See what the Brooklyn Nets had to say after their 119-115 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
SPENCER DINWIDDIE
On chemistry with Kyrie Irving:
“One of the good things about having friends, they know you a little differently than some other people. It’s cool to be able to have him hold me accountable like they said and continue to push me to be better. He brings it consistently every night.”
On scoring 15 straight points:
“That’s just what I was seeing. I think the very first one I got in was the one on the left side when they just weren’t there. So I just dribbled into a three and made it. I was fortunate enough to make the basket, that’s a Spencer thing, but the defensive breakdown, that’s not a Spencer thing. I didn’t cross somebody over and make them fall and really get them into my bag or something. They just weren’t there. I took what the defense gave me. I was fortunate enough to make it. It was a good night for that.”
On if he felt he was on after early makes:
“It depends. Tonight I really had tough baskets, so there wasn’t a time where I was like, oh man, I’m in the zone, or I’m really killing it or something like that. I was just fortunate enough to not be broke from three. I started off the season pretty bad from three and tonight I was able to hit them. Credit Adam Harrington, who’s my position coach, putting in the time with me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s games where you’re hitting tough shots and you’re like OK, I’m rolling. Tonight it was more like Ky found me a couple of times. They had a couple of defensive breakdowns where I got threes in transitions. The open ones is where the score kind of ballooned a little bit.”
KYRIE IRVING
On the win:
“It was a great stepping stone for us, growing as a group. Obviously you want to take a humble approach, especially when the game could have gone either way as well as Dame was playing. Anytime someone has a big performance like that, it could go either way. He could really take over the game like he did. Down the stretch we really executed defensively, started picking up the pressure, making it a little bit tougher. Still was getting to his spots, still made it tough on us and on the offensive end we just were spraying out on the perimeter, making the right plays and making sure that we ran our plays that we have in our package for the fourth quarter. Things that we can rely on. Our last few practices really prepare us coming tonight for a back and forth fight.”
On Spencer Dinwiddie:
“I just want him to stay aggressive. Myself, (Caris), Spencer, but Spencer specifically, I just want him to stay aggressive; coming off those pick and rolls, getting downhill, making the defense respect him from the 3-point line and opening up his drives which I think he did a great job of doing tonight. Just staying on him and really getting the consistency out of him that I know he wants to be at. The type of level of player that I know he wants to be at. Staying on him, but obviously be patient. But tonight was a fresh start for him just on this road trip.”
On Nic Claxton:
“Wide-eyed rookie. There’s nothing like going out there. I told him I was going to remember this for the rest of my life, when I’m retired, when Nic’s probably in his eighth year, when he’s an incredible player in our league. I just told him, he came to the bench one time, he said, ‘it’s really fast out here. It’s really fast.’ I looked at him; I was like, yeah, when I was 20 years old it was just as fast, probably a little bit more fast than that. And that’s the type of environment you want him to experience this early in his career. With DJ going down it’s not good, the injury, but next man up mentality and gets a certain type of confidence for him going into the next game to do the same thing. Be ready to play and be ready to make an impact.”
NICOLAS CLAXTON
On adrenaline in first game:
“When I first got in especially the first couple of minutes it was moving extremely fast but I just had to calm down and stick to my principles. I settled down and the outcome was good.”
On reaction from teammates:
“Felt great. I love my teammates. They’ve been here for me. I just wanted to stay ready, and today my name was called.”
On guidance from DeAndre Jordan:
“He was big on making sure I was talking out there. Talking to the guards. Trying to be that quarterback of the defense. I tried to do that to the best of my ability.”