 Just last night you were saying about how you guys needed to set the tone and bring the effort in the first five minutes How proud are you of the way you guys responded on the second half of a back-to-back? Incredibly proud, you know, especially for a regular season matchup against You know a team that's Positioned very well in the Eastern Conference and has been playing well As of late, so I think it was a great test Just to be out just to be able to go out there and see where we were, you know a few guys out we got a Welcome home type of performance from Lamarcus tonight in terms of starting in for DJ But I think we showed our depth tonight as well Just being able to fill in guys and guys playing extremely hard. You know, we had that effort so to match You mentioned Lamarcus. I know you guys all have a high basketball IQ You know the right way to play understand the game He hasn't been out there for a month What it would impress you about what he showed tonight? I Think what's always impressed me about LA is just his poise and being able to be a big body and just have You know that type of IQ where you have a big where you could throw it down to to slow the game down And able to make good decisions, you know, he's always been a threat down there in the post and and You know, I think he's missed posting up So when we're throwing it down to them and teams are switching it gives us great opportunities to You know swing the basketball, but also go through LA Which slows the game down tremendously like I said and we're able to pick apart the defense like that as well Instead of just coming off pick and roll and just getting downhill. We're able to just throw it to himself Greg look Tuesday Kyrie to follow up on that there was a stretch in the second quarter where He either scored or assisted on 15 straight Nets points that kind of supports what you're seeing about his Intelligence and throwing it out of the post to open shooters How exciting is it to think about the potential of this team with a weapon like that when you get everybody back healthy? Well, shoot. I I'd rather not think about it I'd rather just go out there and have everybody out there playing but um, you know in due time all Remaining patient. We all want to be healthy, you know for when we make that that big run after May 16th so You know, it just used this time to Kind of throw bodies out there that we've newly acquired And we just see how we fit, you know, really a game-to-game it depends on who's playing who's in And the most flexible teams in the league are usually the most successful at this point because you're able to just throw guys out there and still You know have a certain standard that you want to play at so I think we're exemplifying that every game of just Filling in and just playing hard and making the right plays, you know playing for one another so it feels good for sure Only get Andrews at the ESPN Uh, Kari in that kind of vein of getting everybody back Markief Morris said yesterday that for him He's trying to think about the injuries that they're experiencing as it's just gonna make for a better ending once we get everybody back I know you guys are a different team But is there any part of that glass half empty mentality or glass half full mentality you can relate to? It's gonna come down to who who survives this You know this this long journey that we have going on, you know, who's gonna be the most healthy Towards the You know the latter end of this journey if you're blessed enough to make it there, you know So we we understand we have to earn our our way to the main stage We don't want to take any day for granted and we definitely don't want to rush anybody back Just to be able to fill in a regular season void or anything like that We just want everybody to be at the top of their game as healthy and going against the best of the best That's what we're focused on here. So whoever we play at any point We're just trying to you know, just be there for one another even when guys aren't in the lineup You know, like I said, it's it's crazy. This is a crazy season It's a crazy season. So we're just adjusting Alex shipper with the athletic Hey, Kari, would you like about you guys offensive performance side? I think it was 11 points held into in the first quarter. I think 17 in the third. Just what would you like about that? We should have more games like that honestly where we're the dominant team in the first quarter Instead of playing from behind, but you know, the flows of the game could change Not every team's gonna come in and you know be held to a certain percentage in the first quarter like that by us But we we definitely made an imprint on that in tonight for sure as soon as they came out the gate We're very aggressive on just staying physical with them and sticking to our principles and In terms of the game plan we put forth. So we had a good game plan during shootaround You know just wanted to make it tough. Like I said earlier, they've been playing extremely well So we wanted to jump on them first before they got to us Brian Mahoney with the Associated Press Hey, Kari from the from the mental aspect of the game, you know The teams need stuff like this where you get a new piece in like Marcus or you get a you know Landry back just to kind of you know make each game feel different where you have something new to be excited about that Maybe you didn't have yesterday I Don't know if I could frame it that way like you did but I think the way I feel You know just about the collective or excuse me the collective group of guys that we have here it's just we could throw anybody out there and we can show our depth and You know, we just find a way to You know collectively come together and make something happen, you know, it's not gonna look pretty every night I said that in the beginning of the season. I'm gonna continue. It's not gonna look perfect but we continue to play and when when you're able to rely on the defensive end as a foundation and You're able to do the little things that really create separation in the basketball game and you're able to do it consistently