Avery Johnson Second Quotations

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.

Our team is not playing enough of a 48-minute game and that's the disappointing thing. We know it's tough to win road games. This was a hot team team we were playing, give them credit. But you can't play 18-20 minutes of a second half and expect to beat any NBA team.

I thought this was a gutsy performance by our team. Cleveland really jumped out on us and put us in a big hole and our team responded in the second half. Our third quarter defense was pretty special.

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 struggled to guard Yao in the first half, but we made some adjustments and were much more physical in the second half. We were fortunate enough to hold him down then.

They made a run. They're a very good basketball team. The second half, they got it within two, and we just suggested 'stay tough-minded.' And we were able to get somewhat of a cushion.

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.

It's about having a second chance, ... There are a lot of people in there that survived. So you try to let them know that they survived for a reason and you still have a lot to give this country. And if you end up staying in the Dallas-Fort Worth community, you have a chance to be an asset to our community.

We had to get more physical on him in the second half.