See what the Brooklyn Nets had to say after their 109-89 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
KENNY ATKINSON
On intangibles of defensive effort:
“Yeah, rebounding was one. We’ve had problems with this team in the past in making them miss and not being able to corral a rebound. I thought rebounding was huge. Our general activity was good. I thought Wilson (Chandler) helped us. He helped by just having that big physical body of his. He guarded Ben (Simmons) in there for a while when TP (Taurean Prince) got in foul trouble. I thought that was a big stretch and (David) Nwaba gave us good minutes again defensively. But DeAndre (Jordan) I thought was really good, especially in the second half. But again, excellent effort. I thought we shared the ball of offense, did a good job.”
On 64 points in the paint vs. 3-point shooting:
“What do they do? They take away the three. If they’re gonna be up on you at the 3-point line, then it’s gonna be a rim game where we’re attacking the rim. I know we were 19-for-30 at the rim in the first half, I don’t know what the second half numbers were. You really have to read the game. I thought our guys did an excellent job. They took away the three, we got to the rim a ton.”
On Spencer Dinwiddie's dunk:
“I know it was exciting for his teammates. We showed it again in the locker room at the end. They got a big kick out of that. I don’t think people realize how good an athlete Spencer is. He is, you could argue, our best athlete. He’s fast. He’s got incredible vertical. He’s unbelievable. So it doesn’t surprise me. I wish he’d do it more.”
SPENCER DINWIDDIE
On Brooklyn's defense:
“Every game is different. I think the coaches did a great game plan for Philly. Obviously, their dynamics change when Joel Embiid is not on the floor, so you try to make them take tough twos. You focus in on Tobias (Harris), he’s their primary scorer. Obviously, Ben (Simmons) is a phenomenal play maker, but you try to get under the screens, make his looks at the rim tough and then Al (Horford) likes to pop and shoot twos and you kind of live with some of those. That was kind of, I guess, the rough game plan.”
On attacking paint vs. Philadelphia defense:
“It was such a stark difference from the last game in Toronto. Toronto played such great gap help that we had to pass. They made us pass and shoot a lot of threes and stuff like that, whereas Philly, you play more drop coverage, which means their two, three and four, their wing defenders, stay close or stay more attached to shooters. They play the pick-and-roll two-on-two, and we try to get downhill when that happens. Challenge the big if it’s a good screen. If it’s not a great screen, then the roll can possibly get behind the big, then we try to look for the lob. So it’s just two completely different defenses and you try to attack them in that specific defense’s weakness.”
On Wilson Chandler:
“Obviously rebounded it great for us which is a big thing. Also just having a veteran presence, kicking guys out, inverting the switches so he could guard the bigger body we could get on the guards and just make an extra pass, ball movement, quick decisions. Kind of that Jared Dudley factor.”
JOE HARRIS
On winning second half back-to-back:
“It’s just one of those games where I felt like we were locked in right from the get-go. Even though it was a quick turnaround, the preparation was right. We came in a little bit early to go over a number of their plays, to talk about personnel. We did a good job executing the game plan and then, a little bit different than last time, we were able to make shots tonight.”
On why team was locked in:
“I thought nothing needed to be said. We felt like we competed yesterday. It was a tough game. Shots just weren’t really falling for us, and we knew if we were able to get it going early today, the defense is going to be there, which it was. It was probably one of our better defensive efforts of the season, but we were fortunate to make a little more shots today.”
On what they saw from Philadelphia defense:
“They actually played defense really similar to us, so it was almost like what we see in practice a lot of days where their emphasis was taking away 3-point shots, forcing guys to play in the mid-range or try and get downhill and finish over bigs, and we just did a good job all night long. Having Spencer (Dinwiddie) attack downhill, he was either finishing at the rim, getting kickouts or moving the ball. We just did a good job not settling and trying to put pressure on them.”