Pelicans 142, Wizards 122
Q. What do you think turned in the second quarter in this game?
KYLE KUZMA: We just fouled, turnovers, didn't want to compete tonight. I mean, that's the recurring theme. We're just not competitive. We don't want to be competitive. Until we want to be competitive, then we're not going to let people hang 140 points on us every night.
Q. After the way things went in Philly, it seemed like you guys were looking pretty good early on. Why don't you think you were able to sustain that effort?
KYLE KUZMA: We came out strong. We came out with a lot of fire, a lot of enthusiasm, and then we just weren't ready to play the rest of the game.
We can't play with that in this league. That's the thing, you can't take just being on the basketball court for granted. There's people that love this game, people that want to be on the court dying to play in the NBA, and the effort that we have is just -- it's not it.
Q. Deni played really well this year. Watching him assisting like he is rebounding, scoring, how much does that help the team, watching him grow?
KYLE KUZMA: He's doing a great job. He's doing a much better job of staying focused this year. But we need more for him. We need more from me, everybody. Can't really say anybody is playing well this year, truly.
Q. As someone who has won a championship, and you are the leader of this team, what can you do at this point in the season to turn things around?
KYLE KUZMA: I mean, you've got to control what you can control. I come out every night and I'm trying to compete no matter who's there, who's playing. You can look at it as being a tough thing, being three and whatever we are. But I get up to play basketball every day. I love this game.
Every night I'm just controlling what I can control, play hard, inspire guys to play hard with how hard I'm playing, and hopefully that's the case.
Q. You talked about needing to compete and being competitive. At this point in the season, what needs to change for you guys to want to compete, to have that energy as the season goes on?
KYLE KUZMA: I mean, you've got to love the game of basketball. You have to love it, plain and simple. If you love the game of basketball, you're not going to disrespect it. You're not going to just lollygag and bullshit. You're going to take it serious because there's people that love this game.
Q. As the leader of this team, how hard is it for you to put up a really good game, you dropped 27 tonight, to just kind of will the team behind you and get those guys to perform up to your level?
KYLE KUZMA: It's something that I'm working through. I'm learning. I'm learning on the fly. This is one of my first opportunities to do this. I've always been kind of a lead-by-example guy. That's what I'm going to continue to do. At certain times saying things, certain times trying to rally guys, but I know I can say things because I'm out there playing hard, and people see it.
Q. You've maintained homeostasis a lot, but after a tough loss like this, I'm curious about practice the next day. Are you being more vocal, yelling at guys, trying to camp the team up, or do you maintain homeostasis?
KYLE KUZMA: I mean, we're going to have a film session, and it's probably going to be fun just watching -- not really fun. I don't know. It's tough. It's tough walking into film and just watching our effort.
At some point we've got to be like, this is crazy, like we need to fix it as a group, and we need to be better and we need to play harder. We'll see. If you love the game, you'll compete.
Q. To piggyback on that, the frustration level when things are going like this, to not let it spill over into guys trying to perform and do their best on the court, what's the line there?
KYLE KUZMA: Oh, I wouldn't say -- losing, I'm not going to say it's okay, but if you are results driven, you're going to drive yourself insane. There's got to be sometimes where you can play your best and a team can beat you at a buzzer. You're not going to be mad because you're like, oh, it's a buzzer beater, but it's when you're getting hung 140 on your head, when it's consistent blowouts or Joel Embiid is coming down, throwing behind-the-back passes, laughing. That's what you put can't up with because that just goes back to competitive spirit.
Q. Are you telling players what you need from them?
KYLE KUZMA: I mean, we talk as a team. Everybody is cool. Everybody talks to everybody. We have dialogue. But there's only so much you can say and do.
Q. Just wanted to ask about the announcement of the potential move this morning. Just your thoughts?
KYLE KUZMA: I mean, I think it's a great thing for the DMV. Like the Wizards are a team for the DMV. When you look at our fan base, it's very spread out between Virginia, Maryland and D.C.
It's going to be state-of-the-art.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports