New Orleans Hornets vs. December 11, 2012 Hornets Post Game Quotes

Hornets Head Coach Monty Williams: On second half scoring problems having a snowball effect: “There is a lot of merit to what you are saying. When you don’t go out there and make your breaks by playing with the kind of passion and desperation you have to in the NBA, that kind of thing happens. Since I have been here we haven’t’ had to coach effort, and we’ve made some personnel changes and put some guys in different roles and we are not getting the kind of effort that you should get on a night in , night out basis when guys are getting paid to play. You do that and you end up with a result like you had tonight. Give them (Washington) credit. They dealt with the same things, but they made more plays down the stretch. I thought their guard play was stellar down the stretch and we had no guard play at all. You end up in a situation where you are trying to make desperation plays at the end and it shouldn’t come down to that.”

On when the game start getting away from them, were the guys playing tighter: “We were playing tight and playing mistake . There is no reason for our guys to be playing tight; they should be out there playing the way we talk about playing, the way we coach and giving themselves a chance to be successful by following the game plan. Our game plan has always been to play hard and defend. You can say we defended because they only scored 77 points, but we did not play with the effort that is necessary to win an NBA game. You don’t deserve to win when you play that way. ”

Hornets Jason Smith On the game: “We played down to their record. We didn’t take them seriously. Any NBA team can come in and get a win, It doesn’t matter what their record is. They came in playing at a high caliber; they just haven’t been winning close games. Tonight they got us.”

On the quick turnaround going to Oklahoma City: “I think we have to keep our heads up. No matter who we play tomorrow, we have to go out there and fight, compete, and tonight we did not compete at all.”

Hornets Forward Ryan Anderson On his shooting: “I missed some shots. I had some great looks. Those are shots that I normally make, and I wouldn’t turn them down again. I would shoot those over and over again.”

New Orleans Hornets vs. Washington Wizards December 11, 2012 Wizards Post Game Quotes

Wizards Head Coach Randy Wittman: On the win tonight: “After that first quarter, this game was kind of indicative of how our team is through injuries, through bad starts, through digging a hole and staying in the game, not giving up whether it be when we’re shooting, I think 20 percent and 11 points in the first quarter. We just kept our heads in (the game). We kept fighting and kept it close. I thought that was the key. Going into halftime, our guys felt good. We were down by seven or six at the half, and we hadn’t really played well at all, so we said ‘Hey, it’s going to click offensively’. We just have to keep our defense going.’ Our defense was really good again tonight and won the game for us obviously. I’m really proud of our guys.”

On Guard Jordan Crawford’s performance: “It was good. Early on, again, the first time kind of starting there and you could see him thinking, it’s going to be a little bit of a process. How we have to get going at the start of games and everybody clutching the ball, the movement and stuff, he second guessed a little bit, but I knew that was going to happen. That’s something that will come along, but I thought he came down the stretch and really made some big shots.”

Wizards Guard Jordan Crawford: On the game: “Mek [Emeka Okafor] was our anchor on the defensive end and I wanted to do anything to take the win – it didn’t matter how many shots I shot – I just wanted to take the win.

On starting as point guard: “It was different to play the point in the beginning of the game. Once I got into the game and noticed what the team needed, I got comfortable. We were stuck on 65, they were stuck on 65, I just wanted to hit that shot to break the ice. At the end of the game I was tired and starting to think about tomorrow – we have one then too.”

Wizards Center Emeka Okafor: On the game: “It feels good to get a win in general. We’ll take them however we can get them. First quarter was the first quarter – we still had three quarters to play. “It’s business (coming back to New Orleans for the first time). Just trying to get the win.”

On Jordan Crawford’s play: “He provided one heck of a spark. He hit threes, twos, free throws, anything possible to keep us in it. He’s a big reason why we won.”

On Hornets forward : “He’s an athletic player. He can do so many things and he’s only a rookie. As the years progress, he’ll learn what to do. The sky’s the limit (for him).”