November 14, 2012, Cleveland Cavaliers-Brooklyn Nets notebook for Metro Newspaper in NYC
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Avery Johnson.
The Nets’ season is five games old, but that doesn’t matter much
to Avery Johnson, who believes the Nets have room for improvement.
“Are we embracing some of our concepts? Are we doing a better job of
knowing the individual strengths of our opponents? A little bit. But
after five games — especially playing the same team twice — in a 48-hour
period, we’re not there yet. We still have some work to do,” Johnson
said in his pregame press conference Tuesday night at the Barclays
Center.
Johnson stressed lead management as the primary concern.
“We’ve had two 20-point leads at home [but] we haven’t managed them
well,” Johnson said. “We have to figure out a way to hold leads.
Sometimes just having a lead early in the game and going away from the
reason why you had those leads — whether it is tough defense, ball
movement [or] setting good screens. We just have to do that more
consistently.”
Not taking Cavs for granted
Prior to the season, the expectations for the Cavaliers were to be one
of the NBA’s weaker teams. And entering last night’s game, the Cavs had a
2-5 record and were the league’s third-worst defensive team having
allowed on average 103.4 points per game.
So did the Nets expect an easy night? Not quite.
“We’re not on a level where we can take anything or anybody for
granted,” Johnson said. “We have to play as close to a full game as
possible to win any of these games. For us, there’s a responsibility
that goes along with it. It’s a greater level of responsibility. It’s
what we all said where we wanted to be. Now we have to have the
appropriate response. That is getting off to good starts, paying very
close attention to detail and the game plan, and moving the ball on
offense.”
The Cavs’ best player is second-year point guard Kyrie Irving, but
Johnson pointed to the quartet of rookie guard Dion Waiters, reserve
guard Daniel Gibson and big men Tristan Thompson and Anderson Varejao as
players the Nets must neutralize.
“It’s not just Kyrie. Waiters is a good-looking young player; he can
score. He can shoot the ball. He’s a good passer. Gibson is kind of in
the same mold as what we saw in the last two games with [Orlando Magic
guard J.J.] Redick. He runs all over the place; he can make threes,”
Johnson said. “Their big guys inside, they gave us some problems last
year with their physicality. If we’re not ready to put on our hard hats
against Thompson and Varejao, then we’re going to be in trouble. We have
to be physical with those guys. The worst thing we can do with this
team is give them second shots.”
Notes
The Nets will serve Thanksgiving dinner today at St. John’s Bread and
Life in Bedford-Stuyvesant. … The Nets starting five was named to the
NBA’s All-Star ballot, the league announced earlier in the day. … Small
forward Gerald Wallace and sixth man MarShon Brooks were inactive for
the game. Both have been recuperating from left ankle sprains. Wallace
hasn’t played since the season opener on Nov. 3 and Brooks has missed
the last three games.
Follow Nets beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.
Follow Nets beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.
http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/1156189--nets-notebook-avery-johnson-pushing-improvements
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 3:45 PM
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