Suns 108, Nuggets 101

Postgame Quotes - Suns vs. Nuggets, Dec. 20, 2008

Terry Porter	Amar'e Stoudemire	Steve Nash	George Karl
JR Smith	Nene

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Suns Head Coach Terry Porter

“Obviously solid win for us, this Denver team has been playing well. I thought are guys came out tonight and did a good job early establishing ourselves. We went through a little stretch where J.R. Smith really got hot, just was on fire. I was thinking again holy moley here we go again that guy is just going to make everything anytime he touches it. We did a much better job to close out that first quarter and close out that first half. Second half I think our guys did a much better job of coming out and moving the ball. Shaq got out there for us, Amare was really active for us, and old man Grant the veteran did a heck of a job on that young fellow Melo really making him work for a lot of thing tonight and didn’t give him anything easy. All in all it was just a solid win for us getting a chance to win 5 at home now, that’s good mojo for us in our building and hopefully we can continue to build on it.”

(On Steve Nash’s performance down the stretch)
“He came up big, he passed up a couple shots I would like to see him take early in the shot clock. He came up and made some big shots, made some big plays for us and was just solid tonight. He had 16 points 11 assists and only 3 turnovers, he was solid for us.”

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Suns forward Amar'e Stoudemire

“It was a good win for us. We came out with a lot of intensity and we were definitely upset about the way we lost in Portland. We came out tonight extremely focused and wanting to get this win and we got it.”

(On his streak of 20-plus point games and leading the team in rebounding)
“My thing is I just go out there and play hard. Whenever coach comes to me and says, ‘we need you to do this more,’ I’m always down to accept the challenge. We’re just going to try and continue to get better as a team and grow as a player.”

(On executing late)
“Down the stretch we did a solid job. Offensively we executed, defensively we got stops and rebounded the ball. That’s something we’ve got to continue to do is continue to close these games out and doing what we have to do to win. We have to take a look at our strategies and what we have planned before the game and execute those and we’ll be OK.”

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Suns guard Steve Nash

“I just tried to be aggressive and look for opportunities to help us win the game. I was just fortunate to make some tonight that helped us win.”

(On the defense)
“I thought our defense was pretty solid down the stretch. We made some shots but we also forced some turnovers and got some rebounds and played pretty well. As an overall, it was a pretty good effort and good defense down the stretch.”

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Nuggets Head Coach George Karl

“My feeling we’re just not winning games. We’re playing good basketball for a lot of minutes but on the road, you can’t have a bad defensive quarter, you can’t have 20 turnovers, you can’t miss 3, 4 or 5 free throws like whatever we missed in the fourth quarter against a good team. One thing I emphasized to the team is we’re beating ourselves a little bit. There’s a positive energy to how we’re playing but losing is tough to overcome. We’re still in a good place."

(On last couple of minutes)
"The fourth quarter is free throws and turnovers and offensive rebounds. We were a very good rebounding team until the last two minutes of the game. They get two, maybe three more offensive possessions because of their offensive rebounding. Nash is Nash; he’s special. I don’t know if he had that planned, but once he made the first one, I knew the second one was in. I’ve seen him do it so many times.”

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Nuggets guard JR Smith

“You put emotion and energy into all these games. Our goal was to not lose two in a row and we lost two in a row. Then our goal was to not lose three in a row and we lost three in a row. We just have to go back to the drawing board." (On torrid 2nd quarter)
"Everything I was throwing up was going in. I was doing whatever it takes for my team to win. Tonight, it just wasn’t enough.

"It was just a bad game. We were bad down the stretch, they were great. Steve Nash is a great player and he’s going to make big shots.”

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Nuggets center Nene

“We lost focus a little bit. They made shots, Steve Nash made some big threes. He threw cold water on our back. Shag and Stoudemire did a great job getting rebounds. The team is good.”

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