Lakers 125, Wizards 120
Q. Since we talk about progress so much, this game was a lot, lot closer than the last kind of second half of back to backs you guys have played. What did you see in terms of your team's fight and ability to stick with it tonight?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, we got down a little bit there in the third, and credit to our guys in the fourth quarter, we made two runs. We made a run that cut it to two, they built it back up, and they made some substitutions and we cut it to five at the end. Our resolve and stick-to-itiveness was good. That's the stuff that we want to see.
Not happy with not winning the game, but we stuck with it, and we stayed together through tough times, and that's what you want to see from your team and your group.
Q. What did you think of that zone that seemed to really catch them flat-footed in the second half a couple times?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, it changed the rhythm of the game. They were hurting us inside a little bit. Made them shoot a little bit more on the perimeter, made them a little more stagnant. That was a big effect for us, helped us get back in the game.
Q. What did you see on your defensive boards? Was that simply the excellence of Davis and --
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, they hurt us on the second-chance points. We got out-rebounded pretty good tonight. But Davis is a handful. Like I said, we weren't doing it collectively in the first half. I thought the zone helped us out. We rebounded out of that pretty well.
But yeah, the rebounding did hurt us tonight.
Q. Aside from the resolve and resilience, what were you happy with?
BRIAN KEEFE: We shot the ball really well. We shot the ball well from three. We turned it over probably more than we would have liked, but I thought our intentions were there. We were trying to make the right play. Sometimes we just made an extra pass that wasn't there, that shouldn't have been made, and could have shot it, but we shot the ball well, the resolve and the spirit to come back, though, was the thing that stood out to me. Then we made those two runs to get us back in the game. That's a good thing for our group.
Q. Just wanted to check on Deni. I assume the migraine was related to that tough elbow --
BRIAN KEEFE: Yes. Hopefully he'll be okay, but yeah, he took a pretty good shot.
Q. What did you see from Tristan on the defensive end when he was guarding Anthony Davis?
BRIAN KEEFE: What a great experience for him. His first start playing against a high-level player. I thought he did pretty good. He was really effective in our zone using his length. We're learning about him every day and what his skills and what his strengths are. This is a great period for him to get these experiences, and he played really well. He's been a big contributor to what we're doing on the court. I've been very pleased with him.
Q. Would you say his confidence shooting the ball is higher than the average player you've coached in your day, rookies specifically?
BRIAN KEEFE: You know, this guy has been a professional, so this is not something like it's a different league, but he's played in a very serious professional league, so he came in here ready to play and with confidence, and we're happy, as I said before, that he chose to be here with us, and we're happy about his development.
Q. I know it's early and you're still learning him, but what are some of the areas of improvement that the team will direct to him in the off-season?
BRIAN KEEFE: Obviously just getting used to the physicality of the NBA game, the size and the strength. That stuff he's going to grow with with time as he gets more into our development system. But he'll learn our system, our schemes. Like he got thrown here at the end of the year, and he's picked up stuff really well on the fly with not a lot of practice time. I've been really impressed with that. But just getting more comfortable with everything that we're doing, that will pay off over time.
Q. You mentioned the rebounds. Obviously there's a size difference with Anthony Davis, but was there more the team could do?
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought we could have gang rebounded a little bit more. We've been rebounding really well. I think I say this a lot, it's never just one person. He got a little bit of his own misses, too, so you've got to fly in there and put bodies on bodies. Guards gotta help out the bigs. We've been pretty good in that area, and we weren't as good tonight.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports