Charles Lee talks ejections, what went wrong vs. Celtics, and LaMelo Ball's foul trouble

The Hornets head coach discusses the loss to the Boston Celtics.

Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

The Charlotte Hornets competed for three quarters against the Boston Celtics and looked as if they were going to have a chance to win. Unfortunately, the offense dried up a bit, and a bunch of free throws by Boston, 22 to be exact, helped the defending champion take game one of the back-to-back.

Following the loss, Hornets head coach Charles Lee met with the media to discuss the game.

Emotions during the game

“Tonight was another great learning experience, growth opportunity for us to realize the importance and the emotional maturity it takes to win a close game like this. These guys, they work so hard and they’re out there competing their butts off, yelling out different coverages,  communicating, being together. We really just want them to focus on that – focus on what you can control. All those things that are outside of our grasp and outside of our control, we’ve got  to let those distractions go and focus on stuff that’s going to help us build winning habits.”  

What happened in the fourth quarter

“Give a little bit of credit to Boston. I thought they came up with some stops in some crucial moments. I thought that our offensive execution was actually pretty good – we got some pretty good looks. I also thought that the defensive adjustments that we made in terms of switching a little bit more stabilized our defense. I think that we’ve got to continue to be better about defending without fouling. We’ve got to trust the defense behind us, and we’ve got to try to  contest a little bit better without fouling.”  

The ejections of Grant Williams and Miles Bridges

“Both incidents I’ll have to go back and see. I thought that Grant was running back in transition and from there I just kind of saw a collision. I’ll have to go back and look at that one. And then the Miles one, again, not quite sure. I turned over to get a sip of water and a ball was kind of bouncing next to me and then I just heard James say that he was ejected. I’ll have to go back and look at it, but again, something we’ll learn and grow from because we need those guys on the court. I don’t them to put themselves in positions where they’re going to hurt themselves and their teammates.”

If Grant Williams needs to control his emotions better

“Grant’s been great. I think some of that passion that he plays with has helped us in a lot of moments this year. I think that it helps us, number one, as we prepare and we practice, and he brings great energy – a bounce and a juice to practices. As you’ve seen during games,  because he has so much passion and is fearless, he’ll guard a lot of different people. He takes on a lot of different matchups, so I don’t want him to lose that. I just want him to harness it in a  way that we can keep him on the court.”

LaMelo Ball racking up a lot of fouls early this season

“Yeah, I think that’ll be on all of us to continue to watch. Continue to watch film with Melo, maybe some technique things defensively. But I think he’s aware of it, we’re aware of it and we’ll continue to work on it.”

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