On last night’s 117-111 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder:
Avery Johson: I challenged our team at half-time. I didn’t like our performance in the first half. We didn’t play like the Brooklyn Nets. We should win games when we score 111 points. Give our guys credit, they came out with more energy and focus and battled on the defensive end.
Deron Williams: I don’t think we can let a team like this shoot 60% in our building and have a chance. I know we did have a chance, but we got down early… I think 15 points, and we were pretty much playing uphill.
Avery Johnson: We were playing on our heels. I know our team. That wasn’t the team that I saw in Boston or in Orlando. That’s not the team that I saw against the Clippers. And sure, we’re missing some guys, but I didn’t see that look in our eyes. I saw that in the third quarter. I saw our team in the second half. But obviously against Oklahoma, you’ve gotta play more than a half.
Kris Humphries: (on playing center) I guard 4’s and 5’s. If i’m the only big guy out there we try to make it so I stay underneath the basket more and have everyone else rotate.
Jerry Stackhouse: You’d think somebody would have an off night, but none of their guys had an off night tonight. Our gameplan was to put more focus on their main two guys, leave (Thabo) Sefolosha open early to see if he could make a few shots and he did, so we were just on our heels all night. I wish we could’ve gotten the lead at some point to put some pressure on.
Joe Johnson: we made Sefolosha take a few shots early, which he made and adjusted our defense a bit.
Kris Humphries: They were getting the ball to their scorers … we put ourselves in a position to win that game, it was tough.
Avery Johson: Deron was aggressive. He spent a lot of time after practice shooting the ball. We gave him that extra day off to get his body together and it carried over to the floor. He shot the ball well. Deron was much more aggressive tonight and that’s what we needed.
Deron Williams: I just want to be aggressive, and not allow time to think or let bad thoughts get in my head. That’s why I was able to hit some shots.
Joe Johnson: I have to put more pressure on the defense by attacking and getting to the line. It’s unacceptable for me not to get to the line at least 6, 7 times a game. I’ll take the hit for that. We’ll get back to the drawing board, take a couple of days off and get ready for our next game.
Deron Williams: I think it’s been a problem, I’ve been not as aggressive as I should be. At points in the game I get aggressive, but then I’m out there passing the ball around, trying to make sure guys are in the right positions, and I forget about my own offense and become a little too unselfish.
Gerald Wallace: You have to be mentally prepared to shoot the open the shots. I felt like I missed some easy shots that I made in the first half. My teammates did a great job of keeping the confidence up.
Andray Blatche: We gotta bring our effort for four quarters. Not for three, not for two.
Deron Williams: It takes time. I think it’ll come together. I think Joe’s struggled with it at times, I think Brook’s struggled with it at times.
Joe Johnson: It’s not per se who’s guarding me. I just got into a rhythm and coach was going to me, regardless of who was guarding me.
Avery Johnson They put us in a bind. They got some really terrific scorers. They’re hard to get under control and they’re a good team, so give them credit. But I do give our guys credit.
Jerry Stackhouse: We gotta feel decent about it. I mean we don’t give ourselves a chance to win the game when you allow a team to shoot 60% from the floor. We had enough points tonight, but everybody on their team shot better than 50%. When you allow that to happen, it’s hard.
Kris Humphries: (On the close goaltend call) If not, it was as close as it could possibly be. I don’t know. I thought I pushed it into the backboard. Once they call it one way, they have to … it’s like football, to overturn it. One of the refs said it was as close as it could be. It’s all good. You look at a few plays going a different way, down 2 with the ball vs. 4. … Gotta get one Friday.
Avery Johnson: I thought Humphries did a great job of coming over and getting there. I have to look at it again, but boy that was a big one. That was a big one. But again, we weren’t even in that position in the first half. We were much more aggressive. We took charges. I thought we tried to make it difficult and crowd Durant, get in his space. …
Kris Humphries: I saw it in the arena but I didn’t get a good look.
Avery Johnson (On Stackhouse playing 30 minutes) We’re coming out of a stretch where we’ve played 9 games in 14 days. Especially beacuse the one game was rescheduled. So we (Stackhouse) need to get our legs back under us. Get some guys healthy.
Jerry Stackhouse: I didn’t even notice it. I feel fine.
Avery Johnson: No time to panic. We still have a very good club. Hopefully we’ll have Reggie back on Friday. We’ll see where Brook is in his rehab situation.
Deron Williams: We still fought. We had two of our best big men out, and that definitely hurt us. We stood in there, but like I said, 60% from the field is hard to get over.
Andray Blatche: Reggie is a major part. Missing him was big. He brings so much energy and so many second-chance shots. His defensive presence alone is amazing. Not having him was tough.
Gerald Wallace: I think we feel pretty good about ourselves. We played well being down two guys. We felt like we played lazy the first half, and we still had a chance at the end to win the ball game. We feel pretty good about this even though you don’t want to feel good about a loss, but we can see the positive sides on this.
Kris Humphries: A loss is a loss to us. We’re not the Nets of the past few years. No moral victories. We’re trying to win games.
Joe Johnson: It was a hard-fought game. Obviously we never want to lose here in Brooklyn. But we went down to a tough team.
Andray Blatche: It doesn’t feel good because of the loss, but I’m proud of our effort to fight back and give ourselves a chance to win.
Deron Williams: We’ve had some good wins but these last two kind of humble you. We still have a little bit of a ways to go.
Kris Humphries: We can’t go on losing streaks. That’s not what this year’s about.
