If you were to pinch yourself after Game 3 to see if you were replaying a dream of Game 1, then you were not. As he did in Game 1, Chris Paul closed the door on the Pelicans in the 4th and propelled his team to victory. The Pelicans again need a win to even this series 2-2. and the Pelicans held practice on Saturday in preparation for it. Here are a few highlights from the media portion of practice.
Coach Willie Green on what stood out to him in the Game 3 loss:
“There’s a number of things that stood out to me. Offensively, it’s the turnovers. They’re doing a great job of capitalizing off our turnovers. We had 15 turnovers, which is not a lot, but they had 23 points off those. Some of them are just self-inflicted so we’re telling our guys against a really good defensive team to take care of the basketball. ”
Coach Green is maintaining your emotions in these playoffs:
“It’s extremely important. I’ve thought we’ve done a great job of that in this series. We had a moment with Jaxson and Jae Crowder thing, but other than that it was a close game coming down the stretch, but we’re doing a lot of good. We just have to be better down the stretch. ”
On getting Jonas going:
“We talked about that in our film work. Getting the ball to him. Posting him up. Allowing him to make plays from the post. We didn’t do a great job of that in Game 3 so that’s an area we can be better. ”
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On the atmosphere in the Smoothie King Center for Game 3:
“Great atmosphere. The crowd was amazing. Fun to play in the Smoothie King Center with our fans supporting and rooting for us and we look forward to Game 4 being much of the same. ”
Jose Alvarado on Adjustments for Game 4:
“We’ve been going over the little things like offensive rebounding and other adjustments we should have made in that game. Obviously, it was a winnable game, but we know we need to fix certain things up and focus on Sunday ”
On keeping focus when officiating isn’t going your way:
“You have to not worry about it. They (officials) going to see what they see, but we got to fight through whatever we have to fight through. It’s a hard job, especially in an environment like this, but we have to do our job. That’s one of the things we can’t control so we have to worry about what we can control. ”
Devonte ‘Graham on Game 3 Castle:
“We have to control what we can control. Some of our turnovers, forced passes, letting Crowder get under our skin causing some offensive fouls. Points off turnovers and then playing with a little more pace instead of walking down our sets. Obviously down the stretch we have to rebound. Trying to clean some of that stuff up. ”
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