Wizards 127, Hawks 99
Q. That was you guys' biggest win of the season. What was your favorite part?
WES UNSELD JR.: Start through the finish. I thought we started well the right way, played well throughout. Just our overall energy, the connectivity offensively, 30 plus assists, pretty decent number of turnovers, but the ball was moving, and it really helps our overall efficiency. Played with the right level of force on both sides. Pretty much defended without fouling until that fourth quarter.
But I thought we did a really good job. Deni was great on Trae, made him work.
They missed some shots that they probably would make, but that's part of it. But credit to those guys early for setting the tone, defending him and Murray, just making things tough for them.
Q. What was Kuz able to take advantage of on offense early?
WES UNSELD JR.: The same type things. I thought we were well-organized. We did a nice job on targeting certain actions. We kind of knew going in these would be efficient actions for us. He and JP were really good, not only at quarterbacking but taking the right types of shots, facilitating when necessary, and I think that kind of just bleeds into the rest of the group. They were aggressive but at the same time they were very efficient, and I think that was helpful.
Q. You mentioned the defense; how do you evaluate the defense?
WES UNSELD JR.: We did some good things. Honestly, they're still a really good offensive team. To hold them under 100 -- we don't expect them to shoot as poorly as they did, but I thought overall disposition on the ball was great. We were in the right spots. That led to some of the turnovers and fast break opportunities, minimized the offensive rebounding, which I thought was great. We wound up plus 5 or plus 8 on the glass but won the offensive rebounding battle with 22 second-chance points. We were able to capitalize in that area, but it was a team effort, getting all five guys on the glass and minimizing some of the impact.
Q. Why go with PBJ so early?
WES UNSELD JR.: Well, it was one of those things, trying to get guys an opportunity. He's been up. He's been with the Go-Go at times and hasn't gotten a ton of minutes. So to have him here, we wanted to throw him out there and see what he had, and I thought he played really well.
Q. You took a 10-point lead very early in the second half and just never let them back in. You knew they were a good offensive team, they were probably going to make a run. How proud are you that you guys never let them get within --
WES UNSELD JR.: That's something we talked about is at times we've had issues where you kind of have a little momentum, whether you start a quarter a little bit slow or you have one of those lulls that allows the opposition to get a little momentum back into the game. To your point, we didn't do that tonight. I thought we stayed aggressive. We came out second half and really kind of put our foot down a bit and stretched that lead, which that's growth for us.
Q. I assume with PBJ you'll point out the fouls early, but what's the message with those? What would be your evaluation?
WES UNSELD JR.: I thought he played well, honestly. I think the pace of the game I think slowed for him, as we've seen thus far. He's gotten valuable minutes with the Go-Go and playing at a high level. Just getting an opportunity to play in a similar fashion, I think it's easy for him to apply now being with us. So that's paid off.
He looked comfortable. There weren't any coverage mistakes, and I thought we were able to cross-match a little bit and do some other things with him which were good for us defensively. The fact that he could kind of take some of those things and run with them, that's great.
Q. So the fouls, you'll take those?
WES UNSELD JR.: Yeah, it's going to happen. Those weren't traditional matchups. We had him cross-matched a lot at the 4 to minimize some of the pick-and-roll, and it was good for us defensively, but it puts him in a tough spot. It's a challenging thing for him to go from guarding a 5 to now a mobile 4, but we want to press him and see what he's got and what he's capable of, and I thought at times he was good.
Q. How much more will we see that kind of throughout this next two months or so?
WES UNSELD JR.: Yeah, maybe quite a bit. I think it's an opportunity to try some different things, different lineups, stretch some boundaries a little bit with certain guys and see what they have.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports