Wizards 114, Bucks 113
Q. Obviously got to ask about the last couple plays. Khris made a nice pass to CJ who got you guys down one, and then CJ seals it for you off that tip and then steal. What did you see from those last couple of plays, especially even the defensive end?
BRIAN KEEFE: Great execution. We were looking for either a quick three or a quick two. If we got the quick two, we wouldn't have to foul. We didn't foul because we had a time difference there. The guys executed that. And then obviously Alex made a huge block, and then we thought we just had an open court in transition and I trust our guys, and obviously CJ made a big play.
It was a great execution by us down the stretch. Really good. But I thought just overall the whole game was really a team effort. The bench came in and was terrific, AJ. The rotation stepped up, played really great tonight. Those guys really gave us a burst really at the end of the first, start of the second, end of the third, start of the fourth.
Then we had some resilience in there, too. We were struggle to score a little bit there, but we buckled down, got some stops and we got the win. It was just a great team effort.
And obviously a shout-out to CJ, who got 16,000 points. That's really hard to do. There's not a lot of guys -- the number I think is 129 guys have done that in NBA history. It's not a lot. It's quite an honor, and it's great to have him on our team.
Q. It seems to be a consistent theme with that bench unit, end of the third, start of the fourth, whether it's a different combination of second-unit guys, what is it about that stretch that they know what their job is for whatever the length of time is they're on the floor but they know end of the third, start of the fourth, we have to either, as Justin said a couple of games ago, maintain the level that the starters are playing with or up it so that there is no drop-off?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, give credit to everybody who's in there. You've got to give credit to Bub. He's obviously the one constant. He was obviously on fire there in that fourth. He kind of sets the tone for us, getting us organized. He really got our pace going like we talked about pregame, getting us organized fast and getting us into our offense and our actions quickly.
But that group has been great. Whoever is up to it, like AJ's time was tonight, he was terrific. Really a team effort, a team win. A lot of resilience from our guys. Happy for them.
Q. Three-point shooting as a team was fantastic, specifically I'll start with Bub at least. He had that stretch, as you mentioned, back-to-back-to-back threes, a 9-0 run on himself. What did you see from him from a shooting standpoint at least?
BRIAN KEEFE: You know, he's been shooting the ball well. We want him to be aggressive. Some of it was a little bit of a -- some of them were hustle points, like offensive rebounds, kick-outs, some were in the flow of the offense. They played zone a little bit. He got open on a couple of them.
We want him to be aggressive. When he's aggressive like that, good things happen.
Q. Then Tre, up until the third quarter, he was essentially shooting a no-hitter. I didn't want to touch it at halftime, but he went nine straight made before that first miss, a new rookie franchise record. What has he been able to do? I know you talk about the work with all of the guys, but the confidence that he shoots it with, seems like it's very uncommon for a 19-year-old.
BRIAN KEEFE: That's the word. We see this every day since we drafted him. He's the guy who gets up the most shots in our gym. It's not close. This is not an accident. Tremendous amount of work, and he's been doing this his whole life. He's been preparing. He's very advanced for his age being able to do this, but it's his commitment to his craft. That's why we love him so much.
Q. I know obviously a lot of what you have focused on this season has been the development, but how good does it feel to end the 2025 portion of the season on as thrilling and electric of a win, especially against a very good and possibly playoff contending team?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, thrilled for all of our guys. Again, it's always nice to get a win, but what I'm really pleased about is how we're playing. Our resiliency is growing. Our defense is improving. Some of the defensive plays we made in that game to win the game, obviously Alex's block, and then we're really learning how to play as a group, sharing, trusting. I think we had 31 assists tonight.
And everybody is contributing; that's what you want. We have a long way to go. We're far from where we want to be. But we're making the right strides and we're winning the way we want to play, which is good basketball.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports