See what the Brooklyn Nets had to say after their 117-106 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
KENNY ATKINSON
On Brooklyn offense down the stretch:
"It’s kind of been an issue for us all year, not being able to score in the fourth quarter efficiently, so it kind of follows a trend. I thought we played pretty well for three quarters, we were in the game and struggled scoring at the end. I’ll have to go through it and look at the quality shots. I thought we had a ton of good looks. We were under 50-percent at the rim, so we were getting to the rim just not finishing. Obviously, the free throws. We got there, didn’t make them, didn’t make enough…so like every game, a lot of different things."
On Brooklyn defense:
“I thought tonight, defensively, wasn’t a great performance. That’s two nights in-a-row where we really struggled to stop the other team. We can talk about the offense, but on the road, you’ve got to get stops and you’ve got to play well defensively. We didn’t.”
On Jarrett Allen:
“That’s the Jarrett Allen we need. That’s huge for us, I think that was a big reason we were in the game and able to compete with them. He kind of got back to his high energy Jarrett Allen, that stretch where he was playing great, protecting the rim and then rolling and finishing. That was a huge positive tonight.”
KYRIE IRVING
On Brooklyn's offensive execution:
“I definitely should have been more aggressive down the stretch, setting up my teammates, getting some plays that I know we can get to get some movement. They did a great job of loading up and making it difficult at the rim towards the end of the game. With offensive execution down the stretch, probably wouldn’t have been much of an emphasis on it if we kind of did the little things throughout the game by getting those defensive rebounds, limit our fouling. Both were in the bonus pretty early going into the fourth, down the stretch. When you have that on the road, it becomes difficult when they’re making shots, making tough shots. Ben had a great game tonight as well when he starts spreading out like that. How many assists did he have tonight? [11] Yeah, whenever he has 10 plus assists, it’s like a stat: they have a winning record. Whenever we’re not putting the ball pressure on him or making it difficult, he’s getting to the basket pretty easily. It’s going to make it hard down the stretch and I think they had a great rhythm throughout the game. Even though we had a lead here and there, a few bunnies missed at the rim. You know, we just need to take this lesson and keep moving.”
On playing back-to-back games:
“I was trying to pace myself as best as I could. In the first quarter, some of the shots I was making yesterday were a little short. Ins and outs were few, they were being very physical. Any team we play against, they’re going to game plan pretty tough to be physical with me and kind of corral me in the pick-and-roll. I feel like I could have attacked a little bit more, but I was just doing my best with the way my body felt. That monkey was definitely on my back tonight heading into the fourth quarter, but I’ll continue to get better from this.”
On chemistry with LeVert and Dinwiddie:
“I mean, we’ve only played a few minutes. We haven’t logged in enough minutes to kind of say that we need to still work out some kinks. I know I said it the other day, but we still have to get this adjustment period going. At the same time, we’ve got to log in those minutes. Right now, we have Joe at that three-spot, so you know we’re playing between LeVert, Dinwiddie or myself. I think that once we figure that out, we’ll be ok. We were pretty small tonight as well, with DeAndre going down, so I asked Wilson after the game if he ever played the five before and he said no. That attributes to just us figuring out our lineup and continue to give certain young guys the opportunities out there. You see Cabarrot out there, he’s going against Ben. We just gotta be smarter as defenders and offensively, just continue to give space and give each other outlets.”
CARIS LEVERT
On Philadelphia's defensive execution:
“I feel like they play really good defense. We missed some good looks as well, some costly turnovers. We gotta watch the film and try to get better from there.”
On developing chemistry:
“Just playing more together, that’s how you develop chemistry. So I think we’re getting better every game and we’ll continue to grow.”
On if issue was getting shots, or just not making them:
“A little bit of both. Like I said, they played pretty good defense down the stretch and they had some long defenders, guys that were able to switch a lot of screens. We’ve got to watch the film, but we’ll get better.”