New York Knicks 120, Washington Wizards 99
Q. From your perspective, what went wrong down the stretch in the fourth quarter?
TYUS JONES: Just a couple, I mean, tough offensive possessions, and then defensively, felt ourselves out of position a couple times, and that's a playoff team. They will make you pay, and they executed down the stretch and you've just got to tip your cap to them.
Q. When two teams that have different styles like that, you guys are first in pace and they are 29th in pace coming into the game tonight. When two things like that go head-to-head can you feel the contrast of styles on court?
TYUS JONES: A little bit but they have also been playing a little faster lately, getting up more threes lately. So you could also kind of tell their attention to detail on that front.
But yeah, they want to slow you down, may physical basketball, especially on the defensive end of the floor. They want to play physical, hard-nosed, pack the paint. Kind of wear you down throughout the night, throughout the game and that's what they did. You've just got to learn from it.
Q. So first off, I just wanted to say hello, and obviously again, like I said to Coach, it's always difficult to lose a game in the National Basketball Association, no game comes easy. What in particular would you say is your greatest difficulty now, in particular with games of a slower pace like he mentioned? I know this team is No. 1 in the NBA in terms of faster pace but when you're taking on that proverbial element, anything, what do you think works best in those situation?
TYUS JONES: Yeah, it's obviously less possessions, so less room for error on both ends of the floor, and just got to execute better. That's what it comes down to, maximizing our offensive possessions, making sure we are getting quality looks, not turning the ball over, things like that.
Defensively, try to limit their easy looks and then continue to fight on the boards, try to eliminate offensive rebounds and giving them second-chance points.
Q. Really valiant come back effort in the third quarter, team showed a lot of fight. As a vet, how hard is it to rally the team together after a really good effort like that and fall short?
TYUS JONES: You know, right now, we are sticking with it. We are staying together. It's a long season. It's all a process. It's all a process. It's about getting better, improving, learning, and that's just what we are trying to do right now. I think there's a lot of takeaways from the third quarter. Even to close the half, honestly, the first half, we saw, we got a little bit of life. We saw a recipe for success there and we carry that over out of halftime into the third quarter, and that's growth for us. We've had tough times in the third quarter this year. That's been kind of our, you know, point in the games where it gets away front of us. So continue to focus on that. Continue to stay locked in there mentally and just find things to take away from it that we can learn from, and then continue to watch film and grow in our areas of improvement and recognizing those, as well.
But guys are locked in. Guys are staying together. Guys; spirits are in a good spot. Losing' s tough. Losing takes a toll on you. For myself, like you said, as a vet on this team, I'm trying to just stay out here and continue to talk and continue to keep spirits in a good spot because it's a long season. There's ups and downs to every season, and you know, we are a young team. We are new. We have a lot of new faces. We are still figuring out chemistry and how to play together and things like that and we're growing.
Q. Can you elaborate on just what are some of the things that you tell your teammates to try to keep those spirits up?
TYUS JONES: Just some of the same things I said. Like it's a long season. Winning in the NBA is very, very hard. It's difficult. You've seen some teams that have been together two, three, four, five seasons. They are still not where they want to be. It's a process, and there's a lot of work that goes into it. Before you can succeed, you have to fail a lot of times.
For us, it's just we are using this opportunity to grow and trying not to be too defeated about it and just see where we can improve and get better, and trust in it that things will turn around and things will flip.
I know they will. I've been in this league awhile. I've seen good stretches and bad stretches, and they come and go. All you can try to do is stay level, stay right in the middle and continue to improve and continue to not make the same mistakes that you were yesterday and keep moving in the right direction, and I feel like that's what we are doing here. We've just got to keep it going.
Q. Jordan is a guy that obviously puts in a lot of work, what do you guys do as a team to encourage him that the dam will break at some point?
TYUS JONES: Yeah, just talking to him, uplifting him. Keeping his spirits up. He cares a lot, and you can see that. Again, he works. He puts the work in.
Again, things will flip. It will figure itself out. We know that. We all have confidence in him. He knows that as well. He's just got to stick with it. I think he's probably putting a little too much pressure on himself, but it comes from a place and care and wanting to be great and wanting to succeed and wanting to play well for not only himself but for his teammates, for the city, for the organization.
So it will work itself out. He'll be good. It's just a part of basketball now.
Q. Tomorrow you have event tomorrow in the D.C. community, giving back. What are you looking forward to for tomorrow's event?
TYUS JONES: Yeah, just getting out into the community. For me, I'm new to the city, so it's a chance to get back into the community, get acclimated a little bit, interact with some locals and I'm excited about that. And the holidays are the best time of the year.
So just try to do anything I can to put a smile on somebody's face, interact with them, because you never know what can make somebody's day, what can make their year or anything like that. You never know what people are going through.
Again, for me, like I said, it's a chance to get out into the city and interact with the community. I'm really looking forward to that.
Q. The defensive physicality --
TYUS JONES: A little bit. A little bit. And like I said, they are a really good halfcourt defensive team. That's kind what have they hang their hat on, and again, they are a playoff team. They have done it for a few years now. They know their systems and they know their schemes and they know the physicality and they know when to raise the level of intensity.
So that 's something we can all learn from. It's all good for us. You know, it's something we can grow, areas of growth for us, and we'll do that. We'll continue to study the film. We'll continue to stay in the lab and keep working and realizing, you know, that we see -- we've got to improve and we have to continue to trust in that work but we'll get there.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports