Pelicans' CJ McCollum joins Dejounte Murray in calling out 'horrible' process
11/28/2024 04:11 PM
The New Orleans Pelicans are facing disaster to close out the 2024 calendar year’s schedule. Zion Williamson and Willie Green are starting to feel the heat from the Smoothie King Center’s booing fans and a couple of players might have added field to that fire. Veterans CJ McCollum and Dejounte Murray delivered apologetic must-win, cannot-lose statements after the Pelicans (4-15) were ripped apart by the Toronto Raptors (5-14).
Still, McCollum made no excuses after being on the bad end of a blowout.
“I think it's from top to bottom we have all got to be better,” stated McCollum. “We can't have these types of showing especially. It was a horrible game, a horrible performance from myself down to the last guy.”
“It was a horrible showing,” McCollum admitted. “We have got to do a better job and it starts with our approach days before the game. How we execute and practice how our walk-throughs are going, I think it's just urgency in a lot of things that we just got to get better at. Execution even when there is nobody on the floor, there's no crowd, and there's no opponent. We’ve got to get better and all that carries over to performances like tonight.”
Dejounte Murray was not as diplomatic as McCollum in his assessment.
“This game was embarrassing. You don’t want these bad habits to build…It's not really about the loss, [but] how we lost in front of our fans," Murray explained. "Like, even the fans booing, I mean, what would you do if you were a fan paying your money? You want to come to watch a competitive basketball game, especially from your home team. So, they have all the right to say what they want and feel how they feel. They deserve a better game.”
CJ McCollum did offer solutions for Green to implement over the next few weeks, starting with a three-game road trip.
“It starts with practice. It starts with your approach to practice,” McCollum said. “Obviously we're not going to have a lot of practices because of the schedule, because of the travel. So when we get shootarounds and have those moments where we can get better at things, we have to take advantage of it. Then it has to carry over to the game.”
“You are going to lose games but we can't lose how we did tonight,” continued McCollum. “I think that's the difference. We’ve got to be able to compete. You’ve got to be able to execute the game plan and give yourself a chance to win games. (The Pelicans under Willie Green) have done it in the past. Now we have to do it at a high level immediately because you know there's not a lot of time in the Western Conference. You can't get too far behind.”
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