Wizards 122, Nuggets 113
BRIAN KEEFE: Embracing where we are, accepting the challenge. That was the thing that I was most proud of our guys, and we've talked about this a little bit with you guys, but stepping up, facing where we are, not running from it, getting better every day. Those things are going to lead to some good things, and that was tonight. Really happy for the guys.
Q. Obviously a lot of guys played well, but Justin Champagnie, what was your thought about the contributions he made?
BRIAN KEEFE: It started with his play in the G-League. He's been down in the G-League and has played some high minutes for us, and he's gotten himself ready to play and had a good rhythm. I believe when we send guys down, they have an opportunity to play with us, it's a great time to put them in. He's someone obviously we value a lot, and he showed great contributions tonight with his energy, cutting, offensive rebounding, cuts behind. Really good stuff.
Q. Dealing with a lot of injuries and you were able to get a good win against a good team. Is it wins like that that really exemplify the culture you're building here?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think to me, winning is great, but also embracing what we're in. That's what our guys have been doing is they're embracing every day to getting better. That's what we want. We want to get consistent, and I thought we played a good consistent game tonight, and that's what we're looking for, 48 minutes of good consistent basketball. I thought we did that for pretty much the whole game tonight, which is really impressive for our guys.
Q. Bilal hasn't been shooting very well the last few games, but what does it say about him to have the impact he made tonight defensively?
BRIAN KEEFE: He was wreaking havoc out there, steals, blocks, on Porter, making his life uncomfortable. That's what people don't realize. Yes, Bilal hasn't made some shots lately, but that hasn't impacted his energy, his effort, his defense. I actually think his defense improving in the last week. Look at some of the guys he's guarding, what they've done against him, it's not been that great, and that's a testament to who he is, battling through adversity. That's part of the deal, and he's accepted that and he's embraced the challenge and got a big block at the end of the game.
Q. How big were the nine threes from Jordan Poole, one short of a franchise record?
BRIAN KEEFE: It was great. To be honest with you, some of them hit some really Heat Check ones in the second half, which is unbelievable. But most of them were when we were just moving the ball, sharing the ball. I think we had 20 assists at the half. They repped their defense a little bit in the second half, but we were just moving it, sharing it, and those led to some easy looks for him, and when he gets hot he's tough to stop. We needed every one of those tonight.
Q. How much of a sigh of relief is it to break the streak?
BRIAN KEEFE: To be honest with you, this is going to sound crazy, I don't think about that stuff. I think about how we're going to get better. I don't get lost in that, but I enjoy the challenge of it. I think that's the biggest part for me is I'm not running from where we are and I'm aware of what's going on, but running towards it, embracing it, dealing with adversity, how we're going to get stronger, resiliency. Those are things that I think can stay with you.
So there's always lessons to be learned, but I'm happy for our guys, most importantly.
Q. With Bilal, in a weird way do you think him being so good defensively could lead to him getting more confidence on the other end of the floor and lead to him getting his shot back, so to speak?
BRIAN KEEFE: Not worried about the shot at all. I'm just worried about how he's playing and what he's doing, what kind of contributes he's doing to winning because this eventually is about winning. We want to win and we want to develop consistent things to win, and he's doing stuff that leads to winning. The shot is going to come. We've all seen him be able to do that, but it's the havoc he's causing on the other end of the floor that led us to win tonight.
Q. Can you talk about the ball movement, also the back door cuts, just the way the ball was flowing tonight?
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought our guys were really organized. They recognized the shape that we wanted to be in to find the open guys, and I thought we did a good job with our spacing, and that led to some easy baskets, but we were also very unselfish. I think we had 20 assists in the first half. We just were playing -- they were putting two on the ball and we were just moving it. That's hard to play, hard to guard when you play that way, and that kind of carried us a little bit in the first half. It was really good.
Q. How was the scene, whatever it was, in the locker room after this one compared to the last time you played a home game here?
BRIAN KEEFE: Guys were happy but obviously also not satisfied, either. They know we have another game tomorrow. Everybody was pleased that we got the win because of the work that they put in. Everybody wants a reward.
But some of the things, losses we've had, our guys are upset that we lose, and I think that's a good thing. It's not a down, feel bad about themselves; it's we can be better, we can do this, and it's an attitude that we're not accepting that.
I don't have the mind in the locker room that's like, I'm not happy that we're losing. No one wants that. I think those are good things that makes your team grow, but it's not a team that sulks and puts their head down. It's just more of like, we can be better, we can do this, and I think that led to tonight for sure.
Q. Apologies if this was asked already, but for Justin to start for the first time this season, come in and make the impact that he did, what does it say about his preparedness and energy that he brought?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, I mentioned a little bit about the use of our G-League. He had played a lot of minutes in our G-League so he was in condition to play heavy minutes, and that's a testament to him, it's a testament to the symbiotic relationship that we have with our Go-Go staff. We're really just one big organization. But mostly to Justin, having himself ready, doing all the stuff behind the scenes, and I think when you have a rhythm like that that he was playing with, we wanted to take advantage of that and use him in that way tonight. He did a great job.
Q. What does he bring to that starting lineup?
BRIAN KEEFE: You can see his cutting, obviously his shot-making ability, but offensive boards and just an overall toughness.
Q. I know this is about you guys, but Jokic had a career-high 56. What was your thought about his performance?
BRIAN KEEFE: He's a load. He's a tough guy. He keeps coming at you. People don't realize how great a conditioned athlete he is. That guy just keeps coming, and he kept coming for us the whole game, and I thought Jonas fought him as much as he possibly could. Marvin fought him. That shows you how good he is. Obviously he's a historical player in our game.
Q. I know you mentioned the streak and how you don't think about those types of things, but can you talk about the mental fortitude that you guys have had, especially within the locker room throughout this streak and then what it took tonight knowing that they were going to come out swinging in that second half and just taking every punch that they threw at you and having the resiliency that you talk about, because it was on display tonight?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think that's where you're embracing the situation you're in. You're growing constantly. Even though we didn't always get the results we want and we weren't always happy with what was going on, we were developing fiber and some toughness and some mental toughness.
I think that's the stuff that's important for our group is that we're developing that and working on that, and it shows the character in the room. I've mentioned this about our guys. I believe in our guys. They're really high-character people. They work. I get to see this every day on an everyday basis. These guys put the time in. They take care of themselves. They love the game. Their preparation is super high. We want to get better at that. We want to keep growing.
Happy for tonight's game, but this is one of many, and we want to keep being consistent. So we'll be happy tonight. We have another one tomorrow, too.
Q. What went into the decision with the starting lineup? I know obviously injuries play a part, but what went into this wrinkle of throwing Justin in there, throwing Bub in there, too? What went into that shift for you?
BRIAN KEEFE: A little bit it was the players we had available. Some of it was that. I thought that would be a good combination of offense and defense with Bilal and Justin on the wings being able to be active. Some of it was some of the match-ups they had, some of the guys they had out. So it was a little bit of a combination of everything, but we felt as a staff that was the best way to go tonight.
Q. I know you mentioned Valanciunas. I know Jokic dropped 56, but there were a couple of really key stops that Valanciunas had down the stretch, and Bagley had a few in the third quarter. Can you speak to their contributions playing against the best player in the world, especially while playing for a team that was so injured?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think the thing that stood out to me was no one ever put their head down. This guy was scoring a lot, and that can rattle you. No one was rattled. They kept battling, and we did a couple stops at the end of the game on him. But there was just a mentality of just move on to the next play, tap him on his butt, great shot, but I'm going to keep coming at you.
That next play mentality is a huge part of how you improve in this league, and I thought our guys did that tonight, especially our bigs.
Q. The one thing that maybe stood out defensively was that there was a little bit of confusion on the pick-and-roll a couple times in the second half. Is that something the team needs to work on?
BRIAN KEEFE: I didn't think it was too bad. They were running some inverted pick-and-rolls. That was probably our most problem, Jokic handling in pick-and-roll. Probably one of the few centers who's running pick-and-roll with guards. Challenging. Not something you see all the time. Credit to him. But for the most part our defense was pretty good tonight.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports