NEW ORLEANS — His Pelicans had clawed their way back from a 1-12 season start to make the play-in games. They had taken a 10-point halftime lead in Los Angeles by taking it to the more-seasoned Clippers and they had just watched that team steamroll them by a 38-18 margin to take a 10-point lead over the Pelicans heading into the fourth quarter.
No matter that the team had to play its final games as if their very potential playoff existence depended on it. No matter if they had just played a tough and emotional contest against the San Antonio Spurs that had ended less than 48 hours earlier, then had to board a cross-country flight to face a team that knows what the playoffs are about.
No matter that one of his top players, mid-season acquisition C.J. McCollum was playing with stomach issues, Willie Green was not going to let things end this way, not without a fight that is.
With national television cameras trained on his every word, Green pulled out an emotional and heartfelt "pep talk."
"We took their best punch. It's a 10-point game going into the fourth quarter. Get your freakin' heads up. This is what we live for. This is what we worked hard for. Okay? We ain't giving it up. We are not freakin' giving this up. You've got to freakin' fight! You gotta fight!"
“It was a different side that we haven’t seen in all honesty,” said Murphy. “He got really fired up and lit into us and I think it really sparked us in the fourth quarter.”
Green said that he just wanted to make sure the team wouldn't give up.
“Our mentality is that we’re going to continue to fight. We’re not going to fade out. That’s what I wanted our guys to understand. They’ve earned this moment. They’ve earned this opportunity. And, it’s just there for us to go take it and we have to take it.”
Green was an assistant on two Golden State Warriors NBA Championship teams and was an assistant for the past two seasons with the Phoenix Suns team he'll be matched up with in the NBA's first round. He is close with Suns head coach and former New Orleans head coach Monty Williams and the team's star, former Pelicans' great Chris Paul.
