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
When he's on his game and he's playing tough, hard-nosed defense and getting rebounds, getting some assists, guarding one of the better perimeter players and scoring, I'm a much better coach.
We thought we got our defense under us in the first half and kind of set the tone for the rest of the game. We had a little lull defensively in the third quarter, but they're a very good offensive basketball team and they weren't going to come out of the locker room lying down.
We got off to a good start in the first quarter and set the tone for the whole game. I thought our defense was pretty steady...we tried to contest as many shots as we could.
We were fortunate enough get some stops and play some tough, hard-nosed defense. This is the fifth win on a five-game road trip. We have been on the road eleven or twelve days and we played some pretty good defense against a team scoring 150, 120 and 115 points, so I am awfully proud of our guys.
We thought our first-quarter defense really set the tone. We worked on a lot of stuff this morning and we were fortunate to have some carry over.
We thought our defense and offense was good in the first half, but in the second we struggled. We had one turnover in the first and 10 in the second half. That is something we will take a look at.
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.
We really liked the way he played defense this summer and the way he was able to get us into some of our offense. I made a special trip to Utah (summer league) just to see him play.
They had a great start to the game. They came out and really tried to throw a knockout punch on us. Fortunately, we were able to withstand it, come back and get our defense set and play some pretty good defense against a high-scoring team in the second, third and fourth quarters.
That first-quarter defense probably was as good as I've seen in a long time. No matter who you do it to, when you hold a team to 10 points in a quarter, that's pretty special.
If the commissioner changed the schedule and you had to play three or four games in a row, championship teams still find a way to win. So we don't use tired as an excuse. We didn't deserve to win. We weren't very efficient offensively. And give their defense credit. They did a good job of limiting Dirk and Josh's looks late in the game. They have a lot of pride in their locker room.