WASHINGTON WIZARDS MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 26, 2025

Alex Sarr

Hornets 139, Wizards 113

Q. You mentioned multiple times over the off-season that you wanted to play more in the paint, and looking at the first three games your shot diet is way more in the paint than it was last year. How do you feel your progression has gone in terms of getting a lot of your buckets in the paint?

ALEX SARR: Yeah, I think that just helps being more efficient starting the game, more in the paint to get yourself going before after stepping out or doing what the game gives you.

Q. What did you see from your perspective what went wrong in the second half compared to the first half?

ALEX SARR: Just our defense. We allowed like 88 points, so that's way too much in any game. But we did a better job in the first half. We just kind of let go defensively in the second half, and we've just got to watch film and be better than that.

Q. How do you feel like you've gotten better as a passer since you got drafted here?

ALEX SARR: I think just being in flash actions, having the ball in those type of situations, and then kind of reading what my treatments are doing, so I would say getting those reps helped me improve.

Q. So much has to go right to win a basketball game in this league. I just wonder, when you come off a game where a lot of things went right and you had a good road win and you come here and some things went right but some things went way wrong, how do you stack those days together and learn from both of them?

ALEX SARR: Yeah, I think that's part of the game. Obviously every night is not going to go how we want it to go, but we've really got to watch film, get back at it, and what's good about tonight is we know what went wrong with our defense, so we can improve on that.

Q. Is this team susceptible to bad offense leading to bad defense?

ALEX SARR: I mean, I hope not. As a player, that's easy to fall into, I would say. But I feel like everybody knows that it starts on defense and then carries over to the offensive end. That's what's going to get us where we want to go.

Q. How has having one year of experience going up against NBA personnel helped with your anticipation on defense?

ALEX SARR: I mean, it definitely helps playing against those guys. You know their personnel, what they like to do. You still get to watch film. I feel like it definitely helps.

Q. It seems like you, CJ and BK all kind of have an understanding as to what went wrong for you all tonight on the defensive end. Does that give you guys some positive hope knowing that it's correctable and that you have time to work on it versus if everything went right tonight but yet you still don't get the result you want, figuring it out that way?

ALEX SARR: I wouldn't say positive about tonight but more like we know what we've got to work on. Tomorrow's film is definitely going to be mostly definitely. But yeah, now we know what we've got to do better. It's not like we have -- we have to improve.

Q. If you can take us in the locker room, how much of that film study is you guys talking through it versus the coaches pointing out where things went wrong, knowing that you know what the scouting report was coming into it and what the game plan was and correcting the correctables?

ALEX SARR: It's very open. BK just sits with us. If there's something we need to understand or there's something we can just talk it out during the film, and also do it out on the court, as well. It's probably 50/50, working through stuff, talking through stuff, and then watching film.

Q. With your shot selection tonight it's gotten more efficient in the last few games and even in comparison to last year. To what do you attribute your growth in efficiency?

ALEX SARR: Yeah, I would say just trying to be better at stuff like that. Obviously as a player you always try to be efficient. I'm trying to be as efficient as I can, and that's going inside and mixing up some inside and outside stuff. That's just what I'm focused on.

Q. With CJ and Khris being veterans on this team, what are some things that you have learned from them so far that you've incorporated or will be incorporating into your game moving forward this season?

ALEX SARR: A lot of stuff. With Khris last year and now CJ since the beginning of the season, just how they approach everything, whether it's practice, the games, so there's a lot of stuff you can pick up on that end. They're both very competitive, so definitely they lead by example.