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
What a great young player. You turn over No. 6, and there's Tony's No. 9. But he's better, he's quicker, and just a terrific player. He and Timmy (Duncan) just make a great one-two punch. He plays the game the right way. He sticks to what he does very well, and I'm looking forward to coaching him on All-Star weekend.
Our team is not playing enough of a 48-minute game and that's the disappointing thing. We know it's tough to win road games. This was a hot team team we were playing, give them credit. But you can't play 18-20 minutes of a second half and expect to beat any NBA team.
Our first quarter defensively really set the tone. We worked on a lot of stuff this morning. They (Atlanta) missed a lot of shots but the defense was better than it was in that last game (against Golden State). We just threw out that last game.
You just play it out, because you're just trying to win as many games as you can. Wherever you land in the playoffs, you've got to go out and play anyway. I just couldn't see myself doing anything but giving 1,000 percent on the sideline.
We feel fortunate to get out of here with a victory. Both teams played awesome defense. I don't know if we win this game in the past. Now, we're a different team.
We haven't done anything. We can win 30 games in a row and what does that mean?
Three games in four days, playing teams below .500, above .500, it really doesn't matter at this point. Everybody's got schedule stuff. The schedule is not a problem. We haven't played well since the All-Star break, all right? We have not played well since the All-Star break.
These two teams have a lot of pride. Memphis doesn't back down from anybody, and it has not played its best game yet.
I'm going to stop saying every time we have games like this that I failed. I've been waiting 79 games to get some internal leadership. I haven't gotten it yet.
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.
It was not a flawless game ... but I thought we were a little bit more aggressive and our aggression paid off.
It's not even so much 2-0 for us, it's just trying to play this game like there's no tomorrow. When we do that, we seem to play better, we seem to play more focused, and that's the only way you can play against Memphis.
Eight out of the 10 guys in our rotation were in a quote-unquote insurmountable situation last year when we played against Houston. For us, that's something that's sunk in, that we talk a lot about. We've got some guys who know how to respond. Is this game any bigger than Game 3 in Houston last year? ... I don't think so.
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).