Avery Johnson Teams Quotations

Very few teams go there. I think that's a great accomplishment. In our league, and in the Western Conference particularly, 50 wins means a lot.

I love coming back here with all the great memories I have here and great friends. And everywhere you go, there's always somebody that talks about some of the teams I played on. And because of the hurricane, I got a lot of family that lives here.

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.

We thought we were pretty good defensively, for the most part, against one of the tougher teams in the Western Conference. We knew we had to be physical.

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.

I think the Mavericks -- our team -- we've kind of forgotten who we are as basketball team and what made us successful. It wasn't shots on the offense. It wasn't holding the ball. We've kind of looked like some of our old teams with one guy pounding the ball instead of ball movement and player movement. We haven't been physical. Is that because we've been fatigued? I don't know. I know we've been a step slow. I can see that -- mentally and physically. We just need to get back to being who we are, and I think that will give us a better chance to win some of these games.

I think any of the teams at the top, I think they should have at least multiple people on it. I think with our situation, I would have liked to have seen Josh (Howard) or (Jason) Terry, just somebody else besides Dirk on it because I think they should be rewarded.

I'm so happy we went through that little period, because it seems to have brought our team closer together. Nobody pointed fingers. At the same time, we played against some really good basketball teams that were really hot.

We feel fortunate to get out of here with a victory. Both teams played awesome defense. I don't know if we win this game in the past. Now, we're a different team.

Three games in four days, playing teams below .500, above .500, it really doesn't matter at this point. Everybody's got schedule stuff. The schedule is not a problem. We haven't played well since the All-Star break, all right? We have not played well since the All-Star break.

We have guys watching all of the teams we can possibly play against, logging the miles, flying across the country. I think over-preparation is a good thing.

This series is not over. We've been in that position (down 0-2) before and we have a lot of respect for what they do throughout the game and see why they are one of the top teams in the Western Conference.

Teams change lineups all the time. We're not a championship team where we're bringing back five (starters). We're still searching.

Teams are coming in here dropping 30-some points on us in the first quarter. We've been digging ourselves in a hole, so I'll continue to work on finding the right formula to help get us off to better starts. Maybe I won't call timeouts as quick as I used to. We'll have to do something.

It's a natural, because we still have to play some of those teams in the regular season. So we're pulling double duty.

These two teams have a lot of pride. Memphis doesn't back down from anybody, and it has not played its best game yet.

I love it. I wish we could play the last 20 games like this because I really want to try to go into the playoffs playing at a high level. But you can't play at a high level when you're playing against teams that don't really have anything to play for.