Avery Johnson
Avery Johnson
Avery Johnsonis an American basketball coach who is currently the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball team. Johnson spent 16 years in the National Basketball Association as a player, and subsequently served as the head coach of two NBA teams: the Dallas Mavericks and New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets. He led the Mavericks to their first NBA Finals appearance and to three consecutive 50+ win seasons. During his playing days, Johnson was known as the "Little General" for his...
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth25 March 1969
CityNew Orleans, LA
We had some good moments of team defense, but there's nothing really to get too excited about, ... I thought the big guys really tried. They're making a conscious effort to improve.
We battled, we fought - this was a playoff atmosphere. We wish we would have been able to match their intensity down the stretch, but we didn't.
Yao is playing some awfully good basketball. I had a firsthand look at him during All-Star Weekend, and he looked to be moving pretty good. Obviously he's a big focus of our defense.
We're excited to get out of here with a win. Those guys play physical, and they play hard.
We stepped up big defensively in the fourth quarter. We were fortunate to get away from them.
We don't like losing one in a row. You can only imagine how two in a row feels.
He's out for an extended period of time. We've lost an important part of our rotation.
He's our guy who penetrates and gets to the basket. We definitely don't want any hesitancy there. The goal is to get him as healthy as we can for the playoffs.
He's proven he can go two weeks and jump out there and do something, but as we get closer toward the end of the season, I'd like to try to plug him in here and there. You can't expect him to always get out there and be Superman.
Devin Harris probably had his best day, really, of the preseason, including practices.
Are they tired of what? What have we done? It's a hundred days to the Finals right now. This is what the NBA season is about. It's not about having three days off between a game or anything like that. This is the nuts and bolts of the NBA season. Your body doesn't feel as good, you fight a little fatigue, you have some injuries and nobody cares about injuries.
I love it. I wish we could play the last 20 games like this because I really want to try to go into the playoffs playing at a high level. But you can't play at a high level when you're playing against teams that don't really have anything to play for.
I'm sure that we're going to see everybody against Dirk, like we have the other four games.
I'm very disappointed. I've spoken to the league, and I can't get into details on what was said. I can't even find the words. I've appealed to the league about their judgment. I've seen a whole lot worse.