See what the Brooklyn Nets had to say after their 147-135 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
STEVE NASH
On Brooklyn's defense:
“We had breakdowns all over the place. So we’ve got a lot of work to do. We know that. We know that we have a very offensive team right now, so we have to find ways to defend, to get connected, to be on the same page, and that’s gonna take some time. It’s definitely early as far as this new team and this new group, learning to defend together and how we can be effective defensively. That’s gotta be one of our, part of our game that we’re gonna focus on the most going forward.”
On long minutes for starters:
“First of all, we found ourselves in a hole. The second unit got beat up pretty good there in the second quarter. We relied on our star players. So, you know, when you get yourself in a dogfight, when you're trying to find climb out of a hole it's hard to really go to the bench. We’re in the game we had a chance to come back, we got ourselves back, we got a chance to win and we didn't do it. So right now it looks like we made the wrong decisions. But if they don't make that 3 at the end of first overtime, it looks like it was worthwhile. So sometimes you roll the dice. The second unit didn't perform tonight the way we think they could, so we didn't go back to them as long and as hard and we kept the rotation shorter, and we end up losing. So you could say that was the wrong decision but at least you can also say we gave ourselves a chance and had a three-point lead with a few seconds left in overtime.”
On second overtime:
“They had a guy get hot at the right time. He sent them to the second overtime and he was hot in that overtime. We were a little flat, a little disjointed to start the game. Got down, found our way back in it, pushed it to overtime. Up three at the end of the first overtime and gave up a three. Looks like the legs fell all off a little bit, but also he got hot at the right time, so hats off to him.”
KEVIN DURANT
On playing 40 minutes:
“I feel like I could have played another 20 minutes.”
On not fouling Sexton before game-tying 3-pointer:
“Yeah, we fouled him right before. We had a foul to give and we fouled him right before with a few seconds to go. But in that situation, you don’t want to foul the shooter. But he got hot. He was 1-for-6 before he hit that three going into overtime. I guess he made four in a row. You’ve got to tip your hat. They made shots. We started off hot; 10-for-10. We got whatever we wanted. They threw zone out there the rest of the game into the fourth. Once they released the zone, we were able to get back into the game after being down 15 or 16, so, against young terms. They’re going to start throwing out ones, mixing up their defenses. And you’ve always got to be prepared for it."
On first game with both Harden and Irving:
“We'd obviously love to win the basketball game. That's the most important thing. Definitely disappointed about that. But we got a long season ahead of us, just keep plugging away. I like where we are. I like the camaraderie that we have and we're building. The communication from the coaching staff to the players is at a high level so looking forward to keep grinding. We got the same team next game.”
JAMES HARDEN
On first game with both Durant and Irving:
“Some great glimpses. We started off the game very good. Just the entire game, we’ve just got to find a way to get stops when we need to. Offensively, statistically they’re not a very good team, but they made some shots tonight, so we’ve just got to watch some film and get better and chip away. We’re still early in this process, it’s early for all of us. We’ve got a long way to go, but we’re still excited about everything that’s going on.”
On needing games like this for chemistry:
“It’s a little bit of both. Reps and time. Obviously, would have been great for us to win and still figure things out, but a loss is still great as well, especially, it’s how you bounce back from the loss. It’s learning from your mistakes, learning from the losses, and not making the same mistakes two times in a row. We’ve got a long way to go, but I think we’re in the right direction. We’ve got some film to watch and defensively we’ve got to be a lot better and offensively, we still had 135 points, so just correct some things on our switching and our defensive principles.”
On if fatigue affected late defense:
“Fatigue? He made some tough shots. Everybody’s tired at that point. He made tough shots, and if he missed those shots, is it good defense? No, he made some tough shots, everybody’s tired at that point, and I think we did enough, especially in the fourth quarter and first overtime. I don’t know how many points he had in that second overtime, but I think he had the majority of them. Chalk your hat up to him.”