On tonight’s win against Memphis and closing down the stretch:
“I’ve been in the league 32 years, and I’ve never had an ugly win. They’re all pretty. I know that we didn’t always play the top of our game, but I thought we just battled and we hung in. I thought our defense was great. We did a good job, especially on (Ja) Morant. You have to try to keep him out of the paint as much as possible, so we gave up some threes, and luckily for us, he only made one of them. I thought we did a good job overall defensively, and that was the difference in the game. We had our moments offensively where we had great ball movement, but our defense is what won the game for us.”
On Josh Hart’s performance tonight:
“It’s kind of tough to take him out. We probably play him more consecutive minutes than anyone because when he’s on the floor there’s a lot of good things that can happen. He’s a really good rebounding guard that does a really good job. He’s pretty doggone good when we’re pushing the basketball and he has it in his hands, of getting it to the basket and either getting a layup or drawing a foul. I would say that Josh was one of the big heroes for us, and obviously, Zion (Williamson) being able to play some minutes [late in the game], you can see what he can do. I thought Brandon (Ingram) when we needed big baskets the most, he came through for us.”
On being locked-in defensively tonight:
“It’s a great feeling. It’s kind of like you’re making it tougher on the opposing team, trying not to give them anything easy. [Being] Locked in, not only myself, but with my teammates, it’s a pretty good feeling.”
On how important it was to see Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson step up in the fourth quarter to put the Grizzlies away:
“I think it was just about being comfortable. For one, just having Zion out there and acclimating him back, but then him being in at the end of the game I think is big. I feel like it takes a lot of pressure off people, takes a lot off BI (Brandon Ingram). He (Brandon Ingram) can go one-on-one now because we have so many threats on the floor. The same with Zion…so many different shooters out there, so many different threats, it kind of makes it easier on us.”
On being on the court to close out tonight’s win:
“It felt great to do that. My competitive spirit was turned on, and I was just happy the training staff and my team trust me to be able to close the game out.”
On he and Brandon Ingram feeding off of each other to close the game down the stretch:
“That was just one of those things where we’re just two hoopers, and we’re just playing off each other. Coach is giving us the right guidance and putting us in the right position to make plays.”
