Bulls 121, Wizards 120
BRIAN KEEFE: With Tre out, obviously Corey has started a lot of games in the past for me. Obviously someone we trust. I thought he could bring some energy and juice into that lineup on the second night of a back-to-back, and obviously he did that. He was terrific tonight.
Q. Him and Cam seemed offensively to get the party started for you guys and the rest of the guys came along. What did you see from the two of them, especially in their minutes together, that afforded you guys what you were able to get from them in the first half?
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought it was everybody. I thought our pace was terrific. I thought the way we were sharing the ball to start the game. I think we ended up having 33, I think, assists. The ball movement was terrific, and we were playing with great pace, and then when we started rebounding, we really started getting out in transition, and that's when you saw Cam getting some obviously explosive dunks.
But it was a full effort tonight by everybody. Really a team unit thing. I was really proud of our guys. Obviously we're disappointed we didn't get it. Those guys have been working their tails off. Great lessons to be learned. But we played our style of basketball tonight, and that's what I was most proud of.
Q. What led you guys to have the success that you did tonight in transition especially?
BRIAN KEEFE: When we rebound, we can run because our guys will get out, and that's what you saw. When we started rebounding there in that second quarter, we were able to get kick-aheads, throw-aheads, and we were able to get on the rim pretty quickly, and I think it started with our defense.
Q. Third quarter Chicago started with that run. What did you see from the response from your guys and the way they handled that?
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought they handled it really well. They came out to expect it. Teams make runs in this league, and I think we hit right back. That was a good learning lesson from our team tonight. I was really impressed with that.
Q. Would you say the way you guys were able to move the ball led to a lot of the three-point shooting success you had tonight?
BRIAN KEEFE: It just led to easy shots, the right play. It was either lay-ups or kick-out threes. I think our ball movement was making them chase us a lot, and Corey had a lot to do with that, just his off-ball movement. This is how we can play, and it was a good example of it.
Q. Can you walk me through that play where the turnover happened with five seconds left, the inbound to Kyshawn and what the mindset was and what you wanted to try to get out of that?
BRIAN KEEFE: We knew that they were going to put a smaller lineup out. We were trying to cause a little confusion with some misdirection stuff. Give them credit; they made a good play on the ball. We would have ran the same thing again.
Q. Just the type of resiliency that they showed tonight, second night of a back-to-back after a long road trip, tough stretch here for you all. What did you see from them tonight that you want to see carry over into Tuesday with Atlanta coming to D.C.?
BRIAN KEEFE: It's a group that's actually getting better. We're seeing glimpses of more how we want to play. Tonight you just saw it more consistent for 48. Starting with our defense, I thought we were challenging shots, rebounding well at times, and then our pace and our ball movement, starting to establish an identity.
We're not where we want to be. We've got to continue to work on it. But you're seeing examples how we really want to play, and that was a great example tonight.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports