EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Brooklyn Nets didn’t practice much under Jason Kidd last season.

Nets swingman Joe Johnson confirmed as much on media day Monday. “We practiced, but, you know, not really,” Johnson said with a laugh.

Asked about Johnson’s comment in Milwaukee, Kidd told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on Wednesday, “We couldn’t. We were hurt. That’s just part of the game. What Joe said wasn’t a shock. Unfortunately, people outside took it as a shot. But it wasn’t a shot. We practiced when we could. We were an older group.”

Practices have been different under new coach Lionel Hollins.

“Practice has been tough,” point guard Deron Williams said. “It hasn’t been a cakewalk. But I think that’s gonna make games seem easy.”

One Nets drill at the end of Wednesday's session epitomized that sentiment. The offense was forced to bring the ball up against a defense that was already set. No easy buckets.

“It was work. It was hard. They fought through it. It was a hard day,” Hollins said. “They did a lot of stuff, both defensively and offensively and drill work, and they stood up to the test and I was proud of them from that perspective, and this is how you make nails. This is how you become tougher. You’ve got to endure and keep grinding even though you’re tired, even though it’s tough.

“The drill we were doing at the end, it’s tough because the defense is always waiting on you. There’s no fast break, but you still have to go down there and execute and I think the guys did a pretty decent job for the first time that we’ve done this, and everybody’s starting to get acclimated and we haven’t even put in all the triggers. We just put the base in so they can learn it, and then we’ll go forward.”

• Hollins said earlier in the week that the biggest trash-talker on the team is Alan Anderson. So what did Anderson think about that? “Did he? Damn,” Anderson said, clearly surprised. “All right, well that’s cool. I didn’t know about that one, but I’ll take it.”

Does Anderson consider himself a trash-talker? “Nah, I just don’t take no mess,” he said. “But I don’t talk trash.”

• Andrei Kirilenko (back) and Sergey Karasev (foot) did not practice. Karasev said he has a blister on his foot and plans to practice Thursday.

• Hollins says he’s finally settled in New York.

“I like New York. I’ve always liked New York. I didn’t think I could live here, but now I’m here ... I can live here,” he said. “There’s so much hustle-bustle. When you come visit, everything is just different from every other city in America. You just have to get used to it.”

“I’m not getting caught up in the whole New York thing,” he joked. “I’m just gonna live.”

Hollins grew up away from the city lights.

“It wasn’t a farm. It was in the country with pigs and cows and chickens and turkeys,” Hollins said. “It’s a long ways from those days. I’ve been in a lot of other cities that are a long ways from that, too.”