Antawn Jamison
Antawn Jamison
Antawn Cortez Jamisonis an American retired professional basketball player who played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association. He played college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels, when he was named national player of the year in 1998. He was selected by the Toronto Raptors in the first round with the fourth overall pick of the 1998 NBA draft before being traded to the Golden State Warriors for former Tar Heel teammate Vince Carter. Jamison was named to the...
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth12 June 1976
CityShreveport, LA
I think we are really starting to click. We are starting to understand what it takes in order for us to be successful, with everyone getting touches. They don't know who to give all their attention. You concentrate on two guys and there is still another guy who can get 20 points a night. This is a great nucleus and I'm glad it's finally starting to come together.
We all know this team likes to get on the break and play freely. And we wanted to defensively make it tough for those guys and make them run a set offense and move the ball a little bit. We did a great job as far as staying poised and continuing to play ball.
You don't want to come across a scenario going into the end of March or beginning of April when you have to win eight out of 10. This is a great opportunity for us to create some distance and climb up in the standings now. You don't want to continue to be around .500, one or two games above, one or two games below, and then in the last month or so you really have to turn it on.
We've been hovering pretty much around .500 all season. There's no excuse for us that when these five games are over we shouldn't be two or three games above .500. Having said that, I think we all know the importance of this five-game stretch before we hit the road before the break is over with. It's a great opportunity for us.
It is very disappointing. Tonight was a great opportunity to win. Unfortunately it didn't happen that way. We got a big game against Milwaukee on Wednesday. They're chasing us for that fifth spot, so it will be like a playoff game. Everybody needs to step up their game, and hopefully we can do something there.
The game shouldn't have come down to it. We played bad in the fourth quarter, but I thought we held on and did a great job of finding a way to win, but they did a greater job.
All of the great ones have gone through it. You can't let a guy pick you apart and not be aggressive with him. Tonight we came right at (James). We tried to be more aggressive and tried to get the ball out of his hands. We didn't let him get into that comfort zone that he was in the first game.
It's hard, but everybody goes through it with the exception of Detroit, who hasn't had any injuries. You've just got to find a way to win with the situation. It's been hard because of late we had played well together. We finally got some great chemistry.
I think this road trip is, for me, more personal. The last time we came out West, I kind of went into a slump. So I just didn't want that to happen again. The stakes are a little bit higher this time. I just want to make sure that I keep up my end of the bargain and make sure the team plays well.
We really put it upon our shoulders to come out and play well. Caron had it going early and I had it going late. Those are the things that we're accustomed to. Teams know that we're the highest-scoring trio in the league. If we're playing well, it's going to be hard to beat us.
Our Achilles has been the beginning of the third quarter and the last five minutes of the game. But we did a good job of keeping our composure today. We stayed focused and stayed positive.
Rebounding. The only thing we need to improve on from the first three games is rebounding. If we box out and rebound, we'd be blowing people out instead of having to win these close games.
Rebounding, ... The only thing we need to improve on from the first three games is rebounding. If we box out and rebound, we'd be blowing people out instead of having to win these close games.
I think it's a slap in the face for people to say that we're not going to be a good playoff team because Larry's gone. We didn't make the playoffs last season because of one player.