LIVE: Pelicans vs. Hawks Postgame Interviews 11/22/2025
We talk about the defensive aggression before only seven turnovers tonight. What was uh Atlanta doing to prevent that? Or was it the other way around? Pretty much they were living in transition the whole time. You know, we we just could not get our hands on them. We could not generate any type of physicality on either side of the ball. They were just the more aggressive team. the the fresher, you know, and they look they’re big. They’re they’re big and they’re physical, you know, so um yeah, we couldn’t generate any type of aggression on the defensive end. We needed that tonight to score against that team. We needed to turn them over. Obviously, we had a hard time doing that. Just really slowed down offense and y’all were struggling to gain heavy rhythm. Uh what do you think was some of the the reasons? Well, to their, you know, what what happened is, you know, they put uh Dyson on on Queen. You know, they were going to take him out. They weren’t going to let him playmate tonight. It forced us somewhere else. We could have done that and he stole the ball two times, I think, trying to feed Queen. So, that’s great. You know, that’s an area we got to grow in. And I’m sure we’ll see this again. I I would anticipate more teams do this. They put a little more, you know, aggression on him and see how This is the first time that’s happened, so we got to adjust. We had a hard time playing through him. We had a hard time generating uh advantages down downhill. We weren’t in the paint as much as we have been in the past. Um you know, we’re missing some guys that can do that, you know. So to their uh you know, to their defense, they they’re long, they’re aggressive. They switched all our stuff, all our action. They kept us in front. Um and in those situations, you got to create advantages. Um you know, and they had Porzingis on Peavey. Tonight we were trying to play through Micah Peavey to go at their five. I mean, that’s a that’s a that’s a challenge for our offense. I don’t think we played any game or practice this year where we said, “Pee, you’re going to be the screener and you you roll and now you’re off ball, you know, and if we put Dyson in the action, they switched all that stuff, too.” So, they’re well coached. They know what they’re doing. Like, they that’s that’s now we have to counter as we move forward, you know, and adjust there. So, um, these are all new things that we’re and challenges we have with this group right now. You guys, uh, continue to feature DQ and he continues to put up these numbers. How much, uh, do you think both you and him have to kind of anticipate those change ups teams throw at him and different coverages and different, you know, styles of defenders as they kind of learn more about him and how to try to defend him. That’s the growth in this league. You’re not going to trick this league forever. They’re going to throw different things at you, different size, different lineups, different coverages. Um, and you know, we had success doing that last night with them. And you know, tonight was a little tougher. And they’re an aggressive defense. They’re a very good defense. They’re long. Porzingis is at the rim. Dyson does a hell of a job on the ball. They all swarm to the ball. They’re big. They’re aggressive. We are missing our one, you know, cheat code that can get downhill and go play. I think they had all their cheat codes tonight. if I if I don’t know their whole full roster, but I think they had all their cheat codes tonight, you know, and now uh but these are moments for our young guys to grow. We started three rookies tonight and we were without three of our top, you know, our three top paid players in the in in this, you know, on this roster. That’s no excuse. This is a moment to grow. And we had some moments today where I thought we could have been better. Absolutely could have been better. And uh we should have taken more advantage of that. So the biggest thing for me is the transition defense and the lack of ball movement in general. When you guys are at a talent deficit missing these key players, are you ever tempted to just kind of dish the traditional game plan and introduce more variance by taking just a ton of threes to kind of make up the talent? I think the math equation does help that um you run the risk of just taking bad shots in general. You know, is that the habit you want to create? Is it more about building the right habits or trying to win the math equation? And when you my my opinion is when you have a young team, the habits trump all that. And um you know, although we’ll continue to to to push the three ball, we know we need to close the gap as we said in the math equation, we still have to play the right way and try to generate and play through our system and build a system and build an identity um versus just, you know, trying to win the math game. So, um, we’ll keep plugging on it. You know, as I said, the the ball movement’s got to continue to be a focus of ours and and finding higher quality shots, uh, in general. Going back to for a second, you guys did end up winning his minutes. Pee’s. Yeah. Plus one of those minutes. Um, do you feel like you were able to adjust well enough on the fly even though Atlanta’s defensive trying to exploit that a little bit? Well, we learn something, right? every time. He’s not been in that position before. I don’t think we’ve scripted that all year. I don’t think we’ve done that one time in practice. I think we’ve had one practice since we’ve been together. It definitely wasn’t peevey. You’re you’re the you’re the main anchor to go play pick and roll and off ball. Um so hopefully he learned something tonight as well. You know, that’s the part of growing a young team is is having these moments of exploring and you know, adjusting and having to make plays. So hopefully he grew tonight and he’s played well. I think Peavey’s helped us. I the last I’d say three I can’t, you know, it’s probably like three games. I think Peeve’s had a real impact in the games and I saw that again tonight. You mentioned you’re missing all your playmakers, right? Top three paid players. Would you like to see more from Jeremiah? I know you don’t want to push all the buttons, but it seems like during some of the parts of the games he’s really aggressive, then you kind of don’t see him for a while. Are you just kind of basically let him grow at his own pace or what what’s the popping line there? He he’s one of those guys that can generate some for us, right? He’s he’s quick enough. He’s downhill. He’s in the paint. Obviously, tonight they switched a lot of his stuff. He has to continue to grow in transition, making the right play. He got to the rim how many times tonight in transition? You know, I think he missed some bunnies that he’s going to look back and say, you know, I got to go finish those. And he does. I think that’s that’s a strength of his. He’s got to continue to do that. and then generate for other people. It’s the balance. I think he’s a natural, when I look at him, I think he’s a natural scorer. That’s what he’s done his whole life, his whole career. Tony Parker was the same way when we got him in San Antonio. I was there. Tony had already been there. He’s more of a natural scorer. Even when I had LaMelo Ball, he was more of a natural scorer. Even though he could playmake, at times, his instinct was to go score. I think Fear is his instinct is more to go score. But how do we balance that with running an offense, running a system, and letting him go? We’re trying to find all that. Um, so even tonight though, you could tell they were just trying to take all his stuff away. You know, switching all his pick and rolls, making him play one-on-one. When he did get downhill, they were swarming him. They were in the paint. Um, but I think probably could have found more opportunities to be aggressive in transition there. Going back to Atlanta’s aggressive defensive coverage there there are moments where they were trapping Jose pretty high up there put a lot of size just how would you like to um counter that if you were to see something like that moving forward? the natural counter is just to get it to the big guy and play off of that, you know, and and he tried to do that mult I think a couple times and we just, you know, it’s something that we probably got to go back and and work on just being trapped, you know, being aggressive in the blitz because if you can get the blit, if you can get the ball out of the blitz, hopefully you’re playing, what’s that? Four on three on the backside, right? So, um, again, that’s another I don’t think we see that a whole lot. you know, Jose doesn’t get blitzed a whole lot in general, but uh when we do see that those bigs have to be ready to make plays and especially when you have two bigs, our our spacing tonight obviously was a little bit different because of the personnel. Um but we just got to get the ball to that pocket and go play from there. Advantage basketball. Thanks, guys.
New Orleans Pelicans vs. Atlanta Hawks postgame interviews with interim head coach James Borrego and Pelicans players as they recap their game on Saturday, November 22 during the 2025-26 NBA season.
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1 comment
Genuinely, who cares?