duncan228
04-19-2009, 03:22 AM
Recap and video here (http://www.nba.com/spurs/gameday/home.html).
The video interviews are Duncan, Parker, Gooden, and Mason Jr.
Post Game Quotes (http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/quotes_090418.html)
Gregg Popovich
On the game - "I liked the effort of our team tonight; I thought we did a great job. But the Mavericks just got us – that's the bottom line. Jose Barea and Brandon Bass did a wonderful job. We wanted other people to be involved for Dallas to help win the game for them. If they were going to win, we wanted other people to do it other than Jason and Dirk. I felt we did a great job on defending Jason and Dirk and a good job tonight on covering them. Most teams will let one of them get away but we did a good job of not letting that happen. The bench just gave them more than we can allow. They also did a great job on the boards and we made a few mistakes as well. Their size and athleticism served them well."
On three-point shooting in the game - "We had some threes but the only set plays we ran were at the end of the game to get rid of the deficit on out of bounds or time out situation plays. We didn't run plays to get threes during the regular part of the game."
On running the offense through Tony or Tim - "We went back and forth between the two, there was no conscience effort for one or the other. Sometimes Tony had the ball and sometimes Tim did. Those are the guys that generate our offense."
Tony Parker
On Jose Barea starting the second half - "I thought he was flopping because he's little but those ones can go both ways and it didn't go my way tonight. I'm going to have to adjust in Game 2."
On losing game 1 - "I don't know what's going on with those Game 1's but every time they're not starting well. There's no panic, just like if we won the game, you stay at the same level mentally. Now we're just going to go back and watch some film and come back stronger on Monday."
On Tim Duncan's performance - "I thought he played well tonight. He was aggressive; he was making his bank shots and playing pretty good defense on the boards. It was just one of those nights that it didn't go our way."
On game 2 - "It's going to be a big one now. It's going to be a big game and knowing the character of the team we'll come back strong."
Roger Mason Jr.
On the game - "We got some good looks but I think in that third quarter, their energy was higher than ours."
On if they played the defense they wanted to in the second half - "Obviously, they hit a lot of shots. We felt like we could have played a little bit better defense. But you have to give them credit. Their other guys stepped up. We put a lot of attention (Jason) Terry and (Dirk) Nowitzki and (Brandon) Bass and (Jose) Barea were big off the bench."
On the mood in the locker room post game - "It's one game. Obvioulsy, you want to win on your home court but they got this one. We'll bounce back and we'll have a good one on Monday."
Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle
On the game - "I thought we battled extremely hard even in the first half when things weren't going particularly well. They threw a wave of good defense and good offense at us in the first quarter. You get down 13 in the first game and you're going to have to pull it together and fight back and we did. We got it to a reasonable number at halftime and then in the second half we just kept battling them. I'm happy for our guys. They been through a difficult year. It's been a trying year. We're a humble team, but we're hungry. We're going to keep battling. We know San Antonio's going to battle back hard and we know this is going to be a long series."
On starting Barea in the second half - "He was effective in the first half. The only way to get him on the floor for significantly more minutes was to start him and get him in the rotation with Jet (Terry) and with Jason (Kidd). He's played important minutes and started a lot of important games for us this year. It's something that I haven't hesitated to do because he's always responded. He was making good things happen so I felt we need him out there more in the second half."
On Dampier matching up with Duncan at both ends of the floor - "I thought Duncan played great, and we know he's not 100%. We know he's had a rough year physically and he had good numbers. 13 for 24 is a monster game, but there were a couple of key stops we were able to get. Damp put his body in the right position and he battled him. You're talking about one of the all-time great players and he's going to make great plays and make tough shots, and he did it over and over. There were one or two that we got him to miss, but then he may have just missed those on his own, too. To be able to do that and finish it off with big rebounds, they were big plays at the time."
On trying to slow down Tony Parker - "I don't know that you slow him down. You gotta just keep throwing bodies at him. You gotta have some different pick-and-roll coverages. He's a blur, and he's a great player. He's playoff tested. He's got an MVP from the Finals. We have great respect for him. In a game like this you gotta hope that he misses a few that he normally makes and that was probably the case."
On his instructions to Barea at halftime - "He knew what we needed him to do. We've gone with that lineup 15 games this year as a starting lineup. He and Kidd have played together well. We know how that lineup works. I don't have to say much to those guys. They know how it functions. Kidd's doing most of the play-calling, so he's getting us into the right stuff. It just comes down to, you know, we need to be more efficient. We had six or seven turnovers for seven points in the first half and they only had two for two points. This was going to be a game of inches. This is probably the most consistent team in the last decade than any team has ever been in this league. Their stats are virtually…the lines are so narrow between their wins and their losses. They're not going to beat themselves. You've got to be efficient and you've got to be disciplined as well. We did more of that in the second half."
On winning without Dirk having to go 150% - "Dirk had fouls in the first half. They were paying a lot of attention to him. In the second half, because of how they were playing him, even though he wasn't scoring a ton of points, the way they were playing him allowed us to get offense in other ways. Sometimes with great players that's what you have to do. If you try to fight and force the ball to him, they're going to make you look bad. The onus is on the other guys to step up. Josh Howard played great. 25 points in 29 minutes. I really labored over the decision to leave him out there down the stretch when we felt if we could keep him out it would be better for his ankle. The small lineup was able to finished the game well. That was big for us. Josh, during the period when we got the lead in the third quarter, made huge shots. He made great plays at both ends. He gives us a major lift."
On not getting too high about the win on the road - "I've been in this a lot as a player and a coach. Pop's a master and has been through this zillions of times. You don't get too high or too low. They won't get too low and we won't get too high. We're a humble team. We had it handed to us early this year and had to battle back. We have a great level or respect for the Spurs, and we know that every one of these games is going to be extremely difficult. We're hungry. We're going to stay hungry and we're going to keep battling."
Brandon Bass
On the game - "I mean, yeah. We just wanted to come in here and play the Spurs tough, try to get stops, slow some of them down and try to get the win."
On Bass’ performance tonight - "I just felt like when I got out there we needed some type of spark and that's what I tried to go out there and try to do."
On helping when Dirk got foul trouble - "With Dirk going out, it lifted everybody. We knew we had to step up with Dirk absent on the court and that’s what we did tonight."
On outscoring the Spurs bench - "Successful teams have good production from their players off the bench and that's what we need to continue to win."
Jose Barea
On the game - "It was great how we came out in the second half as we just played with energy tonight as I think the defense is what helped us."
On the bench play of the Mavericks - "That's what we needed as Jason Terry is going to always come off the bench firing. I think Brandon Bass did a hell of a job as anybody who came in did a good job. I played with energy as so did anybody else who came off the bench as they did a great job."
On guarding Tony Parker defensively tonight - "Coach told me at halftime I was going to start on him, so I just tried my hardest to bother him, stay in front of him as much as I could, take a couple charges and just do the best that I could, and it worked out."
The video interviews are Duncan, Parker, Gooden, and Mason Jr.
Post Game Quotes (http://www.nba.com/spurs/news/quotes_090418.html)
Gregg Popovich
On the game - "I liked the effort of our team tonight; I thought we did a great job. But the Mavericks just got us – that's the bottom line. Jose Barea and Brandon Bass did a wonderful job. We wanted other people to be involved for Dallas to help win the game for them. If they were going to win, we wanted other people to do it other than Jason and Dirk. I felt we did a great job on defending Jason and Dirk and a good job tonight on covering them. Most teams will let one of them get away but we did a good job of not letting that happen. The bench just gave them more than we can allow. They also did a great job on the boards and we made a few mistakes as well. Their size and athleticism served them well."
On three-point shooting in the game - "We had some threes but the only set plays we ran were at the end of the game to get rid of the deficit on out of bounds or time out situation plays. We didn't run plays to get threes during the regular part of the game."
On running the offense through Tony or Tim - "We went back and forth between the two, there was no conscience effort for one or the other. Sometimes Tony had the ball and sometimes Tim did. Those are the guys that generate our offense."
Tony Parker
On Jose Barea starting the second half - "I thought he was flopping because he's little but those ones can go both ways and it didn't go my way tonight. I'm going to have to adjust in Game 2."
On losing game 1 - "I don't know what's going on with those Game 1's but every time they're not starting well. There's no panic, just like if we won the game, you stay at the same level mentally. Now we're just going to go back and watch some film and come back stronger on Monday."
On Tim Duncan's performance - "I thought he played well tonight. He was aggressive; he was making his bank shots and playing pretty good defense on the boards. It was just one of those nights that it didn't go our way."
On game 2 - "It's going to be a big one now. It's going to be a big game and knowing the character of the team we'll come back strong."
Roger Mason Jr.
On the game - "We got some good looks but I think in that third quarter, their energy was higher than ours."
On if they played the defense they wanted to in the second half - "Obviously, they hit a lot of shots. We felt like we could have played a little bit better defense. But you have to give them credit. Their other guys stepped up. We put a lot of attention (Jason) Terry and (Dirk) Nowitzki and (Brandon) Bass and (Jose) Barea were big off the bench."
On the mood in the locker room post game - "It's one game. Obvioulsy, you want to win on your home court but they got this one. We'll bounce back and we'll have a good one on Monday."
Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle
On the game - "I thought we battled extremely hard even in the first half when things weren't going particularly well. They threw a wave of good defense and good offense at us in the first quarter. You get down 13 in the first game and you're going to have to pull it together and fight back and we did. We got it to a reasonable number at halftime and then in the second half we just kept battling them. I'm happy for our guys. They been through a difficult year. It's been a trying year. We're a humble team, but we're hungry. We're going to keep battling. We know San Antonio's going to battle back hard and we know this is going to be a long series."
On starting Barea in the second half - "He was effective in the first half. The only way to get him on the floor for significantly more minutes was to start him and get him in the rotation with Jet (Terry) and with Jason (Kidd). He's played important minutes and started a lot of important games for us this year. It's something that I haven't hesitated to do because he's always responded. He was making good things happen so I felt we need him out there more in the second half."
On Dampier matching up with Duncan at both ends of the floor - "I thought Duncan played great, and we know he's not 100%. We know he's had a rough year physically and he had good numbers. 13 for 24 is a monster game, but there were a couple of key stops we were able to get. Damp put his body in the right position and he battled him. You're talking about one of the all-time great players and he's going to make great plays and make tough shots, and he did it over and over. There were one or two that we got him to miss, but then he may have just missed those on his own, too. To be able to do that and finish it off with big rebounds, they were big plays at the time."
On trying to slow down Tony Parker - "I don't know that you slow him down. You gotta just keep throwing bodies at him. You gotta have some different pick-and-roll coverages. He's a blur, and he's a great player. He's playoff tested. He's got an MVP from the Finals. We have great respect for him. In a game like this you gotta hope that he misses a few that he normally makes and that was probably the case."
On his instructions to Barea at halftime - "He knew what we needed him to do. We've gone with that lineup 15 games this year as a starting lineup. He and Kidd have played together well. We know how that lineup works. I don't have to say much to those guys. They know how it functions. Kidd's doing most of the play-calling, so he's getting us into the right stuff. It just comes down to, you know, we need to be more efficient. We had six or seven turnovers for seven points in the first half and they only had two for two points. This was going to be a game of inches. This is probably the most consistent team in the last decade than any team has ever been in this league. Their stats are virtually…the lines are so narrow between their wins and their losses. They're not going to beat themselves. You've got to be efficient and you've got to be disciplined as well. We did more of that in the second half."
On winning without Dirk having to go 150% - "Dirk had fouls in the first half. They were paying a lot of attention to him. In the second half, because of how they were playing him, even though he wasn't scoring a ton of points, the way they were playing him allowed us to get offense in other ways. Sometimes with great players that's what you have to do. If you try to fight and force the ball to him, they're going to make you look bad. The onus is on the other guys to step up. Josh Howard played great. 25 points in 29 minutes. I really labored over the decision to leave him out there down the stretch when we felt if we could keep him out it would be better for his ankle. The small lineup was able to finished the game well. That was big for us. Josh, during the period when we got the lead in the third quarter, made huge shots. He made great plays at both ends. He gives us a major lift."
On not getting too high about the win on the road - "I've been in this a lot as a player and a coach. Pop's a master and has been through this zillions of times. You don't get too high or too low. They won't get too low and we won't get too high. We're a humble team. We had it handed to us early this year and had to battle back. We have a great level or respect for the Spurs, and we know that every one of these games is going to be extremely difficult. We're hungry. We're going to stay hungry and we're going to keep battling."
Brandon Bass
On the game - "I mean, yeah. We just wanted to come in here and play the Spurs tough, try to get stops, slow some of them down and try to get the win."
On Bass’ performance tonight - "I just felt like when I got out there we needed some type of spark and that's what I tried to go out there and try to do."
On helping when Dirk got foul trouble - "With Dirk going out, it lifted everybody. We knew we had to step up with Dirk absent on the court and that’s what we did tonight."
On outscoring the Spurs bench - "Successful teams have good production from their players off the bench and that's what we need to continue to win."
Jose Barea
On the game - "It was great how we came out in the second half as we just played with energy tonight as I think the defense is what helped us."
On the bench play of the Mavericks - "That's what we needed as Jason Terry is going to always come off the bench firing. I think Brandon Bass did a hell of a job as anybody who came in did a good job. I played with energy as so did anybody else who came off the bench as they did a great job."
On guarding Tony Parker defensively tonight - "Coach told me at halftime I was going to start on him, so I just tried my hardest to bother him, stay in front of him as much as I could, take a couple charges and just do the best that I could, and it worked out."