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 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.
That was one of the reasons why we won that first quarter, ... Doug was running the offense a lot of the time, and his on-the-ball defense is always good.
We thought we had it won in regulation. Carmelo made a tough shot. If we had to do it all over again, we probably would have fouled.
We are fortunate to get out of here with a victory. Both teams played some really awesome defense and we just couldn't get our offense in gear in the second half. This is another game that we proved to ourselves that we can win basketball games with our defense. I don't know if we would have won this game in the past. Now we are a different team.
The reason we won the game tonight is because of the fans. They are the reason we won the game tonight. They stayed with us the whole game. Nobody was booing or questioning the players. I can go on and over and over about the game, but thank you fans.
It's nothing about me. If we're fortunate enough to be a part of that situation, it just shows that the guys that play for the Mavericks won some games and we're in the heat of the race. It's no goal of ours. It's a nice honor if something like that were to happen.
I thought Damp (Erick Dampier) really shut down a lot of their penetrations in the fourth quarter. He got a couple of blocks, rebounds and I thought he was the reason we won the game.
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 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.