Wizards 131, Pacers 118
Q. Tre, big game for Alondes. What has stood out to you about him so far?
TRE JOHNSON: Just the fire he plays with. He plays with a lot of emotion. I think that's a good thing. Shows that he cares, has a lot of love for the game, and it's kind of something, an area we're kind of similar in, so that's why I like him as a player.
Q. You guys won tonight despite maybe having your worst three-point shooting game of the season. How did you work around that? What was the key to still getting the win?
TRE JOHNSON: Just our defense, especially towards the end, just getting stops, anchoring it on our defense, and being able to create in transition.
Q. Tre, what have you seen from the way that your bench has continuously stepped up this season but especially in the last couple of games, the way that they have impacted on both ends of the floor and brought an extra scoring punch for you all starters?
TRE JOHNSON: It's been huge, especially even with some of the G-League guys. I think Kadary had -- how many steals? He had like two back-to-back three -- you've got a lot of guys. You've got Jamir. Sharife had like six steals. Kadary, six steals. It's like, everybody has bought into the defensive end. I feel like that's the best part about this team.
Q. When you look at games like these where the threes are not falling the way you guys are accustomed to or want them to, but you're finding other ways, especially off of your defense to get things done, does that then take the training camp experience of what BK talked about, the daily habits, the growth, the little things in the game? Are you guys now starting to see, okay, the three is not falling; how else can we impact this game? How else can we get to what we want to do? Are you seeing that growth and clicking now?
TRE JOHNSON: Yeah, for sure. I feel like the training camp did help instill a foundation because we easily could have not guarded, I guess, and shied away from that when shots wasn't falling, especially threes, and we could have not gotten back or sprinted back or getting buckets, but we still sprinted back, even though we gave them some in transition but still got back, and we just still played defense. I feel like that was the biggest leap for us, especially as a team.
Q. Anthony Gill, someone that gets to play a lot of minutes over the last two nights. You haven't seen him play this many minutes in a while. What does it mean for this team to see him be the play maker, blocks and dunks, and you guys cleared the bench when he made that dunks. How does it feel to see him be so successful?
TRE JOHNSON: He's everything for this team. Anything you can name, that's AG, all in one category, to be honest. But he's just great overall. Just the person he is off the court, person he is on the court. He's just always ready. That's one thing I can say about Anthony Gill. He's always ready whenever his number is called.
Q. You've been here a little while now. You've seen some change and transition. You and Bub seem to be like two peas in a pod. What do you say to the G-League guys as they come and they have their 10-day experience? What's your advice to them?
TRE JOHNSON: Make the most of it. It's not really too much to be said. We've got a good culture, a great coaching staff with the Go-Go, so when they come up, it's kind of like plug-and-play, to be honest. That's why guys like Kadary had the type of defensive performance he had and Alondes played the way he did, just because we're kind of the same thing, just on a different level. So they just came and contributed to winning.
Q. I wanted to ask you about Jamir and Will in particular. You guys came in together. They're looking more and more comfortable out there. How have you seen those two progress?
TRE JOHNSON: Been great, to be honest. Everybody knew that Jamir was capable of being a lock-down defender, and he's shown that night in and night out, and just progression offensively, becoming more comfortable in just the little things, whatever he's been asked to do. Even playing the 5, I think it's probably his first time this season playing the 5, and he's just doing whatever it takes to contribute to winning.
And Will is just being Will, to be honest. Doing the little things that nobody really recognizes. Also, his scoring package more and more fluid night in and night out.
Q. What did you think of the crossover where Bub got the guy out of his shoes?
TRE JOHNSON: That was funny. That was funny. He almost missed it, and I would have made a lot of jokes about it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports