That's What He Said - Celtics @ Nets

That's What He Said


Celtics 110 vs. Nets 91
Barclays Center - March 23, 2015


Brad Stevens
RE: Evan Turner's recent stretch of play:

He knows how to play and every night he fills the box score anyways – maybe not to that level. He was really good with the ball tonight. He was making great decisions off of the pick and roll. He was aggressive from the start. He had a tough assignment in Joe Johnson to start the game. He did a pretty good job with him, although we had Jae Crowder on him the rest of the game after that. He’s a good player. We need everyone to play well, and he played well tonight.

RE: The game:

I was just really pleased with how we responded to losing a tough one last night and then not playing great the first six minutes of this game. We responded, and the guys pulled for each other and it was galvanizing to see the ball go in for a couple of them. I thought the turning point in the game was when Phil Pressey came in and the pressure he put on the ball. Along with our other players, I thought it was our defense that was ratcheted up in that second, third and fourth quarters. Every game is so unique, and this is a hard league. You have to play all the way through the game regardless of what the score is. It was great to go up 16. Brooklyn cut it to five, and we go back up 15. Bottom line is it doesn’t matter if you win by 16 or win by one. You just try to get the result you want. I was encouraged by our play in responding.


Evan Turner
RE: His triple-double:

The offense definitely started clicking. I’ve been able to earn minutes and play and I’ve been able to play in situations that I’ve been comfortable in and that’s been working well for me.

RE: If he knew he was close to a triple-double in the fourth:

No, I heard a guy in the crowd, me and Tyler (Zeller) we’re talking and he was like, ‘Zeller give Evan one more rebound don’t touch that ball’ and he was like, ‘I guess you’ve got a triple-double’. So, I boxed somebody out to go get the ball and that’s what occurred.

RE: If Boston's offense allows him to succeed:

I think that, along with playing with the ball in my hands. Once again, I grew up playing with the ball in my hands and it’s been more advantageous for me and that’s why I got drafted so high; I was playing the situation. Once again, my teammates made a lot of shots and a lot of great plays and they made me look better.

RE: What helped turn the game around:

Their offense rebounded really well and I think we had a couple of miscues rebounding and stuff. That’s the biggest thing, we’re great on first shot defense, but the second and third went offensive rebounds and that’s what killed us.

RE: If Boston's spacing helps his game:

Yeah, I mean that definitely helps. We have a lot of spacing and when you have guys making shots, it opens up the paint and when you have big men like Zeller who can shoot, Kelly Olynyk, and Brandon Bass, it’s a scary thing because you have to worry about a lot of people. If you draw two, they’re wide open and they’re great shooters.


Jae Crowder
RE: Boston's approach to offense:

We want to get back to the basics and play team ball and get the ball moving. Finally guys got it going, and we kept trying to get to the ball and make plays. We’re just trying to get back to the basics.

RE: If he is confident about the Celtics' ability to respond to adversity:

Oh for sure because we have been in rough stretches before and we’ve been successful, so I don’t see what the difference is between doing it now and coming in with a three game losing streak. I feel like we were destined to try to get this win.

RE: How his team turned the game around:

I feel like we got stops when we needed to. We knew that they were going to get on a roll. We were physical with them and tried to pull at them on defense and not worry about offense and it worked out for us.


Lionel Hollins
RE: Brooklyn's biggest issue:

Well, first of all, I’ve said before that we don’t match up with them very well. We haven’t in preseason. In regular season we beat them once up there. We had to come from 10 down to do it. But I’m not disappointed in the way our effort was, I’m disappointed in the loss. I’m disappointed that we couldn’t make shots, but that’s part of the game. We scrambled, we battled. We did as well as we could do shooting as poorly as we were shooting. We hung around in the offensive rebounds and points in the paint. But, ultimately, we couldn’t stop them and we couldn’t score. We’ve been at this point with them before – late third quarter they go on a run, close game and they blow it out and we can’t fight back. That’s how the ball bounces, the cookie crumbles.

RE: The Nets' offensive struggles:

Well, they’re quick and they will recover but we had open shots. Not all of them were contested. Jarrett (Jack) had two or three wide open. Bojan (Bogdanovic) had two or three wide open. Jarrett, Alan (Anderson), Deron (Williams) – when you look at our perimeter guys, the starting perimeters were 6-for-19 and then the perimeters coming off the bench were 6-for-32. So that’s 12-for-51. You can’t get a dime and you can’t make shots like that. They also took away as the game went on. They took away our ability to get inside. We did some stuff with Brook (Lopez) and the pick and roll. When we would try to go to Brook, we weren’t as effective as it was with the pick and roll. We just didn’t have a lot working for us offensively, so we couldn’t keep up with them. We had trouble matching up with them on offense.

RE: Trouble defending the pick and roll:

Well, they had a small guy in the pick and roll, and they had a big guy who could pop back and shoot threes. So they would go off the small and he’d run away, and the big would go to the basket or he was popping back. They hit a couple of shots that way. Then, when you try to help, the guy got around the show man and drove the basket and laid it over you. It’s a combination. It’s a good play. They’ve hurt us with it in Boston when they had (Rajon) Rondo. They ran the same play down the stretch, and we had trouble defending it. It’s a tough play, and they have people who are perfect for the play.

RE: Brooklyn's penchant for losing at home:

It’s not about figuring it out. You go out and compete and play hard and see what happens. Score more points than the other team more often in more games and we’ll improve. Frustrated is a strong word. I don’t like that word. I’m disappointed that we haven’t won more at home. We’ve got a chance here starting after we go on this trip tomorrow and play. I think we have 10 more home games and see what we can do. Each game is different. It’s unfortunate that we don’t. There are a lot of theories. I have my own theory, but I’m not sharing. Hopefully we can turn it around.


Brook Lopez
RE: If this was a deflating loss:

Yeah, it was tough. You know, I think it just came down to us not knocking shots down – and they did. I thought we shot ourselves in the foot early in the second half. They took three pretty quick ones, and their lead extended, but we’ve got pretty much the same situation coming up in Charlotte, so we can do it over again.

RE: Boston's defense:

They read us well and took whatever we didn’t take away.

RE: Why the Nets struggle at home:

I don’t know. It’s bizarre. I don’t know. It’s the way it is right now. You know, I’m not going to discredit us. I thought we were out there fighting, putting in a good effort. It just didn’t go our way tonight.


Joe Johnson
RE: Having trouble guarding the pick and roll:

It just depends on the team. I think you’ve got to give Boston a lot of credit. The big guys that they have were just flat out shooting and they shot the ball well tonight from the three, so it was tough for us tonight.

RE: How much this loss stings:

It hurts because obviously we wanted to come out. We wanted to win this game. We understand where we are, and to keep climbing this is a game that we had to be better. I thought we had two great wins, but for whatever reason, other than the first quarter, we were just flat the rest of the game.

RE: Brooklyn losing momentum after the first quarter:

Obviously it was tough tonight. We have no excuses. You’ve got to give Boston some credit. They played great. They were well-prepared and they were the better team tonight.

RE: If the Nets were just missing shots or if the Celtics' defense was too tough to overcome:

A little bit of both. I thought they were closing out hard, but we had a lot of open looks that we made in the past, and that we’ve made of late, but we just could not knock down shots for whatever reason.




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