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 didn't want him to play 40, but he felt pretty good and he looked OK.
I think the Mavericks -- our team -- we've kind of forgotten who we are as basketball team and what made us successful. It wasn't shots on the offense. It wasn't holding the ball. We've kind of looked like some of our old teams with one guy pounding the ball instead of ball movement and player movement. We haven't been physical. Is that because we've been fatigued? I don't know. I know we've been a step slow. I can see that -- mentally and physically. We just need to get back to being who we are, and I think that will give us a better chance to win some of these games.
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.
This is the best he's looked in the last couple of days. Hopefully, we can get in a good practice in Utah, and then we'll see how he looks.
We looked like we were a little tired. But our guys have been battling. I'm on the train with them, whether it gets rocky or not. Right now we are just sputtering.
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.
We just wanted to make sure we were on the same page. We're still firm that they're not going to come back until they're ready. And they're not ready. We probably won't have them back in the next game or two.
We just had to make some points about it. We've got to play our best basketball to win Game 1.
We were lethargic physically and mentally. We didn't show up. We didn't have that juice that we normally have off the bench.
We won it with our defense, which gave me some ammunition. We didn't score much in the fourth quarter, but neither did they. To hold them to 18 points, that's the only way we could win.
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.