Metairie, La. — After losing by 30 Tuesday night, and dropping 8 of their last 11 games, the Pelicans took some time before practice Wednesday to address the state of the team.
“We had a meeting today and we talked about you know, we have 24 games left,” said Pelicans Head Coach Alvin Gentry. “What does that look like and what do we want to be? I think that’s all you can do.”
For Gentry, he’s hoping his players will look within themselves to come-up with some self motivation, which will then hopefully translate into more of a collective effort– and to wins.
“It comes down to personal pride really,” Gentry said. “What kind of pride do you have as a player and how much respect do you have for your teammates? That’s what you’ve got to play for.”
“I don’t know,” said Pelicans guard E’Twaun Moore. “We’ve just got to bring it. I don’t know the reason why or why not. It’s either you come to play or you don’t. We lost the game so evidently we weren’t good enough. We’ve got to play better to win.”
The Pelicans have one more game before the NBA All-Star break, which will be a nice step away from the losing and the drama. But a week off won’t magically fix their problems.
“Any time you can get a break it’s always helpful– mentally and physically,” Moore said. “We’ll definitely see what happens after that, but it’ll be good to get a break.”
“It will [be good] but the bottom line is that when we come back, everything is still there,” Gentry said. “We have to find a way like I said, to compartmentalize it if you want to use that. We have to think about what we can accomplish and who we’re playing and how we’ve got to play that particular team to try and put ourselves in a position to win.”
The Pelicans (25-33) host the Thunder Thursday night and are off for a full week before traveling to take-on the Pacers Friday, February 22.