See what the Brooklyn Nets had to say after their 119-106 win over the Sacramento Kings.
JACQUE VAUGHN
On Joe Harris impact on offense:
“You see 30 assists, so that’s something we were disappointed in last game. This is not our first time with 30, we’ll continue to try to reach that number, but overall, Joe makes the defense react. So whether it’s him having pace to shoot a pull-up 3, or his cutting ability, the defense has to honor him. You saw Jarrett got a lob after a timeout play, because the defense was sucked in to Joe. His ability to really draw the defense is huge for us.”
On Jarrett Allen's eight assists:
“We tried to put a little more stress with the starting lineup on their group. And so you have multiple ball-handlers out there and guys that can get to space and shoot the basketball. So Jarrett has really learned how to present himself not only in pick-and-roll and put pressure on the rim, but he’s also learned how to flash to the basketball and relieve some of our perimeter players when they’re getting pressured. So he’s definitely seeing how he can impact us on the offensive end. We know what he can do on the defensive end, I think his game is growing offensively.””
On end-of-quarter situations:
"At the end of quarters, I do feel that when you can take advantage of those situations — whether you’ve seen us go small before, you’ve seen some unconventional lineups, you see us get Caris back into the game to get a possession. Sometimes those are momentum swings. So we’ll continue to try to take advantage of the end of quarters.”
JARRETT ALLEN
On making playoffs again:
"The first year I was here, we were struggling a little bit. We were somewhere down at the bottom of the standings, and even before I came, I know you’ve seen what the Nets had to struggle with. Now, we’ve kept climbing and climbing, and we’re finally to a point where we’re making back-to-back playoffs and we’re starting to be on teams’ radars and being able to fight through it to the playoffs."
On being double-teamed by Kings:
"I think it’s like a good example of guards -- when they start going off, they can get their assist numbers up. I think that somewhat translates to me being the big down there. Not pound-for-pound, but I think they were looking at me and were closing in and I was able to kick it out to the right man."
On Joe Harris shooting:
"Joe is Joe. He’s a three-point champion. As long as I’m giving him the ball and he’s shooting and getting my assists up, I’m going to be happy just seeing him shoot. Every time he goes up, I’m thinking it’s going in. That’s one of the greatest shooters I’ve ever seen and not only shooting but being able to have the ability to drive the ball. Defenders have to play him honest."
CARIS LEVERT
On clinching with a win:
“It was very good to see, especially we didn’t play as well as we wanted to last game. And I think the Coaching staff and our vets were kind of preaching tonight good teams don’t have two bad games in a row. So that’s the mentality we had coming into the game and we just wanted to push that full for 48 minutes.”
On defensive focus vs. Kings:
“We know that we have to be locked-in defensively each and every night to give us a chance to win games, to take pressure off of our offense. So I think tonight we were just locked-in from the start. We knew they were coming off a back-to-back as well so we wanted to kind of push the tempo early. We used it to our advantage.”
On Jarrett Allen:
"JA was huge tonight. He's been huge all season especially since we've been out here in the bubble. I think we kind of challenged him in the practices early. We knew he had to be great for us to where we are right now. He's really stepped up to that challenge. I've said it a lot of times and I'll say it again. I think he's going to be one of the best bigs in this league for a really long time. We just gotta keep pushing him he's gotta keep pushing himself to get to that level. But he was huge tonight and he'll be huge for us going forward."