See what the Brooklyn Nets had to say after their 128-124 win over the Miami Heat.
STEVE NASH
On Brooklyn defense:
"You can only play the game in front of you. So I thought tonight Bam was exceptional in the midrange. But we made him take tough shots. He got a lot of good rolls tonight. He's a terrific player. But overall, it took a really hot night from him in the midrange to get them back in the game. So that's positive. We're not giving up a bunch of 3s to them, especially for the first three quarters. That's really positive, because when they do have their guys they can get hot from 3, and that's one way they can beat you.”
On second unit and recovering from Miami rally:
"I don't know if it's relaxing, but that second unit is just growing, trying to learn and figure it out and play together. And they just struggled a little bit, and that's gonna happen sometimes. So they're capable; we got to develop them. The alternative is to play our starters 40 plus minutes. So fortunately we had a little bit of a cushion, and although we lost the momentum and the lead thereabouts, we still were able to win the game and keep the minutes in a relatively acceptable zone. So that that's part of our development. That's part of taking the long road here and not necessarily trying every night to wear our guys are not developed the second unit.”
On Harden playmaking:
“It's invaluable his, you know, playmaking skills for us. So often, he found guys for layups or wide-open threes and created and distorted the defense. So he wasn't himself shooting the ball, and I think he's still trying to get himself into shape. That was a tough little week for him three games in four nights, including a double overtime. So I think, you know, hats off to him that he found a way to contribute when shot wasn't going and his legs weren't there. He still made a lot of plays for his team.”
KEVIN DURANT
On scoring 20 points in 13 straight games:
“I feel like I’m getting more opportunities. As each game goes on, coach is putting in more sets. Everybody plays with the pass here, so guys are going to get looks all game, especially if you play a lot of minutes. It’s on me to finish those shots, and I feel like I left a few shots on the table tonight that I’d like to make. But for the most part, I’m trying to be smart and efficient in my movements out there. I think I can definitely get better, but I’m moving in the right direction.”
On playing with Harden and Irving:
“The trust is already there. The familiarity with each other is there already. We know each other’s games from the last decade. It’s just a matter of what plays we’re going to run at certain times, what lineups we’re going to have out there. I think both the coaches and the players are fine-tuning everything. We’re going to have spurts where we play inconsistent just because we try things, but for the most part, our minds and our hearts are in the right place when we’re out there. We try to take care of business every possession.”
On intelligence and passion:
“That there is half the battle. I feel like most of the guys on this team – well, everybody on this team knows how to play the right way, knows different schemes and can play with different philosophies on both ends of the floor. It’s about executing. Tonight, we did a good job. We were about 20 points, we were up 14 going into the fourth quarter. So, we were in good shape, but we’ve got to put together four quarters of great basketball.”
KYRIE IRVING
On defensive hustle and fight:
“We had a chance to respond, and I feel like we did. We could have had every excuse in the book, both teams. Both played last night, and we didn’t allow that to happen. We had two losses where we had to learn a lot very quickly, and we just moved on to the next night and I feel like we gave the effort in spurts and obviously we want to have more consistency in that, and that’ll take time, but I’m happy with the effort tonight. I’m happy with the way Joe shot the ball. I’m happy the way KD shot the ball. I’m happy the way everybody filled in and we just figured out a way to win.”
On team's unselfishness:
"That’s definitely the energy we have in this locker room, is to be selfless, and to show respect for each other’s games, but to still hold each other accountable. A lot of us have been very successful as individuals and on certain teams, but we’ve never been together at this point, so i think we should relish in this opportunity and not take any day for granted. It’s not every day you see this collection of guys playing together in NBA history, so we want to take full advantage of that. And we know we’re gonna have the doubters, we know we’re gonna have the naysayers, we know we’re gonna have all that. That comes with the business of what we do as great players, but us as a team, we just want to continue to grow and support each other. So nights like this we want to see more often, sometimes it’s just gonna be spread out all over the place in terms of scoring, defensively as well."
On high-scoring games:
“Well, we don’t want to start that trend of just getting into track meets every game. It’s fun to play that way throughout the regular season to a certain point, but when you’re going against other great teams, you’re gonna have to buckle down. And we don’t want to have that flip-on, flip-off switch like I talked about the other day with Malika on here. We just don’t want to have that start. We just want to continue to grow, and like I said, we’ve only played three games together, or two games fully together, and we don’t want to rush anything. So it’s going to take time to find that continuity on all fronts for us, and we’ve just got to stay patient.”