Avery Johnson Stretch Quotations

We've had some guys out for long periods of time. We've got to whip those guys back in shape. We're waiting on (Keith) Van Horn to come back, which we think he can come back in about a week to 10 days. Hopefully, that other series will stretch to seven games.

We played a very small stretch of decent basketball out of a 48-minute game. We've been defending the 3-pointer pretty well this year, but it didn't happen tonight. We pretty much know where we're going to finish now (the No. 4 seed).

The guys really tried to get T-Mac the ball. The ball just didn't go in. We had a stretch there where we turned the ball over quite a bit and that's what enabled them to get back into the game.

We seemed to have a lot of energy tonight. I gave them (two days) off and they gave me one back by responding with energy and concentration pretty much throughout the whole game. It's pretty rare for us to play that long of a stretch of good basketball.

A very disappointing loss. We played a short stretch there in the fourth quarter a little bit. But other than that, we didn't play well at all again tonight and that's what concerns me.

Dirk is playing tough. We had a stretch there where we kind of reverted back to our old selves and got jump-shot happy for six or seven possessions and I really got on them about that. But I will take this win any way we can get it.