Banchero dissects offensive struggles, offensive rebounding woes, and the search for consistent lineups after a tough loss.
On the team's struggle to sustain offensive rhythm tonight:
"Yeah, I mean I think that's been our struggle as of late, just how we're going to manufacture good looks and good possessions time after time. For the most part, I thought that we played a good brand of basketball, got some open shots throughout the meat of the game and shots just didn't fall. But yeah, especially down the stretch, we got to find ways to generate good looks for us."
On balancing playing a better brand of basketball with the loss outcome:
"As a basketball player, the feeling of when you're doing the right things, whether the result falls in your favor or not. Tonight, I thought it was better. It was a step in the right direction. Obviously not good enough, but a step in the right direction."
On why the open shots weren't falling tonight:
"That's the game, you know. They ended up shooting it better in the second half. A lot of the shots they missed, they ended up getting offensive rebound and getting second chance shots. So that helped their offense. We were one shot and done a lot of times. Missed some layups around the rim, missed some open threes. So that's how it went."
On slow starts in recent games and how to come out hotter to avoid playing from behind:
"We got to be better to start the game. Our starting lineup, that falls on us. Being able to get stops has been something that we've been able to hang our hat on throughout times in the season and for some reason in first quarters we kind of come out flat on that end. It puts a lot of pressure on our offense to try to keep up when you can't get stops. But tonight I thought we did a better job. Finished the first quarter 25-23. That's right where we want to be. Just couldn't score enough."
On playing with Moe Wagner in the pick-and-roll and having him as another roller:
"Huge addition. The things that he does for us on the court are huge. He can make plays for others, he can score for himself, unselfish about the right things. He's definitely a great piece for sure."
On the advantages created when used off the ball, running off screens, catching and attacking closeouts:
"I feel like there's a few different ways to implement me and the coaches, my teammates I think are doing a great job. It's new, we haven't had consistent lineups pretty much throughout the year. So the continuity's been different from game to game. I think we're still trying to strike that right balance but everybody's trying their best for sure."
On containing Donovan Mitchell better in the upcoming game in Cleveland without sacrificing kickout opportunities:
"It starts just keeping the ball square. Couple times he rejected the screen. Give him credit. He's a hell of a player. I thought AB did a great job for most of the night, really frustrated him and made it tough on him. In that fourth quarter he kind of got loose but like we said he's a great player and we'll have to bring the same level of physicality that we did in the first half to him for a full 48 next game."
On whether slow starts after big losses are a hangover effect and how to flush it to start hot:
"I thought our energy and our effort was in a much better place tonight. In the last two games when we got down, we didn't really rally too well from it, but I thought that we came out with the right edge, right mentality tonight, and just couldn't get it done."