Rockets 135, Wizards 112
BRIAN KEEFE: Obviously didn't love our first half. Gave up too many points, too many offensive boards, but what I did love is our second half response. We obviously ended up winning the second half. Only limited them to six offensive boards and we forced nine turnovers. Our level went up.
We've got a couple days to prepare and we'll have the next game on Sunday. We'll have some practice time which we're looking forward to. But the response was good in the second half.
Q. You called a quick time-out in that third quarter, seemed like it was about 35 seconds in. Before that I spoke with David Vanterpool at halftime asking what you wanted to see in the second half. First thing out of his mouth was "effort." Was that what led to the time-out? And how did you think they responded coming out of the time-out?
BRIAN KEEFE: They obviously responded well. The group was committed in the second half to doing the things that we're capable of doing. I was impressed with our resilience. Look forward to getting home, getting a couple practices in, carry over these things we did tonight into the next game.
Q. What did lead to the early time-out in the third quarter?
BRIAN KEEFE: Just how we wanted to come out of the half. Just didn't feel like we were trying to do the right thing. Quick time-out, make an adjustment mentally. Guys came out, we played really well the rest of the quarter.
Q. The fourth quarter it seemed like early on you were getting a lot of what you wanted, that paint touch for the kick-out action. How much did that lead to you guys finding a flow? I know it was just the fourth quarter, but finding a flow on the offensive end in that fourth quarter?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, I thought we made the right passes, right shots. Our offense was touching the paint. We were kicking out for threes. Some went in and some didn't, but the process was great. I was really happy with what we were getting out there. Like I said, we played a really good second half.
Q. At what point during games, or are there points during games where you feel like it would benefit your team to play at a slower offensive pace, more deliberate, wanting to call some more plays?
BRIAN KEEFE: No, we like to play -- the game play was actually slower than we probably would have liked. That's how we play.
The pace is an interesting thing. We're just not running to run; we want to get early baskets in transition, but we want to get into our offense early so then we can have multiple actions and different things.
That's the pace we want to play at. It's not just getting up a quick shot. It's also half-court pace and how you move the team and how you get to the second side. When we do those things, that's what we're talking about with pace. Like we always want to -- it's not about just getting a quick shot. If we can get a quick lay-up, great. If we can get a kick-ahead for an open three or a transition lay-up, fantastic. But then we want to really move the defense, and that's half-court pace, too, so when we're talking about pace, not just getting up quick shots.
Q. How have you felt about the half-court pace so far this season?
BRIAN KEEFE: Second half was great tonight. We're showing growth for those things, for sure. You could see that even in the last game in Detroit. We were really moving. I thought our second half was really good in Detroit, too. Moving, touching the paint, multiple things happening. We get good shots. I liked the shots we took in the second half tonight.
Q. The second half it seemed like they got a decent amount of open threes. What did you see from those breakdowns?
BRIAN KEEFE: I actually thought some of them were contested. We were putting two on some of their main players, so somebody like Sengun I don't think got his average tonight. Some of that was trying to get the ball out of some of those guys' hands. Some of those guys made some shots that were contested late. You live with some of those things. The biggest thing is we limited them. We limited them to really just one shot in the second half.
Q. Coming back to a former team is often emotional first time around. How did Cam do tonight?
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought he was great. We didn't even have a conversation about it, didn't even think about it. He just went out and played, and I thought his effort and intensity was high. He did a lot of positives out there tonight. He's been playing well here obviously the last few games. But he's continued to grow within our system, been very pleased with everything he's bringing to the table.
Q. After the Detroit game you mentioned the lessons you can learn from that one going into this one. What do you feel like is one of the biggest lessons you can learn from tonight's game coming off of that Detroit game?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, we've played some really good teams lately. This is one of the best teams in the west; we know that. Detroit is one of the best teams in the east, big, physical teams. When we're bringing that level of intensity and focus at the start of games and we're really moving the ball, we can play. We can play with these top teams. I think that's something we can take away. Always for us it's going to be stacking these things and continuing to improve them as the season goes. Like I said, the resiliency was the best part tonight.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports