76ers 109, Wizards 103
Q. Could you take us through that last play with Bilal, his drive?
BRIAN KEEFE: I liked it. They had their 5 man on him, we got the ball inbounds quickly, their defense was not set. I'd do it 100 times out of 100 times. The one-hit, downhill, just bobble the ball a little bit, but we got exactly what we wanted. Just didn't make the play, which happens.
Q. He's had a couple of those opportunities recently. What are you hoping he learns from specifically getting the ball at those end-of-game situations?
BRIAN KEEFE: We just trust him. He'll grow and grow in all those situations. Always good learning experiences for our team. But we're going to keep putting him in those for sure.
Q. What did you like about that fourth quarter, I believe it was 25-7 run that you guys made to give yourselves a shot at the end?
BRIAN KEEFE: It was our defense. It was the guys that were on the court just completely committing to each other getting stops, and that's how we got back in the game because we were down maybe 14 or something like that. Those guys did it possession after possession. Give a lot of credit to Rich who was out there tonight and did an unbelievable job defensively, but it was a team unit and we did it, and they did some really good stuff in that fourth quarter.
Q. That bench unit throughout the entire game kind of gave you guys the spark that you were looking for throughout. What does that say about the bench guys, just consistently this season being available and ready and impactful night in and night out?
BRIAN KEEFE: We've got high-character guys. I've said this a lot about our team and our organization. We've got high-character people that work here and we've got high-character players. When a lot of these guys have gotten opportunities, Rich is a great example of that tonight, he's been doing a lot of work behind the scenes and he stepped up when it was his turn to play, and he really contributed to almost a win tonight. So it's a credit to them, but it's the character of our guys that shows in those moments.
Q. What went into the decision to close the game with Richaun instead of Jonas?
BRIAN KEEFE: I just stayed with that group. That was the group that got us back in the game. He deserved to be out there.
Q. The 52 paint points, that's been an area where the last couple games Philly has struggled with maintaining their paint for opponents. You guys decided to take huge advantage of it. What did you like specifically about the way that Bub, Jared, Bilal were attacking that paint and just relentless about it?
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought we played -- once we got ourselves organized after that first quarter, we settled into the game. Still too many turnovers but we got good shots. We got the shots we wanted to take. But again, the defense was what fueled the comeback.
Q. What did you think of Kyle's performance tonight?
BRIAN KEEFE: It was good. He's getting his rhythm, getting back into really high-level game condition. I thought his defense was good. Played a good game.
Q. Obviously Jared Butler, career high tonight. What did he bring to the offense throughout the game?
BRIAN KEEFE: The ability to get in the paint, make plays for himself, make plays for his teammates, keeping us organized. Played a terrific game tonight.
Q. A game like this one, what does a game like this do for you when you're back on the road and down as much as you were down and you guys battled back? Does it give you kind of a boost or a learning experience on this one?
BRIAN KEEFE: I always take the learning experience. Hey, we're competitors; we want to win the game. We're not happy we lost tonight. We're never happy about that. But it just keeps showing who our guys are about and what they're about. We keep answering the bell when things get hard. We don't ever give in. We showed great resilience tonight; it's something we're really trying to build here, and that showed. We're disappointed we didn't get the win, but we can grow and learn from this tonight.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports