Wizards 130, Grizzlies 122
BRIAN KEEFE: Credit to our guys. We made a mindset shift in that second half, especially to start the third quarter. We upped our physicality. We were ball pressuring, and you could feel it. You could feel our presence.
I thought what compounded that was our ball movement, so we really came out and put it on defensively, and then we were just really sharing the ball and making them have to chase us with our ball movement.
Give credit to our guys; great resilience, if not answering the bell, not being pleased with what we did in the first half, and our guys were really resilient and answered the challenge, and they were terrific in the second half.
Q. It's easy enough when a star player fouls out of a game that you may see a drop, and it seemed like you guys took the intensity up a notch when Triple-J fouled out to make sure it wasn't that drop-off. What was it in the fourth quarter when he did foul out that you guys were able to get over that hump?
BRIAN KEEFE: We talked about just wanting to keep getting stops. I think we had a 106 defensive rating in the second half. That was the keys. Can we just keep getting stops.
We knew we were playing offensively in a good way. Obviously Keyshon terrific in the second half. I think he had 24. But it was more than that. It was his passing, making the right play, and we had a lot of guys who did that in the second half. But it was really our defense sustaining it possession after possession; that's what we just kept talking about in the time-outs.
Q. 13 of Keyshon's 28 came in that third quarter. What clicked for him offensively?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think it was our team defense that clicked our offense. We didn't shoot the ball well in the first half. We didn't let that affect us. That was the biggest thing. What we wanted to do is can we compete defensively, can we up our physicality, can we up our ball pressure. We did, and I think that led to us getting easy shots offensively.
Q. The rebounding I know was a big conversation coming into this one, especially with the sheer size that they have. Yourselves alone, 20 offensive rebounds. What led to it outside of what Justin and Marvin bring to you on the rebounding that it seemed like it was such a concerted effort that that was the mindset, especially in the second half?
BRIAN KEEFE: Justin, Marvin, Alex, I think they all had five plus offensive rebounds. I think we were better on the defensive glass. We were just going to pursue balls, and those led to great second-chance points. Some of those were kick-out threes. Just doing all the things that you can do to help yourselves win the game. I thought our guys did a lot of winning plays tonight.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports