Clippers 140, Wizards 115
Q. Kuzma once again did his thing, scored over 30 points. What do you think it's going to take to turn this around?
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought we scored in the first half. We didn't bring the necessary defensive force and intensity. They have some tough shot makers and they made some tough shots.
But we weren't as connected as we had been on that end. So I thought we brought the right energy to the game offensive, but the defensive part wasn't there.
Q. Any chance they'll change the name back to the Bullets?
BRIAN KEEFE: I have no idea to be honest.
Q. Brian, what did you see with the -- why do you think the intensity wasn't there? It was last night's game? What do you think?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, I'll never make an excuse for anything being we played last night. That's not what we're going to talk about. We didn't have the necessary physical force the make these tough guys make some tough shots.
I thought we pushed it for as much as we could, but didn't have enough defense in the game.
Q. Brian, do you feel like your guys are adapting -- even though obviously not the outcome you wanted -- adapting to the habits you're trying to teach them better?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yes, I do. I think we are seeing growth. Think we are doing things better. I think you can see that. We just need to do it for longer and be more consistent with it. But you can see it for stretches.
Tonight was just not as much as we wanted.
Q. Obviously Harden got hot in the second quarter. What was specifically going on with his one-on-one defense?
BRIAN KEEFE: He got to the basket early and got some lay ups and then started hitting threes. We didn't press up against him and make him a driver as much as we should, and he hit some contested threes off the dribble.
Q. What did you see from Kyle tonight?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, thought Kyle tried to really put it on his back to get us back in the game, especially in that second quarter when we were down a little. We made a little bit of a charge right before the half.
I thought he really tried to push us to get down to as close -- I think we were almost 12, 14 there, almost 10 late in that second quarter.
So he just felt the need to kind of step it up for us and he's been doing that all year for us for sure.
Q. How do you feel like these guys are handling the losing streak? Been pretty good all year. Locker room is still high energy. Do you feel like you have to step in and ever say I know we're in a bad run; you got to focus on the right things, or no?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think we're so focused on the process of how we get better. I think our guys have been like that. We go day-to-day. We get in there and grind it out and work at the things we want to get better at.
I can't say anything but that those guys have been exceptional in that area. I know they're going to continue to do that as the season progresses.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports