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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: SUNS v MAVERICKSMay 26, 2006Avery JohnsonDALLAS, TEXAS: Game Two COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Tonight, obviously it was a good win for us overall. We'll take it. We had some pretty good performances from a couple of individuals. Obviously having Howard back tonight meant a lot to us on both ends of the floor. Diop coming off the bench giving us a big lift was huge for us. Stack in the second half was good. Diop made a couple of key contributions for us and Dirk is playing on an MVP type of level. But we still have another level to go to. Not really excited about how we finish the game, and we, you know, unfortunately, lost one game here at home. But we'll keep getting better and better as this series go on. It's a seven-game series and we won Game 2. They won Game 1. That's pretty much what's going on here. So we'll get back to work in Phoenix. And hopefully have some energy and be able to compete with them on their court. Q. Coach, if you can talk about Howard specifically on how he was able to stay as aggressive as he was, despite that ankle? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Well, he was really attacking the basket and he mixed in his three ball at the right time. He took the ones that were there. And he just mixed in his game. And obviously when he mixes in his game like that, we're a much better team. We had a much better tempo because he was in the game and that helped us out offensively to have kind of our tempo. Q. In the first quarter you were trailing and you went on a 15-2 run. Did it seem like Marion's legs were kind of tired or what did you say to Dirk to take him? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: No, I don't know. Shawn Marion is a great player. We haven't been able to guard him too well. And we still haven't solved Diaw. But again we made some stops when we needed to get some stops. They went on a tremendous run in the second quarter and we were really discouraged by the run they went on. But that's going to happen against this team sometime. So, again, I thought defensively we took a little bit more of a challenge. We're still not quite where I want us to be. But obviously I'm feeling better about winning one than I would have 0-2. We're a good home team we have home court advantage in this series and all we have to do is keep grinding it out, grinding it out, see if we can play well in Phoenix. Q. Going in did you know that Diop was going to be a big factor or did you just like what you saw from him in the first quarter? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: I didn't know he was a factor like that because the pace of the game is so quick, but we were able to get him in positions where he could get back on defense and we covered for him, we didn't cover for one another. They had a layup drill. It was like the first game they were playing against themselves, you know. It was five Suns out there on the court and no Mavericks. And that was really disappointing. So we had some Mavericks in most of the plays tonight, which I thought was a key for us at least to try to make it difficult on him. Q. Avery, obviously starting without either center in the lineup you were going small. Did Diop's play dictate you left him in more for the pick-and-roll? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Yes, again, this team burns any team that plays big 5s. They've been doing it all year. It's not just us. And hopefully now I can stop getting all of those stops, how to stop Steve Nash messages from my concern people. Nobody solved Steve Nash. All right. You watched him play against us. Any of the top four or five teams in the league have had trouble guarding this team. It's no easy task, okay. So we're mixing things up. And we were embarrassed by our defensive performance in the first game. We still haven't quote, unquote, solved anything yet. But again I thought we had a better effort overall. Dirk made some tremendous plays in the fourth quarter. Q. Does it seem as though Diop has settled into this game or is there other couple levels that he has to go to? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: Yeah, he's getting better. He's a young player. Fortunately I guess since he had some rest in the first game since the coach decided not to play him. I guess he was trying to prove a little point that he wanted to play a little bit more. So we need his interior defense, because when they get to the basket we gotta have somebody back there sometime that can have a chance at getting the block for us. Q. Avery, you said that you can't stop Steve Nash, yet he only put up one field goal attempt in the second half, why do you think that was? What were you doing? COACH AVERY JOHNSON: We were just trying to contain him. And I think the guys who were on him took a little bit more of a one-on-one challenge and tried to contain him. And fortunately, you know, some of his shots didn't fall. But I think guarding Barbosa tonight was just as important as guarding Nash, because the last time Raja Bell was out Barbosa had a career night if I remember. So it's not just Nash. Nash obviously is the head of the snake, but Barbosa and Diaw and Marion and Thomas, they make Nash better just as much as he makes them better. So we gotta just do a better job of containing him. They still got away from us in a couple of situations. So, again, now we got two games on film. And we can continue to try to adjust and evaluate.
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