See what the Brooklyn Nets had to say after their 111-89 win over the Charlotte Hornets.
STEVE NASH
On team pulling out of rut:
“Potentially. I mean, it was a good first step. You can’t pull yourself out of it without stringing together performances. So that’s one. We were sharp. We came out with great intensity to start the game, which we have not been doing lately, and I thought overall, it was a pretty confident performance.”
On keeping starters in game in fourth quarter:
“The starters, we went from 30 to 20 in about two minutes, so another two minutes and it might have been an eight-point game. I just wanted to make sure that we got the win. It’s a great experience for all of our guys to go through some of those things, ebbs and flows, but first, we need to get the win. DJ, I talked to him this morning. I said, ‘We’ve got to incorporate LaMarcus.’ He (DJ) may not play tonight. I didn’t want to throw him in, as a veteran, at the end of the game. And his spirit was great. I told him, DJ, if you play or not play, he’s got to stay ready and have a great attitude, and he’s bought in and tonight he had a terrific attitude and support for his teammates as we’re all trying to play for something bigger than ourselves and commit to one another. So I was really proud of him for accepting that.”
On Jordan's role in rotation:
“This is the thing we’ve been saying all year. Some things are going to come up. It just has every week this year. So he’s got to stay ready. Who knows when it might be? It might be Sunday. It might be in two weeks. But everyone has got to continue to prepare and stay ready and see what happens. Everyone other the top four or five guys has been in and out of the rotation this year. That’s just the nature of it. We’ve got a lot of centers, and we’re going to work through it and see what our rotation is going to be come playoff time. But everyone’s got to stay ready because everyone could play a role at some point in the regular season but also in the playoffs.”
KYRIE IRVING
On culture:
“I don’t know if everyone could have saw this vision a year ago, or two years ago. You know or just when it was the birth of an idea of what a place would look like with some guys in our league that we’ve played against. Guys in our league, we’ve played against each other for so long, and then now in one place, it’s unreal at times, a little surreal because we’ve all accomplished so much individually. But when we were looking at this thing, it was just a blank canvas, you know? We saw that Brooklyn already had something great going for a certain amount of years, and I’ve always been an incredible supporter of the New Jersey Nets and Brooklyn Nets and when you talk about culture, it doesn’t just happen overnight. You don’t just build a team in a week or in two weeks. You’ve got to make some major moves, and we made some major changes this year, and I just really want to say this, too: We don’t take anything for granted, either, because there were days when we were on other teams trying to build a championship culture on our own. We took on that role and it just wasn’t fitting with the guys, or whatever the case may be. You know how the NBA culture goes. If a team doesn’t get along, they’ll make up a whole bunch of things and here, we don’t want that bickering and all that nonsense in our locker room. We’re literally dedicated to performing the craft of basketball at a very high level for one another because we want to see each other win. I think we’ve all won enough individually. We’ve got a few champions on the team, but now we want to see others have that same championship level mindset, mentality, and then exemplify it. It’s one thing to just say it: Everybody has talks after games, let’s do this, but the culture that’s being built is that accountability, holding each other to that standard, and it’s not easy, bro. It’s never easy. You’ve got to get uncomfortable, and there are conversations that are uncomfortable, things that happen throughout, and you’ve just got to be able to be resilient and you’ve got to persevere. So we take care of what we have going on here in the locker room, and we build our culture, and it’ll define itself based on what we do as players and as a team, successfully.”
On getting full team healthy:
“It’s gonna come down to who survives this long journey that we have going on. Who’s going to be the most healthy towards the latter end of this journey if you’re blessed enough to make it there. We understand we have to make our way to the main stage. We don’t want to take any day for granted and we definitely don’t want to rush anybody back just to fill in a regular season void or anything like that. We just want everybody to be at the top their game as healthy and going against the best of the best. That’s what we’re focused on here. Whover we play at any point we’re just trying to be there for one another even when guys aren’t in the lineup, like I said. It’s crazy. It’s a crazy season. It’s a crazy season, so we’re just adjusting.”
On LaMarcus Aldridge:
“I think what’s always impressed me about LA is just his poise and being able to be a big body and just have that type of IQ where you have a big where you can throw it down to to slow the game down and able to make good decisions. He’s always been a threat down there in the post. I think he’s missed posting up, so when we’re throwing it down to him and teams are switching, it gives us great opportunities to swing the basketball, but also go through LA which slows he game down tremendously like I said and we’re able to pick apart the defense like that as well instead of just coming off pick and roll and just getting downhill.”
JEFF GREEN
On fast start to game:
“It felt great. That's what we look forward to each game and tonight we did just what we expected to do coming out the gate. We got stops, defense turned into offense and that's how we're able to get rolling. ”
On getting team out of rut:
“If coach Nash said we were in a rut, I believe him. We haven’t been playing our best basketball and we've been getting by with the talent that we have. But tonight, yes, did show showcase what we're able to do when we're focused on on the defensive end and with the energy that we have to bring night in night out. When we can do that and with the talent that we have, we can put ourselves in a good position to close out games and win games like we did tonight.”
On defense:
“It was a little bit everything. You add the communication and energy. The focus that we had. It was a little bit everything. ... You know, I think we just came in and we were prepared, we knew what we were up against on the back-to-back and a team that's been hot lately. And, you know, we just wanted to come out and try to be aggressive on both ends. And that's what we did.”