Wizards 119, 76ers 114
Q. A quick start. You guys had it going in the first quarter. How much did that help to set the pace of what you wanted to do tonight?
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought we shared the ball really well all night. I think we ended up with 30 assists; that's a great number for us. We made shots, which always helps, but I thought our guys were making the right play the whole game, and that stayed throughout. That stayed consistent.
Q. When you have that early and then it stays consistent, when they start making runs at you, how nice is it to see the team keep able to keep that kind of consistency going, and when they came at you, you were able to find ways to answer back?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, that was the whole roster because they had different runs throughout the game, and I thought our guys -- again, we're just trying to get our to play 48 minutes of good basketball, stay consistent.
Teams are going to make runs. How do you respond to that? Just make the next right play. And I thought we did that tonight.
Q. A game like this one as you kind of evaluate things, how much does that help these guys for next year?
BRIAN KEEFE: Those are fair questions. We talked about for a lot of our guys, playing in those end-of-game situations, playing with a lead, teams trying to trap to speed up the game, those are great lessons. You can't always simulate that stuff in practice, so it's good experiences for our guys for sure.
Q. Down the stretch, especially in the final minute, Bub and JP on the bench, but they were talking to the guys who were on the floor on both ends, specifically on your bench. How much does that give you guys assistance from a coaching standpoint that you guys don't really have to talk too much, you've got the guys on the bench aiding the younger guys?
BRIAN KEEFE: I'm not sure how old Bub is, but no, the great thing about all of our guys is that they're always engaged in the game and they're always constantly talking to their teammates. So if they see something, that's the great thing about our locker room; they're all rooting for each other, supporting each other, and when they see something that they can help their guys with, they do it, and that's great. We love that.
Q. The three-point shooting very hot in the first half. It cooled down just a little bit. You still shot it at 41 percent for the game. How good does it feel, especially with the way that it had been going up and down as of recently, to have a really nice shooting game from three?
BRIAN KEEFE: For me it's always about the process of the shots we're getting, so I like the process we've actually been playing the last few games. We're doing the right thing. Sometimes that's not always going to result in making shots or the things that you ultimately want. Can we keep doing that throughout the game, because we have guys who can shoot the ball.
We obviously shot the ball great tonight. But there were times where it didn't always go well, so can we stay consistent with our defense and the things that are going to lead to winning, and I thought we did that tonight.
Q. Colby with those two threes at the end of the end of the first and third quarter, him having the presence of mind to pump fake, wait for the defender and get it off still before the buzzer, is that an example of the calmness you talked about?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, that's a great example. That's great that you remembered that. He just has a nice calming presence to him. He understood time and score, with what the clock was, he could actually pump fake and still be able to get both those shots up. Pretty impressive.
Q. Alex 24 points, seven rebounds, two blocks. Is this where you want to make your case for him as Rookie of the Year?
BRIAN KEEFE: Alex makes his case daily. I'm not going to stomp up here because we've got work to do and he's got work to do. He's proven what he's done, and he's going to continue to do that every game. He knows he's got my full support, though, for sure.
Q. Is he okay? I saw he came up a little bit. An ankle?
BRIAN KEEFE: I believe so, yeah.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports