See what the Brooklyn Nets had to say after their 124-113 win over the San Antonio Spurs.
STEVE NASH
On closing defense:
“I think we’re improving on that side of the ball. Overtime we held them to five points. We had good stretches, couple poor quarters, but I think the first quarter we held them to 21, so there were stretches where our defense was really solid. We recognize that’s gonna be something that we have to work on and address every night for the rest of the year and continue to get better at.”
On Bruce Brown comfortable on offense, making threes:
“Well it’s great when he makes threes, but that’s not why we put him on the floor. When he makes them, we’re happy for him, and hopefully he continues to develop that part of his game. But when he’s out there rolling to the basket, and they’re scared of James or Ky, and he can play 2-on-1 or 3-on-2 and finish at the rim, he’s found a niche there. Like I said, I really, really admire his ability to roll and finish and make plays. He plays so hard, so much energy, took the ball to the basket coast to coast a few times tonight as well. He expanded his game a little offensively tonight, but that’s a bonus. We love Bruce because he’s such a competitor and a fighter and he’s really clever at playing that roller position as a guard.”
On late shots early in shot clock:
“It's a good question. I think sometimes we play to our strengths, sometimes we want to run the clock, but they were doubling, they were trapping, running out at James or Ky, so they were getting the ball out of his hands. And if that's the case, they might not get it back, so we have to take the advantage I think in those scenarios and try to score while we have that advantage. I think if we try to pull it back out and they deny it to those guys, we're not gonna get as good an opportunity as a 2-on-1 or a 3-on-2 when they double them. I think that was a big part of it. We definitely sometimes play a little quickly or go a little early, but you also want to give the players freedom and comfort to play and use their personalities to win the game. But they were doubling tonight so it got the ball out of their hands and we'd rather play 2-on-1, 3-on-2 because we may not get it back to those guys.”
JAMES HARDEN
On scoring 20 points in fourth quarter and overtime:
“Yeah, I wanted to be a little more aggressive right in that fourth quarter. You know, get shots for myself and my team and just take the best shot available. You know, it was a tie game going into that fourth quarter. It was one quarter. You win the quarter you win the game. And we did that for the majority of the quarter and they made some big shots toward the end, but you know. Way to fight back and just continue to stick with it and come away with a win.”
On fewer turnovers:
“It has to be that way. If I'm the point guard and my teammates and coaching staff is giving me the responsibility to handle the basketball, I have to do really good job with my passes, making them precise and not just giving away points. I feel like we harp up on it all the time. If we get a shot at the rim, there's very little teams that can stop us and guard us. That was an emphasis for myself and it's going to continue be like that and continue to the rest of the season, me just turning the basketball whether it's careless or not it can't happen and tonight I think as a team we did a really good job of that. San Antonio is a great team. They're very disciplined and if you turn the basketball over, they'll make you pay for it. That was the emphasis for us tonight and we did a really good job of that.”
On late-game performance:
“Our communication, especially when it's winning time is very, very important and we've been doing an unbelievable job of that. Getting stops when we needed to. We hear all the talk about us not being a very good defensive team. We're picking that up and we're finding ways to get better. We're not trying to be — obviously, you want to be great every game, but you know we're preparing for later in the season and post season and we've been doing an unbelievable job of just handling adversity. Guys are in and out of line ups. Obviously, TLC, Jeff was out tonight. Guys stepped up, played big minutes and contributed. Nick played unbelievable. And it's going to be like that and once after the break, hopefully everybody is healthy, we're a full roster and we can catch a rhythm and get it going.”
KYRIE IRVING
On improving over Dallas loss:
"Absolutely I could agree with you in terms of the difference in games, but it really comes down to our execution. I don’t want to be cliché with that word ‘execution,’ because every team wants to have a high level of execution. But for us, we kind of feel our execution is when we’re playing free and we’re playing the right way and the ball is hopping and we’re all feeling good about the pace that we’re playing at. Other team, when they dictate the pace against us, it’s hard to kind of adapt. So we try to put our own mark on the game by staying physical and continuing to play the right way, extra passes, sprinting back, no easy baskets. I feel like San Antonio got a lot of easy baskets tonight, which is why I believe the game was as close as it was. So we just want to continue to improve moving forward to this Houston game before All-Star break."
On highlight passes vs. scoring:
“It’s basketball. But you see so many exciting plays that kind of get tossed in the possession, because the NBA game is so quick. So when you get to have a highlight play, my thing is always you can have a million dollar move, but you’ve got to have a million dollar finish. You don’t want to have a five-cent finish or anything like that. And as long as those bigs are catching those passes I'm throwing them in the right place; I'm just as excited as they are. So that's definitely a part of the game where I definitely feel like it gives me great joy too, seeing them do well.”
On Spurs history and Nets goals:
"I think first and foremost you’ve got to give credit to the leadership that they’ve established here, the culture. San Antonio is known as a winning organization, and that’s exactly part of our goals here is to set that standard for years to come so that the next generation that comes in understands the example of what a great team looks like, that has an established role-playing culture, but also we’re a very flexible and very understanding. We have a standard of greatness, a standard of excellence. We want to meet that standard, and I think every day we get a chance to prove that to one another. So San Antonio is definitely one of those great teams that is an example in our league that we can learn from, and we will continue to do so as long as Pop’s at the helm and you’ve got those five championships up there hanging as a reminder every time you step in to San Antonio of what excellence looks like. "