On the core veterans setting the tone tonight:
“That’s the way we approached it, really. We wanted to pick up where we left off. We thought we were playing good basketball. I thought we did a good job, defensively, right before the hiatus came about. I thought all the veteran guys did something at some stage tonight. They were in very limited minutes and really didn’t get the rhythm that they would necessarily have in these situations, but we just wanted to get out there and we weren’t going to play guys very many minutes. We’ve got two more of these scrimmages coming up, and I think you’ll see the numbers and the minutes increase a little bit to try to get ready for the regular season.”
On having Kenrich Williams healthy and back on the court:
“Well, it’s good to have him (Kenrich Williams) back. It’s really important. He just gives us extra possessions. He’ll come up with a couple of really good defensive plays that you saw on the charging foul he got late in the game, but it’s good to have him back on the team. Just his energy is infectious. I don’t know if ‘infectious’ was a good word to use in these situations, but he is. It’s good to have him back. It really is.”
On Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s performance tonight:
“I thought he did a good job. I still think that he’ll get better and better and better. The one thing I have to convince him of is that he’s got to stop being so hard on himself with the mistakes that he made. Everyone makes mistakes, and I think what he’s got to do is that he’s got to learn to play through those mistakes, but I thought he did a really good job tonight of starting that process of being able to play through his mistakes.”
On playing their first game without fans, but instead with all of the digital boards:
“I don’t know if it was distracting. It was different. I think it’s going to be – when they put the virtual fans up there, I think it will be a little different because I think it will be more of an atmosphere very similar to having people in the stands, but I didn’t hear any complaints from our guys. No complaints about the shooting situation, or the lighting in the shooting. So, I think it’s going to be one of those things that in a couple of games the guys will adjust to.”
On how important it was for the Pelicans’ leaders to come out and set the tone tonight:
“Very important, just to get a good feeling. We’ve been off for a while, practicing against each other. It just felt good to go practice against someone else and compete against someone else and just try to see where we stand. We just wanted to keep getting better in our first scrimmage game, one of three, so each game you’ve got to keep getting better and better.”
On getting used to the new game environment and what kind of adjustments he had to make for this game:
“For me, it’s just basketball. It’s kind of easy to play that; it’s like playing your whole life, playing outside, playing in gyms with nobody there, open gym. So it was just fun to go out there and just hoop and have fun.”
On how the team played offensively and the shot selection tonight:
“That’s something we’ve been practicing and it definitely looked good tonight. Definitely looked like everything we’ve practiced – driving, kicking, getting to the basket, getting to the basket and laying it in, seeing the shooters on the outside, so we definitely carried things over from practice.”
On how great it felt to play another team:
“It felt good to get back out there. We’ve been beating up on each other for about 10 days straight, so beating on somebody else, playing somebody else, it’s fun for us.”
On where he thinks the defense is at and is it easier to hear teammates in a fan-less environment:
“We still have a long way to go. Of course everyone is young, everyone is getting to know each other, for a lot of us it’s out first year together. Everything is coming together, we’ll get better as time goes on. Our defense looked good tonight. We definitely did everything that we’ve been working on, so we’re making progress.”
