We outscored them by 10 (in the third quarter), but that’s why I always talk about first quarters. When we get off to that type of start like we got off to tonight, historically we will make a furious run and get it close, but then we will run out of gas because we are down by so many points. Our guys battled, they fought, we had much better quarters in the second, third, and fourth quarters, but we just couldn’t get over the hump.
–Avery Johnson
It’s unfortunate. It’s very unfortunate. They had an advantage. We’d have been better off playing in Madison Square Garden. I like their rims better.
–MarShon Brooks, on the pro-Knicks crowd
(The crowd)’s been like that all year. I’ve been in the league so long that it doesn’t really affect me. It affects some of the other guys on the team, but we just gotta block that out. It’s not like it just started happening. Just gotta play like we do on the road. It’s a road game.
–DeShawn Stevenson, on the pro-Knicks crowd
Yeah, It’s all right. I tried to get over a screen and got caught. But I’m all right.
–DeShawn Stevenson, on his wrist
I love this game, so I want to play. Unless I absolutely have to sit on the sideline and watch the game, I don’t want to watch. don’t watch basketball at home. I don’t want to watch, I want to play. If I’m not playing, then I’d rather do something else. As long as I have the opportunity to play, I want to play. That’s my main thing. There’s no rush, I know my body, I’ve been in the league for 11 years. It took me a while to figure it out, but feel I know my body now and what it takes for me to get back healthy, and I felt like I was ready to go. … I feel good. I feel better now than I did when I was watching the last couple of games. I get more tired watching them than I do playing.
–Gerald Wallace
You must’ve forgotten, I was in Charlotte for seven years. The first three years, every team we played it felt like we were in their city. That’s not a big thing. I’m kinda used to that. … We never got booed, I don’t know what that was all about. They’re a playoff team, and we’re not so obviously they’re going to have more fans, and their fans are going to be more energetic.
–Gerald Wallace
If it was up to you, would you have missed any-
GW: No.
-An exchange with Gerald Wallace
