On missing shots: “Arizona had a lot to do with that. Their collective size and physicality around the basket… it negates your interior attack. It’s hard to get the ball to the basket, and you gotta finish through contact. You need some special performances from key people to win games in this environment, but we didn’t get that like they have before.”
On Effort: “As the clock was winding down, I was watching our guys on the floor… Harlan [Obioha], Amir [Jenkins], DJ [Thomas] and Ugusuk. They were very together and had a tight huddle. I thought our guys competed. We were able to rebound the ball in the first half. But with the way we’re constructed right now, we can’t take away everything. But I gotta look at that from a coaching perspective. I need to coach better and we need to play better.”
On defense: “Early on, there were a couple times we had guys in tough situations, but we let them step through our trap and find people. We weren’t getting enough buckets during the times when we were getting stops. We had some open looks at the beginning of the game, and you got to make those if you want to beat the No. 1 team in the country.”
Final thoughts: “Win or lose, you can’t get too high or too low in this league. We have to keep getting better and get another crack at these guys in Kansas City.”
