See what the Brooklyn Nets had to say after their 121-113 loss to the Orlando Magic.
STEVE NASH
On keeping Harden in game with three and four fouls:
“It was just one of those nights where it wasn’t going for us. We weren’t necessarily flowing, so you had to roll the dice a little bit to give yourself a chance. It wasn’t to be, but we didn’t get bitten by leaving him in the game. I just thought sometimes you have to take risks and if we were going to try to come back in this game we needed him in there for a more sutained period.”
On if fatigue affected shooting:
“I think James and Joe felt fatigue. They had a heavy burden against Indiana so I think those two for sure probably felt some fatigue in their legs. But we had great energy and activity from a lot of guys and sometimes you can play really, really hard and be really, really active, but that doesn’t mean your legs are gonna be there in your shot. I thought Nic was great activity, Bruce, great, everyone kind of chipped in in that fourth-quarter stretch where this was a really active group that really bothered them. A little short I think because of the first quarter. Whatever we gave up, 35 points in the first quarter, and just weren’t really sharp.”
On Orlando shooting:
"Yeah, I guess 21-of-40 from three from them is outstanding. That was, in many ways, the story of the game. If we had been maybe a little sharper to start maybe we could have cut that down a little bit, but perhaps it just was one of those nights. But you always want to look at it and take something away from it and say, ‘what could we do better and how can we improve?’”
KYRIE IRVING
On the loss:
“They just got going early. and we got down in a hole. And when you're trying to play out of a hole for the rest of the game, obviously when teams are shooting the three — or when a team is shooting the three like they were tonight — it makes it a lot more difficult and you have to be perfect down the stretch. Bu, they came in off a back-to-back very desperate, and we didn't match their energy so kind of happens like that, this is what it feels like to lose. We don't want too many more feelings like this, so just learn from it and move forward, but great learning experience.”
On fourth quarter:
“Just pushing the pace and they're missing shots. When you have a night like this and a team is shooting the way that they're shooting, you've got to be perfect down the stretch. But I felt like in that three minutes, last four minutes, we could have done a better job managing one another, holding each other accountable to just getting easy ones, making sure we're we put the ball in the hoop and get back on defense and we load up our defense. So we'll see moving forward. You're not gonna make every shot every single night, and you see Joe Harris shooting airballs. It's just one of those nights where you're just like hey, you've got to give credit to us being in the right spots, but you've also got to give credit to them pressuring us every time down.”
On looking forward to having Griffin and Durant:
"I am super excited. You know, it's just high level talent out there. So, when you can just prepare for the game and go over the X's and O's, you can look to your left and right and know the guys next to you have your back and you're able to play at a high level offensively and defensively and make an impact, you've got to look forward to that. I look forward to it for sure. And as a competitor wanting to be on the main stage, we want all our guys healthy. Hopefully we can hit a stride at the right time and make a run, but this is great practice ground right now to just get as healthy as we can before step into the playoffs soon, very soon.”
LANDRY SHAMET
On the loss:
"It’s the NBA. If you dig a hole, down 20 to anybody early, it’s going to be hard to climb back out. Give them credit. They shot the hell out of it. They had an unbelievable shooting night, and I think a lot of that can kind of be attributed to us giving them a couple of easy looks early in the game. They’re NBA players, they’re good players, they got their confidence going and feel good about themselves the rest of the night. It makes the rim look a lot bigger. Give them credit.”
On run in fourth quarter:
“We just wanted to stay in the game and keep chopping away and keep working. Like I said, we were right there. For as well as they shot the ball and as poor as we were defensively at times, we weren’t even that bad defensively I don’t think. I’ll have to go watch the film, but they just made a lot of tough shots. We were telling each other, ‘Hey, we’re in this game if we put a couple stops together and make a few shots on the other end, we can make a run at it.’ And we did, and then, we went cold again. We couldn’t buy a bucket. That’s part of it. But we were right there in the game. We were telling each other that. There was no loss of our fight.”
On loss after winning 14 of 15 shorthanded:
"I don’t know. It’s the NBA. Everybody is banged up and tired. That’s part of what makes this such a great league is that endurance factor. Everybody’s got something they’re dealing with. We’ve been playing well. We’re starting to figure it out. We put a few games together. This is just one. I don’t think there’s any reason to overreact to it. I’m not going to call it, ‘We’re tired or fatigued, or we lost our edge.’ There’s no need to do any of that. It was one night. They had a great night, we didn’t and that’s all it comes down to."