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 knew it was going to be a dogfight coming in here, playing against a well-coached team. That's the sign of a good team. ... We were kind of on our heels, but we kept battling. It was a gutsy performance by our team.
We kind of threw the first punch and kept on punching. We were fortunate enough to put together one of our better games of the (season).
We got so much going on around here, I don't look at that.
We are trying to win a championship. But we're in the first year of implementing a program.
We're going to win as a team. We're going to win when Dirk Nowitzki continues to move forward and Josh Howard and Erick Dampier and Jason Terry give the consistency I'm looking for.
We're disappointed with the way we finished the game. Our defense wasn't very good tonight. We gave up 65 points in the second half. We had a lot of things go wrong defensively.
You got to be able to go to guys one through 12. We're not afraid to go to D.A. (Darrell Armstrong). We're not afraid to go to D.J. It's a good positive.
Even the times we were in their face, they still seemed to make some shots. Our season is not over ... but we know where we are going to finish now. The only thing that really matters is to get guys healthy mentally and physically.
Everybody is asking me if I'm going to play Elton Brand 48 minutes because we play (the Clippers) Tuesday. No, none of that. Just spread out the playing time.
We seemed to have a lot of energy tonight. I gave them (two days) off and they gave me one back by responding with energy and concentration pretty much throughout the whole game. It's pretty rare for us to play that long of a stretch of good basketball.
We were fortunate to win for several reasons.
We were fortunate enough get some stops and play some tough, hard-nosed defense. This is the fifth win on a five-game road trip. We have been on the road eleven or twelve days and we played some pretty good defense against a team scoring 150, 120 and 115 points, so I am awfully proud of our guys.
Fifteen offensive rebounds...when did a Dallas team last do that. We put a lot of emphasis on that this year.
We just made a few shots and got going pretty well. I'm happy with our hustle, I'm happy with our play, but we're not world beaters.