um we we have a script going in on rotations. Um, and the game just felt like, you know, we were find different looking for different lineups and trying some different things. So, the script, we went off script a little bit. Peavey, we had we found a group that had some rhythm and I wrote it, you know, and sometimes guys, you know, ran a little bit shorter or longer, but I’m proud of the group that they stepped up, you know, I thought like the Pavey, the Bryce, those guys off the bench, Carlos stepped up into those minutes and did a very good job. So to answer your question, we’re just trying to explore right now and see what we can find. I know you’re not a rebounding team, so small little, you know, impressive stats or something. I know it’s not going to be something you’re looking at, but still against OKC. You held them to nine fast break points, forced 18 turnovers, and you scored 30 points off. Can you are those like wins? Can you show that to the group that kind of It’s a win. Yeah, it’s a win. I think coming out of last night, we we did not convert our turnovers last night, right? If we converted last night, we’d be in a better spot. Tonight, we did a better job of that. I thought when we turned them over, we’re aggressive. We converted it or at least we got shots on the other end, you know. So, that’s growth. Well, there has to be a process. The the things we value, you know, the things we value defensively and offensively, um I’ve got to be much clear with the group what that is. the the value of the defensive possessions, what we’re looking to take away. And right now, as I said, the focus for me is the transition defense, protecting the paint and rebounding. We’re going to measure it by that. So, we’ll go back, you know, watch the film, dig in and and, you know, adjust accordingly. Offensively, you know, the the the pillars are, again, we play with great pace. You know, we’re trying to work on that. convert our turnovers, continue to crash the offensive boards and not turn the ball over. Um, you know, a thing that has been a little tough right now is just our our ball movement’s got to get better. You know, that’s just an a piece of who I am and it’s my job to get them there, to trust the pass, to move the ball, to share it, and u and we’ll get there. So, I’d rather measure it in that that vein of those benchmarks. You’re going to win some in this game, you’re going to lose some, but as long as we’re making strides in those areas, What’s the balance between just kind of playing a number of passes versus moving in with well you know the toughest thing to guard right now in the NBA are these closeouts, right? So you want to have attacking drives to pull in the defense and then make the kick. Obviously, sometimes you simply need to reverse the ball though and and there’s sometimes there are just some handoffs that simply move the ball to the second side. Um, you don’t want to live in that all the time. It’s tough to turn the corner with these guys. But I thought there was a stretch that I’m probably going to watch. I’m going to be pretty excited about in the second quarter where we we were getting downhill against their defense. We were swinging it, driving it, kicking it. That’s the the vision for this type of an offense. we’re not there consistently, but um yeah, we want to we want to put pressure on the paint. Sometimes that’s with the drive, a handoff, you know, a pocket pass, something like that. But, um yeah, I feel like at times we’re playing too much on the perimeter. We got to have, you know, scoring threats downhill. How do you feel DQ has handled the slightly altered, I guess, role in the last two games? I thought he’s done well. I mean, this is new for him. He’s going against starting centers and I saw some good tonight. the rebounding is is legit. He can rebound the ball and if you’re going to be a starter, you know, in this league, you got to be able to rebound the ball against these bigs and I thought he gave us good minutes there. Um, obviously he’s trying to make plays for us, too. And he means well, and sometimes he gets a little bit out of hand, you know, but I trust him. I believe in him. We need him to make plays for us. you know, there’s not, you know, currently as we stand, we’re missing two playmakers, two scorers, you know, that that that that produce a lot for us. And so, I trust him. He’s got to make plays. I thought he’s done a good job handling those minutes. What extent do you have to turn? Well, I lived through some of that in Charlotte, you know, and um LaMelo was rookie of the year and then what his second year he was an all-star. Um but he would drive me crazy with the turnovers, you know, it’s just part of the the growth process. And they mean well, but a pass that was probably there in college or high school, right? It’s it’s not there. you know, the the length and the size, especially against a defense like this, isn’t there. So, part of this is you got to go let them explore. There’s only you have to let them go experience this. It’s my job to coach him. And the secondly is the better space we are, the better decisions they can make. So, it’s twofold. It’s his teammates, their teammates, and then making good decisions. But for us to get where we want to with fears and queen, we’ve got to let him go at times.

New Orleans Pelicans interim head coach James Borrego’s postgame interview after the Pelicans’ game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday, Nov. 17 during the 2025-26 NBA season.
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