NBA IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT

December 7, 2023

Trey Murphy

New Orleans Pelicans

Semifinal Postgame

Lakers 133, Pelicans 89

Q. Willie said it was disappointing, just the lack of competitive spirit tonight. What did you see out there?

TREY MURPHY III: Lack of energy, lack of urgency. Made a push in the second quarter to fight back, and in the third quarter just let go of the rope. That's about it.

Q. What's it like to go out like that?

TREY MURPHY III: Really tough. It's a national TV game, we got embarrassed, really not much else to say about it, honestly.

Q. With Anthony Davis out there in the paint, just how does that make life difficult for you guys trying to score the ball and how did it make life difficult tonight?

TREY MURPHY III: Yeah, I mean, when somebody like that, who is a really good shot blocker, when you go into the paint you always have to look and see where he is. When there's other times you play against another team you just go to the basket and you're not really worried about who is down there. He definitely affects a lot of shots and he's like an anchor to their defense.

Q. You mentioned the third quarter, too. What do you feel like just specifically went wrong there that made that game so lopsided?

TREY MURPHY III: Didn't hit shots. They did. We didn't get stops. They got out in transition. Just got, that's really how it happened.

Q. You guys have had tough losses before. After a game like this, what's the message in the locker room and the conversations amongst you guys?

TREY MURPHY III: Just got to get better. That's really it. Obviously, this is a tough loss, but we got another game Monday. We can't dwell on it, just learn from it, what we did in this game, and not make the same mistakes twice.

Q. When you see LeBron have moments like that, what do you take away from going against LeBron and seeing the way he kind of owned that moment tonight?

TREY MURPHY III: Yeah, he played like he wanted it. That was the bottom line, he played like he really wanted to win these games and win this NBA Cup, so hat's off to him.

Q. You've played in Playoff games, you played some Play-In games. How did this compare to that?

TREY MURPHY III: Similar. I wouldn't say it's exactly the same, but it's definitely similar. They try to build up the atmosphere for that and try to make it feel like a Playoff game. I wouldn't necessarily say it is, but it's very close to it.