Wizards 109, Kings 102
Q. You guys obviously finished the game really strong. What did you see down the stretch?
BRIAN KEEFE: One of the things I liked about it, we had some really good stretches of the game and then we had some tough ones, but we were really resilient. They made some big runs, and they're a good team, obviously fighting for a playoff spot in the west, but our guys answered the bell and were resilient. It was really our defense closed the game out, but we controlled -- we got good shots, a couple key offensive rebounds. But our process was good, and this is the stuff we've been talking about. Each game we're looking to grow, and it was a good growth for us tonight.
Q. How important was Richaun tonight just establishing presence?
BRIAN KEEFE: Protecting the rim, the rebounding, it's great to have him out there. He kind of anchors us when he's out there. I thought Anthony gave us the same thing, so both those guys were anchoring our defense back. But it was a team effort, and he was at the back line protecting us, but we kept him out of the paint, which was one of the things that we were trying to do. But good overall game defensively for us.
Q. I was going to ask you about those runs. I think sack are meant owe ended the first half like 21-4 or something. What do you say to the team to mitigate those runs heading into the next sequence?
BRIAN KEEFE: One of the things we talked about is sometimes you forget how you got the lead, so we were talking about we got a little stagnant, want to get back to playing with more pace, a couple offensive rebounds for them during the stretch. But sometimes you've got to remember how you got it, and I think that's what was great about our guys. They played down the stretch, really shared the ball, moved it, and that's how we got the lead in the first place.
We learned throughout the game what got us there, and that was great.
Q. Two guards seemed to stand out defensively in the fourth quarter late, and that was Jared Butler and Jordan Poole. I think Jordan Poole had a really good defensive possession on De'Aaron Fox in the corner. Just talk about how when your guards play good defense --
BRIAN KEEFE: They're always the first point of attack, so guarding the ball, fighting over screens, giving time so our bigs can get back to their own. Those guys were great.
Q. How important was it for Kyle to be able to sustain his scoring throughout the entire game?
BRIAN KEEFE: It was great. Yeah, obviously great to have him back tonight. He's our catalyst. He's our guy we look to to make plays, and he made a lot of them tonight. Got us going really early, but it was also his passing. He was drawing a lot of attention. He got five assists, also.
Nice to have him back, but he's been doing that for us for a long time.
Q. How important was your perimeter defense to try to make sure that you guys were able to hold them down for most of the game?
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought we did a good job trying to pressure them on contested shots. They probably missed some shots, let's be honest, but I think our defense was there. We were contesting, and what we really wanted to do tonight was take care of the paint, and we were in the paint flying out to shooters. Good overall team effort defensively tonight.
Q. You guys won the battle of the boards tonight. How good can the team be when you guys win the battle of the boards?
BRIAN KEEFE: Last couple games we had a little drop. Before that we'd been rebounding pretty well for a while. Richaun has been great, Marvin Bagley obviously a big contributor to that, too, when he's been out.
We've talked about this for a long time. Deni comes back tonight and has nine rebounds. When we can defend and we can rebound, we can play in transition and make easy simple plays, find our teammates. That's always our key. If we can defend and rebound, we're pretty good in transition.
Q. Can you walk me through that time-out in the second quarter?
BRIAN KEEFE: Which one?
Q. They had scored several points in a row, and you were not at all happy.
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, sure. We all have emotions during the game. I've showed it a little bit to our team because I think we lost a little bit -- how we talked about before you came in, we got the lead because we were really sharing the ball, and we got a little stagnant. What I liked about the game was that we learned some lessons through that. We had a little tougher stretch at the end of the third, beginning of the fourth, but we found our way back, and that for us is great growth. Pyou had asked the question before the game -- all these things are valuable to us. We're learning lessons every day, and that's what we're preaching to our guys, and our guys are buying in, so they learned a good lesson tonight. This is how you got the lead. If you figured out how to do that, if something hits you, you go back to the process that got you there, and they did it at the end, which was terrific.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports