Rick Adelman Second Quotations

I don't know what happened in the second quarter. All of the sudden we just got stagnant and stopped doing things offensively, and then we got worse defensively while they took control of the game.

Obviously it was a real disappointing loss. We did very poorly offensively in the second quarter and just couldn't play well as a team. They got ahead of us and we couldn't get the stops to get into the game.

Obviously it was a real disappointing loss. We did very poorly offensively and in the second quarter we just couldn't play well as a team, Washington pretty much controlled the tempo.

In the second half, we didn't stop them. I have to give my guys credit. We had the chance to put it away. When it was tied with three minutes to go in the game, we didn't do what you have to do to win a game like this. We were impatient and we forced the issue and it cost us the game.

We were trying to make the spectacular play, and all we talked about at halftime was trying to make the simple play. I thought the first half we really forced a lot of things, and during the second half, we calmed down the ball pretty well.

It was huge for us going into halftime. Mike just carried us in the first half, then other guys came through in the second half. I don't know how (the Nets) felt about it, but it was huge for us.

We talked at halftime that this was a dangerous team if you let them get back in it in the third quarter, and that's exactly what we did. We just couldn't stop them in the second half. They shot over 70 percent. You're not going to win very many games giving that up.

Kenny came up huge in the end. He was the guy they were leaving open and he hit that one shot with a little bit of luck, then the second one was dead center and he hit the free throws.

We didn't make shots. We missed shots the whole second half. I thought we needed to change sides of the floor a little bit more. Execution wasn't there.

I just thought in the first quarter (that) we made a lot of mental mistakes defensively that we can't make against this team. And in the second quarter, they shot it so well that it just snowballed. We got very impatient offensively, and that just played right into their hands.

We couldn't stop them in the second half. Once they got going that's who they are. They spread the court and attack you. They are a dangerous team.

( Kevin Martin ) came in, he was aggressive and he made shots. If we're going to be successful, we're going to need those guys to step up off the bench. He really gave us a lift in the second quarter.