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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SUNS v MAVERICKS

June 3, 2006

Avery Johnson

PHOENIX, ARIZONA: Game Six

COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Tonight, this was a really special win.
But first I want to just thank the Suns. They're a first-class organization. I thought they had an incredible year. Nash is just such a special player. I had to change my pick-and-roll coverages almost every other time in the court, and they've had a wonderful run, especially without Stoudemire.
But, again, man, this was a special night for us. We were so bad in the first half and so good in the second half. You're talking about the tale of two halves and the way we turned it on and from that middle of the third on into the fourth was incredible.
Really gotta take your hats off to Jason Terry. What an incredible come-back. What an incredible example of perseverance. Went to him in the second half. He had three fouls in three minutes, basically, in the first half. And Dirk came back, wasn't feeling too particularly good, couldn't practice yesterday, and, you know, these guys are just -- I can keep going on and on down the line. It's just been an incredible run.
So we're excited to be in the Finals, obviously. Nobody is ripping their shirts off or going too crazy, but they should celebrate. But we know we still have a lot of work ahead of us, because we came into this season with the idea of winning the championship.
Q. Coach, why did you decide to start Adrian in the second half and what did he provide for you guys tonight?
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: He just gave us that size. And Adrian started for us quite a bit this year. We kind of felt, if we were fortunate enough, you know, to get by the first round we needed to start Devin against the Spurs. And Devin just got on such a big roll coming into this series I thought maybe we'll start him against Phoenix. But he hadn't played particularly well this series. He had an okay first half, but we needed to get some size out there.
And we thought it would give Nash an opportunity to play more defense on Terry, or if he tried to guard Griffin we would go big, but this game turned around because we decided to take the ball to the basket.
We were settling for too many jump shots, believe it or not we think we're more of an inside-out team, whether it's posting up or penetration. We're not a jump-shooting team anymore.
So glad we took the ball to the basket, and just really excited, excited for Mark Cuban, who is definitely our number one fan, and loyal faithful supporter.
Q. Avery, did that second half, that third quarter kind of -- was that a microcosm of the season how you guys fought and did it defensively, that's kind of what you --
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: We did it what? Defensively? We're not a defensive team. Defensively, wow, that's pretty new. I think it was great the way we turned up our defense. We got some steals in there. We created some turnovers, and guys were just active.
And, again, we're a team that normally doesn't have a really good third quarter. But we were fortunate enough to have a good third quarter. Not so much offensively but defensively except for them getting some baskets at the end of the game when the game was over, I'm probably as proud of our second half defense as I've been all year, especially under the circumstances.
Q. Avery, before you became coach, was an offensive running gun team, now with the defensive philosophy you have, is the transition complete now from running gun to more defensive team?
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: I think overall it is. Again, we took over a team, you know, Coach Nelson laid a really good foundation here for years. But we took over a team that had lost in the first round.
Then we lost in the second round last year, and we added the right pieces. We added Jason Terry and Erick Dampier and Stackhouse and Devin Harris last year which was critical, and some of those guys had never been to the playoffs.
Then we asked DeSagana Diop and Adrian Griffin, who if we didn't have those two guys, you probably wouldn't be talking to me. You would be talking to another coach.
So I think those six players in the development of Marquis Daniels and Josh Howard, who is playing on an all-star level right now, to go along with Dirk, it's really been nice for us, and we added Van Horn last year, who, you know, who we think still have another level to go to.
So I like the way we've pieced together this team, and it was definitely with the intention of trying to be flexible enough to play fast, slow.
We feel we have different styles, and we can play against teams with different styles.
Q. Coach, everybody, both teams were having some foul trouble beginning in the second half -- or first half and second half. Talk about obviously the depth, how much that helped you guys and also the resiliency of this team?
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Yeah, our depth has been key this year, because I sound like a worn-out record, but we were injured quite a bit this year. Only Dirk and Damp and Jason Terry a little bit were our staples, everybody else was in and out of the rotation the whole year and to still win 60 games with DeSagana Diop, who had never played in the league in four years, and Griff, and it was incredible.
So it shows the resilience of our team. We thought, we talked about it at half time. I put four threes on the board, and they were wondering what that was. But I told them that was the guys, Tim Thomas and Diaw, all those guys had three fouls. They thought I was going to say some rocket science stuff.
Q. Now looking ahead, Avery, what's it going to take for you guys to finish this thing?
COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Again, we're playing against a team that's a really hot basketball team right now, a team we've only played them two times this year. And obviously Coach Riley is doing a wonderful job, Hall of Fame coach and played in the league. So he's seen it both ways.
And, you know, Shaq and Wade, and they're great and they're supporting casts, I think were Posey and Gary Payton and Jason Williams and all those guys, I think those guys has really been a key to their season.
So we respect our opponents. You come into this season, nobody, nobody had Miami and Dallas in the Finals. If you did, you won a lot of money.
But everybody had two other teams, and we just felt we had a chance, and we weren't getting the respect, but I think people respect a little bit more what we're doing now.
But, again, we signed up to win the championship. We're delighted to be there. But, again, we're not satisfied.

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