Maurice Cheeks Shots Quotations

He can move and come off screens. He's a different type player because he has the ability to step back from three-point range and make shots and he has the ability to drive to the basket. He's a bigger Allen (Iverson) with his ability to shoot. He shoots deeper than Allen. His ability to get to the basket is in the same form of Allen because he looks to attack, attack, attack.

Pierce thrives in those situations. He looks forward to his team being down so he can take the big shots and make the big shots.

Kobe makes shots like that. We kept saying they were incredible shots and they were incredible shots for most people, but with Kobe I don't think they were incredible because he does things like that on an every-day basis.

I think after a while, after we start missing the easy shots, I think we start pressing a little bit and trying to make up for the easy shots that we missed and we just continued to miss. At one point I remember looking at the clock when we had 33 points and I don't remember the next time we scored. Then, the same thing happened in the third quarter when we just could not make a shot.

I thought down the stretch of the game, when we needed those two guys to score the points, that?s what they did. That?s what they have to do. We got to the penalty at a certain point, Allen continued to drive the ball, and Chris had wide open jump shots because of it.

We didn't drive the ball like we did in the first half. We shot all jump shots and that allowed them back in the game and eventually win the game because we didn't continue doing the things we were doing.

We shot more jump shots than I would like, that?s for sure.

The zone hurt us quite a bit. We couldn't get any shots; we couldn't get any dribble penetration. We didn't make any shots and certainly our defense was not up to par.

Deng Gai did a great job, clogging up the middle, being a defensive stopper, and blocking shots when we needed.

Our defense is a lot better with Sam in the game, because he can block shots and rebound the ball. They're a jump-shooting team, with the exception of Harrington. We just have to get better in all areas defensively.

First of all, New Jersey is a very good basketball team. We're working our way back. We started out good and they started making some shots. Vince (Carter) made some shots and our defense still has to get better.

They shot almost 59 percent. We always talk about giving up jump shots and that's really what they beat us at; a jump shot game. That's their game, pushing the ball up the floor, taking advantage of mismatches, and doing the things they do.

Every time you're in an NBA game, a team is going to make a run and they're going to make some shots at some point. Early on they missed a lot of shots, which allowed us to get the lead that we had.

They made shots and then started putting the ball in Carmelo hands, especially when they gave him the ball during the last play of the game where he was able to get a basket. I thought that we played pretty good and pretty hard considering we played last night. Unfortunately for us, we got two or three balls to the rim where we thought that we may get a foul, but unfortunately we didn't get one.

We missed easy shots and they got opportunities on the other end.