 way the nice night that Joe Harris had hitting eight three pointers. He ends up with 30 points. Let's hear from Joe. Hey Joe. Coach was talking about the game in totality and what he saw on defense is pretty much the culprit for the loss. So you know when you look at the defense what do you guys need to do to you know create more separation given the fact that you guys can score and maintain that separation. I mean I think we just in general gave up to me points in the paint. You know we're kind of let them get downhill almost that well. I mean they're either drawing vows or finishing at the rim. Well it's like a chance opportunities. And you know especially a team like this in our sort of coming into it we talked about just you know trying to force them to beat us over the top and we did definitely a good job of it. From your perspective you describe that that sequence late the bill three and then the end bound lead into what's three. Yeah. Obviously Brad hit a tough shot and then you know just a dumb mistake on my part. You know trying to get the ball out quick and get it to Kevin. And you know it's one of those things where he was cutting to the rim and I was kind of throwing the ball where I thought he was going to be going. And you know I had had a time out. Should have been more cognizant of it and just taking care of the ball. So you know definitely just a big mistake on my part. You know especially down the stretch like that those are timely possessions. And even though the defensive effort was great we still should have won this game. And a lot of it comes down to you know the time of the possessions at the end. Greg Logan with Newstay. Joe obviously we know the defense has been a problem an ongoing problem for a while. Let's look at the offense for a minute. 147 OKC 146 tonight. Both nights without one of your main stars. I mean what does that say about how good the offense is and is there because it's that good kind of a reliance on it to a feeling like you don't have to push as hard on defense. I mean I think we knew coming into the season even before we added James that you know we had a lot of offensive weapons and then you add James who's easily been one of the best offensive players in the game. You know the last whatever five six seven eight years. You know to go kind of plug in with the guys that we already have and you know we can score with the best of them. You know we could easily be sitting here at the end of the year and say we have one of the better offensive teams to play this game. But that being said you know the defense has to fall suit to you can't just always rely on the offense. And you know I guess nights like tonight you know are kind of indicative of that. Alex Schiffer with the athletic. Hey Joe you guys had that 18 point lead in the first quarter and obviously by the end of the day essentially chipped away at it completely just what what started to go wrong with you guys that let them let them do that. I think it was you know it's a game of runs first of all you know you see tons of runs over the course of the NBA season and you know tonight was no different but we just didn't capitalize you know I guess in terms of stalling what they had going on you know they got kind of got the momentum going there in the second quarter and it's sort of seemed to continue on from that point and you know we were never really able to get back to where we were at energy and momentum wise in that first quarter. Malika Andrews with ESPN. Joe both Kyrie and Steve have mentioned how they wanted to make sure that you knew that that inbound pass you know it wasn't this loss didn't come down to one play but do you internalize that can you say okay yeah this isn't my fault or is this something where you're like yeah I'm going to beat myself up a little on this one. Well I think it's definitely one of those things where obviously the outcome of the game never comes down to one play and we all know that but like I mentioned to Grady you know there's very timely possessions at the end of the game where you can secure and finalize things and that was sort of one of those those those plays where you know had I even just taken a time out you know we would have been able to get the ball at half court and able to get the ball in or at least you know turn it over at half court it's a lot more difficult for them to get a shot you know versus being underneath their own basket. So you know that being said yes you know it doesn't come down to one play but at the same time I mean had I not made it you know we wouldn't be sitting here talking about the loss. Christian Winfield with New York Daily News. I know along that same vein Joe you know had TLC made that layup you know this the outcome might be a little bit different so when a guy gets a clean look like that and he just misses it what's what's the message to keep him from being from being himself up and kind of being down on this one. I mean it's the same thing I think you have to kind of hit home on the same sort of sentiment where you know it doesn't necessarily come down to one play especially in that situation you know you don't want to put any pressure on somebody to make you know you could argue you're not going to we're not going to make excuses in terms of whether we thought it should be a call or whatever whatever it might have been but he shouldn't have been in that position in the first place you know you could say the same thing about me but we both were and we both didn't just you know capitalize on the opportunity. Last question Matt Brooks with Nets Daily. Hey Joe was this opponent just the way they you know grabbed off off misses and push out in transition did you feel like that was one of the keys to why you guys didn't play as well defensively or is it just a complete lack of focus altogether. I mean they're one of the better offensive teams in the NBA obviously they're one of the worst defensive teams so that's kind of why we have the result that we have but they have offensive firepower especially when Russ plays efficiently like he did tonight you know him and Brad are both capable of having really big nights which they did and everybody else you know kind of plugs in as well they have a lot of good offensive players and yeah just not enough stops in our part obviously a lot of times when you score you know what we scored tonight you're probably sitting pretty good and you're going to win the game but too many defensive miscues a lot of you know separate sort of runs where momentum got on their side and then you have the result that you have.