Suns 114, Nets 86
Postgame Quotes: Suns at Nets, Nov. 4, 2008
 
Terry Porter | 
Shaquille O'Neal | 
Steve Nash | 
Raja Bell | 
Lawrence Frank | 
Vince Carter | 
Devin Harris |
Click on a player to read quotes
| Suns Head Coach Terry Porter
(On the game)
“Obviously the first half was really about our turnovers and the Nets did a good job of being aggressive and getting to the basket. The starting group came out in the 3rd quarter and really did a good job of taking care of the ball. One thing we talked about was keeping teams under 25 points a quarter. I thought they came out in the 3rd quarter and did that. We limited our turnovers and got refocused to build up the lead. It was nice to see our second unit go in there and do a really good job in terms of building on the lead. Early on we have been getting ourselves into trouble with turnovers. When we don’t have turnovers we do a good job of moving the ball on offense and the right decisions on defensive rotations”.
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| Suns center Shaquille O'Neal (18 PTS, 6 REBS)
(On his teammates looking for him tonight)
“When they look for me, I’m going to be ready, just trying to be consistent, more consistent from the free throw line. I’ve been shooting pretty well the past few games and the guys know I’m ready to go. I’m in perfect shape.”
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| Suns guard Steve Nash (12 PTS, 11 ASTS)
(On their style of play this season)
“Well, we’re not really run and gun anymore, but we still want to push (the ball) and come down and use our half court offense.”
(On team chemistry)
“We’re building, but I think we have a chance to have great chemistry, but it’s important for us to keep working at it and getting better.”
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| Suns guard Raja Bell (22 PTS, 2 REBS)
(On going six for six on three-point shots)
“You know, I felt like I just kept getting really good looks (at the basket). The perimeter guys, even the bigs, were doing a really good job of giving it up timely, as soon as that double (team) came, so I was just getting wide open looks.”
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| Nets Head Coach Lawrence Frank
(On Suns’ offense)
"I’ve never seen us allow a team to shoot 72% in the first half. They shot 63% for the game, 67% from the three, they scored 44 points in the paint. We ran out of bullets. In the 3rd quarter, we got to the paint eight times vs. their seven. In the 4th, we got into the paint three times. We relied on jump shots. It’s hard when you’re always pulling the ball out of the net, and we obviously didn’t do a very good job."
(On Vince injury towards end)
"I think he just tweaked his ankle a little bit, but we’ll tell you what’s going on tomorrow."
(On defense)
"Early on Shaq controlled the paint. You know Shaq is Shaq. Then Stoudemire controlled the paint in that second half. I think it’s just a combination of breakdowns in terms of weak side not stepping up. You can’t get beat both in the paint and also the three-point line, it’s got to be a choice. We choose to protect the paint, but in order for that to happen our help has to react quicker, we have to do a better job on the ball, we have to do a better job in the middle of the post, we have to do a better job of us stepping up to take the charge as opposed to the ball splitting us. So we have a lot of work to do."
(On letting the Suns pull away in the third quarter)
"It’s basically a 10-point game, trading buckets trading buckets, and then at the end of the third they’re up 15 but they’re shooting the high 60s. Its one of those things that we talk about during the huddle; its fool’s gold. Your going to run out of bullets. They have more bullets than we do. Unless we could put together some stops it’s going to be very hard to win the game, and obviously we didn’t get the job done tonight."
(On Yi)
"I think he had some good moments, some encouraging promising signs. That run we put together in the 2nd quarter was largely because of him."
(On Amar'e, Shaq, and the loss)
"I don’t want to get into Amare/Shaq, they just beat our tails as a group. As a team, learn a lesson in terms of what its going to take. We need to be persistent. There is no magic wand, we just got to keep on working at the things that we consider important and eventually we’ll get better at it."
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| Nets guard Vince Carter (19 PTS, 5 ASTS)
(On the team’s performance today)
“We made a lot of mistakes, and they were shooting the ball extremely well. In the first half we were contesting shots and in the second half we weren’t and that allowed them to shoot a high percentage from the floor. It’s a learning process so we need to learn and bounce back from it.”
(On what the young big men can learn from the loss)
“They learned that you have to be aggressive and play good defense and if you give up one of those, of course Shaq and Amare are going to take advantage of the situation. We still have a long way to go but hopefully we can progress from this.”
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| Nets guard Devin Harris (11 PTS, 7 ASTS)
(On playing against the Suns)
"They could really play. I mean they pound the ball in and they shot exceptionally well. Sometimes we give them too much of one, tonight we gave them both and you can’t really trade baskets with them. I thought we had a shot in the second quarter, but in the third quarter we really were stopped. We traded baskets. They were getting three’s and we were shooting two’s. We tried to build and we couldn’t keep up. We just have to get back to the drawing board tomorrow and get better. We’ll figure it out and just cut down on our mistakes."
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