Warriors 125, Wizards 117
Q. How is Trae Young doing?
BRIAN KEEFE: Haven't got a chance to talk to the medical performance team yet. Obviously he'll be evaluated, so we'll see.
Q. Obviously a good night for him, Bilal, and Will, all three of them today. If you could kind of like summarize between all three of them what was your favorite aspect of their offensive performances today, what would it be?
BRIAN KEEFE: I thought there was some good moments there where we had some good connections where the ball was moving. Trae was getting two on him and they were playing first and hit Bilal on the short roll and fired it out to Will Riley.
This is one of the reasons Trae is here. When they get two on him he just makes the right play. I thought we played off him pretty well with that.
You could see the skill with the passing of all three of those tonight. I thought that was really good.
Q. Brian, what was difference in the second quarter and late in the third into the fourth that allowed you guys to get some momentum and cut the deficit and get back into this?
BRIAN KEEFE: First of all, got stops. We stopped turning the ball over a little bit, so those stretches when made our runs we had good ball security. We were able to get out in transition, move the ball pretty well.
The turnover, the possession game was the battle we lost tonight. That kind of caught us there in the end.
Q. Do you feel it was specifically just the turnovers and that also leading to the second-chance opportunities they were able to get that kind of you guys a little bit of that hole?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, for sure. That's why I said the possession game, the second-chance, and the turnovers, because we shot the ball better than them tonight. It's hard to overcome those things.
I thought our guys were trying to make the right play so like I -- turnovers are going to happen. Wasn't selfishness stuff. Thought we were trying to get off because they were aggressive. Sometimes played a little bit in crowds.
For the most part thought our guys were trying to make the right pass.
Q. Did you happen to get an explanation as to the second technical for Bub?
BRIAN KEEFE: I did not yet. No, I didn't get a chance to talk to him about it or the refs about it yet. We will chat about it and see what happened.
Q. I know I asked you about the rebounding coming into this game, not necessarily the number or the win that you wanted to get, but did you like the uptick that you saw from tonight versus the last handful of games?
BRIAN KEEFE: A little better. We still got some stuff to address. When we rebound the ball we'll we're pretty good in transition. Always got to finish your possessions defensively.
Q. Will Riley had another really big game tonight. Talk about how he's getting all his reps not good. League. Talk more about how he's been processing games the last few weeks.
BRIAN KEEFE: It's really the last month or so. I mean, even properly longer. He's been in the rotation for -- who are for a while even going into January when we made the trade initially.
He's just growing. We're putting the ball in his hands to grow in situation like we're having to play point because I think his play making, he's such a big guard, big wing, and then his shooting has progressed, too.
Seeing a little bit of everything from him. It's really some good growth to finish out the year.
Q. Before Trae went out, he had a couple deflections; took a charge.
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah.
Q. Took a shot. From the defensive side of the ball what is it that will allow you to keep him on the court if he just provides the defense? With know what he can do with the offense.
BRIAN KEEFE: For sure. He's always been a guy that steals. That's what he's always done. When he's active and quick like he is, he's got a great anticipation skills that lean on both sides of the ball obviously.
He knows the game so well. I thought he had great energy tonight in the passing lanes and was digging balls out and got himself in there.
Always been a feisty guy, and we're going to have a lot of the size around him, too. But I thought it was his best defensive game for sure. Kind of getting used to some of the rotations we have and he was this the right spots.
Then he had a quickness to read it. That's what I was really pleased with him tonight.
Q. Do you mind him being a little aggressive at the top because you know eventually he's going to be funneling in to 6'11" and 6'10"...
BRIAN KEEFE: Yes. Yeah, he'll have some -- couple big guys down there to help him. Yeah, we want him to be aggressive. Want all our perimeter guys to be aggressive. I think when we are that way we can turn people over. When we do that we been pretty good this year.
Q. Bilal is 41 percent from three since playing with Trae Young. I guess that's not a coincidence. What do you think?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think it's a little bit to do with that, but I think it's mostly to do with Bilal. He's put a massive amount the work into that. Probably takes the most shots in our building I think. We keep track of stuff like that.
He put a lot of work into it, but you also can see what Trae Young does in terms of like cutting for Bilal. Bilal is cutting to the rim and he's delivering those passes. That's one of the reasons he's here is to enhance our guys.
The credit goes to Bilal for his work and the stuff he's doing behind the scenes. It's been a lot. We're seeing him get some good growth here at the end of the year.
Q. Also, Trae Young threw a bounce pass to Bilal in the first half.
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah.
Q. How much more aware and ready to receive a pass have the guys got to be when they play with Trae Young?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, you got to have your eyes open. You may hit one right in the head. But that's the thing. He's going to give it up.
They got two on the ball and he's going to deliver. We've seen he can deliver in a variety of ways. Our offense was really humming there in the second quarter when they were putting two on him and he was getting off quick, we were just making the simple play.
But that's why he's here.
Q. Coach, the payback on the previous question with Trae and Bilal's chemistry, do you envision or see a player that Trae could have that possible type chemistry as well? Like similar to Bilal on the roster?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think the whole roster. This is what he's done. He drives good offense. That's what he's done his whole career and he's going to do it here.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports