See what the Nets had to say after their 111-103 win over the Phoenix Suns.
KENNY ATKINSON
On pulling away in second half:
"We had to grind it. First of all I want to give them a ton of credit. They came off a triple-overtime game and they fought us tooth and nail. That was not an easy victory at all, excellent job by them. I think they're playing much better. They gave us a tussle. It was a tough game for us."
On improved defense second half:
"I think they just picked it up, and I thought Ed Davis had something to do with that. I thought his physicality changed the game a little bit and we put Rodions on Booker. You think this guy was playing on Barcelona last year in Europe, 20 years old. I'm really excited about his defensive potential. He did some good things out there, his length and athleticism and, quite honestly, how hard he plays defensively. That can help our defense. That can boost our defense going forward."
On closing out the game:
"I didn't think we were smooth at all at the end there. We've got to look at that. I thought we had some turnovers. If the games a little closer, that's a nailbiter. I'm going to put it a little on D'Angelo and Spencer, those guys, and myself, we've got to sit down and find some stuff that we really like to execute at the end. I thought it was very stop and go. There was no fluidity to what we were doing and that caused a little bit of confusion there at the end. It was not smooth. "
D'ANGELO RUSSELL
On winning last eight of nine:
"Figuring out how to win. We're coming to a conclusion on what we've got to do when it comes to finishing games and, like I said, making those winning plays and they just keep adding up and I feel like it's creating good habits for us going down the stretch or down the stretch in a close game."
On season through 35 games:
"I think we're going up, we're going in the right direction. You know, bumps and bruises down the road, I feel like every team goes through that. But as much as we can keep building off our good wins, our losses, whatever it may be, taking something from it to keep moving forward, I think it's pretty good."
On defense in third quarter:
"Just locking in. Definitely the game plan with what we're supposed to do with each individual guy, but just locking in."
JARED DUDLEY
On playing former team Phoenix Suns:
"I would say for me personally, every time you get to play the Suns is a team that traded me basically for nothing, a player they didn't even want. So for that franchise, to be able to come out there and get two dubs (wins) on those guys and keep it moving, it feels good. It feels good. I had a lot of DNPs over there, so to come over there and hit a couple of dagger threes feels good for me."
On if this was a trap game:
"You know, I keep hearing that. I heard that from the coaches a little bit. I heard that from a reporter yesterday, like, I swear we don't even think about it. We've been playing so well, so much better habits, to me even with that eight-game losing streak you could take one or two of those games out. It's just we didn't even know how to finish, so for us it wasn't like here we go again or a trap game. This is a team we're supposed to beat. When you're supposed to beat them, you've gotta come in with that mindset, which we did."
On defense in third quarter:
"I think also fatigue for them. Triple-overtime game. I thought first quarter, they're still a young team, so you know they're going to have a little bit of energy coming out. I thought Deandre Ayton was Shaq-esque. He was doing everything, making everything, post, physical presence. He's going to be a problem in the next couple of years. I just thought that they moved the ball well and we needed to lock in. Even though it's not a great team, they still have Booker, they still have Ayton, they have guys that are capable of scoring. I just think that through the course of the game we threw our will towards it and got a couple key stops when we needed to."