Phoenix Suns 119, Washington Wizards 109
Q. Brian, I know you don't like the loss. But how pleased are you with the overall fight tonight?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, thought it was really good. Thought we actually established ourself in the game the first half. Just had trouble finishing possessions defensively.
That was really the difference in the first half, and then we got tighter with the defense in the second half, turned them over, cleaned up some rebounding issues, and that led to us getting transition baskets and playing the way we want.
So end up winning the second half. Liked our fight. Liked out competitiveness. We are starting to learn what we do and what we are capable of, so I was really pleased with the second half.
Q. What did you see in the terms of free throw disparity in the first half and why it equaled out there in the second half alone?
BRIAN KEEFE: I'm going to leave that one alone. Thank you, though.
Q. It seemed like the two kind of humps guys couldn't get over was a 10-point deficit and a 4-point deficit. You were able multiple times to cur it to 10 and then to 4. What did you like about the way you were able to make those runs happen, but then what was kind of halting you, if you will?
BRIAN KEEFE: Sometimes when you're behind like you have to expend a ton the energy to get yourself back in. Sometimes they make a key play and we have one little letup. I love the fight. I love the competitiveness to get good back to the game. We responded. We were resilient. That's the team that I know and I like.
So good stuff four our growth for our team tonight.
Q. Kuz seemed more aggressive than we've seen him as of late. What was it that he was able to flip the switch from the start and get things going, especially attacking downhill?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think he is still getting his rhythm. We talked about this maybe a week ago. He didn't really have much of a chance to train with all the ins and outs of lineup this year. This is who he is. We all know that. This is what he's capable of.
I think he's just finding his rhythm, energy, conditioning, all the timing things. I think he's just coming into his own. So this is what we expect from him.
Q. Seemed like the most like himself that...
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, the game last week was like this but, yeah, this was the attacking in transition that we all know about him. The defensive rebounding, I think he had 10. When he's doing that that allows him to play with some force in transition, so his energy was really high tonight. Really good.
Q. Jordan had a career high six steal defensively. What did you see from him in terms of his energy and activity?
BRIAN KEEFE: Something we have been focused on is being active, using our hands, deflections. You saw that in the second half especially for us. Those ended up turning into layups, dunks, open threes. He was in the right spots and he was active tonight.
We obviously saw this from Jordan earlier in the year. This is what he's capable of, too. He was leading the league for steals for a long time has a great knack for the ball and has got really quick hands.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports