Wizards - 121, Hawks - 119
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought our guys really responded in the third quarter. We've had two tough third quarters at the start of this year, and our guys really came out and applied the defense, the pressure we're looking at.
We had a little bit of a tough spot, but the resiliency was really good for our team tonight, and we finally played a little bit more close to 48 minutes, which we've been looking to do. We've been a little bit inconsistent to start the season, but we played a full game. So good job by our guys.
Q. How does it feel to have the best road record of any coach in NBA history?
BRIAN KEEFE: Pretty good. Yeah, it was good to get a win on the road. Great team, obviously well coached team. Some tough matchups out there. I thought our guys responded defensively tonight.
Q. In all seriousness, how did you clean up the turnovers in the second half? You had 13 at halftime, and only 5 after that.
BRIAN KEEFE: We were playing in crowds the first half. They were crowding the paint, and we were just trying to drive through. We told our guys at halftime, look, passes are open, the ball's going to come back to you, keep sharing. I thought we did a much better job of that in the second half, and that led to us hitting a decent amount of threes.
Q. Kuz came out with a couple minutes left. What's the reason?
BRIAN KEEFE: Just being evaluated right now. They're looking at him in the back. I don't have an update yet.
Q. So it is an injury?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, he felt something in his leg. I'm not 100 percent sure what. They're looking at him right now. He pulled himself out of the game.
Q. You guys played really well from the 3-point line today. What's it like to get that bounce back 3-point performance?
BRIAN KEEFE: The shots are going to come and go. It was the quality of shots we were looking to get. We've actually gotten good quality in the first three games.
First half, we weren't kicking out, not making the extra passes. Second half we did. That led to some wide open threes that created some good momentum for us.
Q. Probably Trae's toughest 14 points he's had in maybe his entire career. What does it say about the way Bilal took on this challenge, executed what you guys wanted to do defensively, but every time Trae kept coming at him, he just kept fighting and fighting and fighting. What was it mentality-wise he was able to do?
BRIAN KEEFE: This is a great player. He probably missed some shots that he'll probably make, but Bilal did the best he could. Just told him to keep fighting, keep contesting, try to keep him off the free-throw line as much as you can. If he's going to make some tough ones, pat him on the back and try to do it again.
You play against guys like that, they're going to keep coming the whole game. It wasn't just him. It was our whole team. It wasn't just a one-on-one game out there. Our whole team was much better in the second half with our pick-and-roll defense, made it look crowded for him. That's what we were looking for tonight.
Q. Is that why you went with Bilal's size trying to crowd Trae as much as possible, just at the point of attack?
BRIAN KEEFE: That's our best defender, first of all. I think you guys know how I feel about Bilal. That's our best perimeter defender on the basketball. So he gets the tough challenges every night. I know he likes the challenge.
He was our best matchup. We tried to use his length. That's what he does.
Q. There was a point in the fourth quarter where there was a three -- two freshmen and a sophomore rotation defensively where first Kyshawn kind of tried to go for that deflection, and then Bilal and Sarr both came over for that help. They did get the possession in their favor. What does it say just about the way they rotated tonight, especially with how much Atlanta wanted to be in the paint?
BRIAN KEEFE: Those are the things we talked about after the first two games. I thought we played good halves of defense versus Boston and Cleveland. We wanted to put a full game together. We definitely saw more of that.
It wasn't a complete game yet. We obviously have a ways to go. But we saw some things that were carryover, things we talked about in practice yesterday.
Q. With Bilal, with him he had those tough matchups all season in the first two games of this year. The other team, even though it was tougher, the other players still did well. For him to have the performance he did today and for Trae to have the performance he did today, what does that do for his defensive confidence?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think he has high defensive confidence because he's gone through this last year. He went through the gamut of all the great players in the league.
You sometimes know you're just trying to make their life as difficult as possible. These guys can hit tough shots. They're going to hit tough shots. Sometimes they don't go for the other team, but try to make it as difficult and put them in areas that it's hard for them to make as possible.
The NBA is unforgiving. He's going to play the same team again, but night after night, he's going to see these type of matchups. Great learning experience for him. Good job tonight.
Q. Late first half Kyshawn got a defensive three seconds, and the whole bench was up and applauding. Can you explain what's behind that?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, we want to take care of the paint. So like -- I don't want to reveal too much of the secrets why they were applauding, but we want to be in the paint. We want to make the paint look crowded. We think that's where we can turn people over.
We got a defensive three seconds, and I think we were excited he was in there. I'll leave it at that.
Q. Alex faced a decent amount of negative attention from the Atlanta crowd today. How did you see him respond to that bit of adversity?
BRIAN KEEFE: First, I didn't hear any of it. I don't hear much of the crowd myself, and I'm sure Alex is exactly like me because it didn't seem like it had any influence on him whatsoever through the game. This guy has a really good way about him, and he just played. You saw the impact he had at the rim. Pretty impressive.
Q. The other day at practice, you had mentioned with Corey and his shooting, you said, we have to get him more shots. I think you had pretty good success at doing that tonight. But just his mentality of staying ready and staying locked in, what was he able to kind of navigate in what the defense was giving him tonight?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think for Corey, if we're playing the game the right way, he's going to get threes. And that was my challenge to the group is, if we're moving the ball, we're sharing it, the ball should land in his hands, and we need to find him because he has a great way of finding space, great way of getting open. But we've got to get our eyes up and find him.
We played a better game, especially in the second half when the turnovers were down, we were able to find him. He's just got to get up to eight, nine, ten threes a game, but that's us playing the right way.
Q. Bub's pull-ups seemed to fall really well today. What did you think of his game?
BRIAN KEEFE: Bub was great. Defended, played with purpose, played with attack, swung the ball, made shots. He was playing good.
Q. And Kyle exited with the injury, but before that had kind of that second half eruption that you guys talked about him being a scorer.
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, like I said, the biggest thing to me tonight was Kyle's rebounds tonight, I think he had 11. Nine defensive boards, which allows him to push in transition, which is one of his strengths. Like I said, this guy is going to score. I'm never concerned about him making shots.
The defensive activity and then the passing, had a little bit of turnovers the first half, but he calmed that down and then he found players in the second half. Good overall game for Kyle.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports