Wizards 105, Timberwolves 103
Q. The streak has officially ended. We don't have to ask you about it continuing, but how good does it feel knowing that everything that's gone into the process of building, creating, making sure you're doing the right things, working on the right habits, to put it together this morning at shootaround and see it come to fruition throughout the game for what seemed like the first full 48, if you will?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, I love that we kind of stayed in the moment and we played possession to possession. Made some mistakes, wasn't always pretty, but we stayed in the present with each possession, and I thought that was really key for us.
Shared the ball really well early, and then I thought we came up with some really timely stops in the second half. Credit to our guys for making some big plays. Everybody contributed. They were all connected. Happy for the guys.
Q. You decided down the stretch to go with a more veteran group out there on the floor. What was it about that rotation that you really liked and you wanted to see continue as the game went on?
BRIAN KEEFE: Obviously Malcolm comes in; having him back is obviously a big add. He just settles us down, gets us organized. He was able to control some of the offense late, but we wanted some size, some physicality, some ball handling out there, so we had a little bit of mixture of both with that lineup, and that's what we decided to go with down the stretch.
Q. Both Kyle and Bilal to me mentioned the foul that happened but then the requisite defensive stop after the turnover when you just didn't have something going and the mental fortitude. What did it take after the two flubs to get back into it and focus on finishing that one out?
BRIAN KEEFE: We didn't execute what we wanted to. I probably could have called a time-out so that's on me. But give our guys credit; that's what we talked about this morning. Move on to the next possession, do the next right thing. We got ourselves back in transition, contested, and then got the rebound at the end.
Not exactly how we drew it up, but our guys just kept playing until the whistle, and that's how you've got to get it done sometimes. You've got to grind out games, and we ground it out tonight. Really happy for the guys, like I said.
Q. What was the mood like in the locker room after the game?
BRIAN KEEFE: Our guys are competitors. You guys obviously ask me a lot of questions about that some of that stuff sometimes, and we have a disappointed locker room when it doesn't go our way. That's the way it should be. We have people who want to compete, who want to win, who really care, so they were pleased.
But they realize that this is just part of the process and let's get back to work tomorrow. But I was happy for them because the way they played and how they stuck together.
Like I said, it wasn't always pretty. We didn't always do the right thing, but we just kept moving on to the next play, and we had some unbelievable winning plays tonight from a lot of guys. I could probably go down the list and almost name every single one on the roster. Really impressive.
Q. What were some of the winning plays in particular that stood out to you?
BRIAN KEEFE: It's pretty obvious, a guy like Rich just getting on the floor for that ball. We got on the floor multiple times, just making extra efforts, guys rotating into box out Gobert, some of our smalls. Just those extra things that those are things that help you win games. People don't always realize that it could be a box-out or a loose ball or making the right pass when a guy is open and delivering it to him and trusting him. I really was impressed with how our guys did that tonight and stayed focused throughout the full 48.
Q. The second half defensive effort, what did you see from your team as they clamped down there late?
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought our intent was pretty good in the first half. We made a couple execution errors. Our execution errors went way down in the second half, didn't make many mistakes and we forced them into some tough areas and we were super active. That led us to finally converting well in transition, which we talked about pregame. Our guys made the simple play, got lay-ups, and I thought that kind of propelled us. Our defense was really the answer tonight.
Q. Kyshawn, I wanted to ask about the way he defended. He had a decent offensive game, but it really seemed like he was so dialed in on the defensive end, especially down the stretch in that fourth quarter. Can you talk about what he was able to do tonight from that side?
BRIAN KEEFE: He's been showing great growth with that. He's a big kid, long. He's got size, and he's learning how to be physical, and tonight he didn't foul at the end. He's using his length and his size to be physical early, and it's hard to make passes on him, and then his weak-side defense was in there to get steals, help on the board. He's growing, and that's what we want from him.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports