Lakers 134, Wizards 131
Q. (In progress) overall energy tonight?
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought it was great. We talked about playing closer to 48 minutes of basketball consistent. Had a little of that problem the third quarter of our last game, and I thought our guys ended up being 53 minutes tonight.
They played the whole game, from possession to possession. We made a nice run in the fourth quarter. I think it was like a 15 to 4 run, at the 6 or 7 minute mark to get it into overtime. We had the last shot.
I thought our guys played hard. Consistent. Shared the ball. Did the things we were asking the whole game. Just didn't come up with it at the end.
Q. Jordan's two highest scoring games come this week. What were you seeing from him tonight?
BRIAN KEEFE: Stuff that we all think that he can do. We told him we want him to be aggressive for himself and for others. You're seeing that when the shots are going in. It's the same shots he's going to get. The process has been good. He made them tonight.
He was sharing the ball. He had seven assists tonight, so he was making plays for others too. He can generate a lot of offense for us. This is part of the reason we wanted him with the ball more.
Q. I wanted to ask you about his decision making and how much he was able to create for himself tonight. With the kind of defense and pressure that the Lakers bring, what did you see from him?
BRIAN KEEFE: He had an attack mindset from the first getgo when got in the game, looking to get downhill, get into the paint, spray out for his teammates, and if the shot was there, he made the right play.
He made the right play all night long.
Q. What did you see on the last possession of regulation? Was that the kind of shot that you were hoping for?
BRIAN KEEFE: We held it for the one. They fouled. They had a foul to give. Then we had to take the ball out on the side. I think it was four seconds left, right?
Q. Yeah.
BRIAN KEEFE: We got the ball to who we wanted to have the ball. He pump faked. Got the guy up -- I think it was LeBron James in the air -- and he had a good look. Just missed it. It was the shot we wanted.
Q. How much of a momentum turner was that LeBron chase-down block on Jordan followed by LeBron's three over Kyle?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, that would've made a five-point game I think, right? We were up three. So a big play by him. Credit to him. We're always going to do that. He has obviously done that a few times in his career.
But we still had our chances at the end, so that didn't derail us. I think that's the message for our team tonight, is that we had some moments where, you know, runs back and forth. We just stayed in the moment and kept pressing ahead.
So that's at the end of the game for us. We still had opportunities at the end to tie tournament. That didn't end of the game for us but it was a big play.
Q. Maybe this is a dumb question, but in overtime if Jordan is running point, why have Tyus out there instead of Corey?
BRIAN KEEFE: Tyus is the guy who organizes us, gets us into the sets we want. We trust all out of players. Tyus is the organizer of the team. Always feels comfortable getting in the sets we want.
Corey played a great game. Nothing against one or the other, but he's the guy that settles us down, makes sure we're organized. It's he's been doing that for us all year, so we trust him to do that.
Q. In light of what you're talking about with Jordan's play, what has been the buy-in process?
BRIAN KEEFE: Jordan has been bought into what we been doing pretty much since I've been going, since I've been coaching. He's been very professional. Obviously was not exactly probably what he wanted, but he handled it professionally. He put his head down. I've said this to a lot of the other guys. This is a guy who's a worker. This guy is a model for our organization how he takes care of himself and his craft.
Just kept working and I think it's opening up more opportunities with him being on the ball so we're going to continue to use him in that way.
Q. What did you see from your interior defense tonight?
BRIAN KEEFE: They got us early. Free throw line, obviously points in the paint, but I thought we made a good adjustment late and kind of cleaned up some of the mistakes we were making. That was part of that run that got is in. We started clogging the paint a little more, taking away some of their roles from Davis, from Reaves, from James attacking. But they did hurt us in the paint tonight.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports