Avery Johnson provided his thoughts Tuesday morning on Game 2 coming up at 6 p.m. from the New Orleans Arena. The Hornets lead the best-of-7 series 1-0.
"Early on I'd like to see us get some stops and run, hopefully get the ball to the basket, score some points in the paint," Johnson said. "I'd like to see us do a much better job than what we did on Chris Paul, individual defense, team defense; I'd like to see us do a better job on the boards and just -- I thought we had a lot of enthusiasm to start the game, we just couldn't sustain it."
So how does your veteran team sustain a high level of play against a young and hungry Hornets team?
"More than anything, our offense keys a lot of what we do defensively, we've just got to have better ball movement. We have to be in attack mode," Johnson said. "You can't be in attack mode for 24 or 26 minutes of a playoff game. At this point of the season you've got to be playing 38 to 42 minutes of attack basketball and hopefully we'll get there tonight."
Johnson shied from any talk about must-wins, unlike some his players did for Game 1 and Game 2, knowing it's early in the series and the Mavs are headed home for Games 3 and 4.
"I think this game is a very winnable game if we play right and play longer than we did the first game," Johnson said. "If we can do that we'll have a shot at winning. But, whatever happens, win or win, you know, we'll have a shot at the next one."
-- Jeff Caplan
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