PGQ Game 68 'Blowout? The Mavs? -Homey don't play that!'

by DOH on Mar 18, 2010 8:19 AM CDT

8 minutes are enough for the smooth criminal.

Mavs vs Bulls | March 17, 2010

Pregame Jet-I speak.

Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle

Coach has really let himself go lately.

(on Barea in the fourth quarter) "He came through great for us offensively with shot making. Defensively, he drew a charge one time. He helped us get through it. It was a tough stretch. They were making a charge at us. We needed to make some plays and he was involved in a lot of them."

(on Terry’s return) "I thought it was a lot of very good signs. A lot of very good things. When you come back from two weeks and able to hit your first shot and get right into it offensively, that’s great. Conditioning is going to be a bit of a factor here for a few games until he really back into 100 percent. Twenty-four minutes, whatever he played, almost 25, he’s in during crunch time making the right plays. He didn’t get the ball to go down a couple of times but all-in-all very happy with the way it went."

(on Terry continued) "I thought it would be ok. I wasn’t sure how many minutes was going to be the right number. The mask has worked out ok the last couple days of practice. But you just never know. He had nine points, went four-for-five in the first half, that was great. Gave us a huge lift. In the second half, he’s a factor on the floor because of all the attention he draws. He changes the geometry of the rest of the players. Even when he’s not scoring, he’s a factor."

"I liked the way we played early. We really didn’t lose much of anything in the first half. I was a little disappointed in the way we ended the first half. They made a couple plays and we missed a couple shots. Sometimes it goes that way. Our focus was better. The last couple days of practice has helped us somewhat. We’ve got a couple more days now and then we’ve got one of the better teams in the East coming in."

(on decision to not put Kidd in during fourth quarter) "He’s had some soreness the last couple days. About a minute or two into the fourth, he asked if he could ice down. And so that that point, he was done. We were going to have to finish the game without him. It was going to be JJ or Roddy in that role but they’ve been there before. That’s kind of how that went."

tough when half your team is new. [?? An Earl K.'ism, i guess]

Hardnosed.

Dampier avoids the travel.

in a nifty way.

Mavericks guard JJ Barea

Miau.

"We were struggling a little bit in the 4th quarter to score. I started going underneath on the pick-n-rolls and got my shot going, felt confident and when they left me alone I just pulled up and shot it."

"The last couple of games I’ve found my shot and today I felt comfortable and coach gave me the chance so I did a good job."

"We’ve got to get better at closing out games, but as long as we keep getting those leads and as long as we keep getting W’s, it’s all fine."

"Roddy and I are both good players. Roddy has done a great job helping us win and whoever is in the game has to play hard and help us win. He’s going to find a way sometimes to have us both out there on the court and give JKidd more rest."

Good player on St. Patrick's Day.

An upgrade of an interviewer. At last!

Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki

*hechel*

"We really tried to recommit on the defensive end and we did a good job in the first half but we really couldn’t get a stop in the 4th quarter. We let them back in the game and that shouldn’t have happened. We were a step slow defensively in the second half."

"Defensively we’re going to look at some stuff, look at the tapes like we always do after every game and look at some stuff that we need to get better at and take that day off tomorrow and relax and get ready for the Boston game on Saturday. From here on out after Saturday the games just keep coming till the rest of the season and it should be fun."

"JJ really stepped up big in the 4th quarter and saved us. He made some big shots, two big three’s, two pull up jumpers behind the screens because they left him open and he really used the screen and knocked some shots down."

Is it possible that JJ is a leprechaun?

That's how you do it, Dirk!

Locker room chitchat

Thank God it was going in'

Chicago Coach Vinny Del Negro

10 straight! We goin' for 10 straight!

(On if his players came out sluggish tonight) "They make it tough. They make you look sluggish sometimes. They’re very efficient, very good offensively. But we had better effort in the second half, but the same thing, we cut it to seven then turn it over a few times. A couple of offensive rebounds hurt us. Like I talked about before the game, all the little things almost have to be perfect for us, especially against Dallas and some of the better teams. We didn’t get some long rebounds, we turned it over. But I liked the way the guys gutted it out, didn’t surrender to it and kept battling. That’s a good sign. It’s frustrating but you’ve just got to keep working and move forward."

(On what made Dirk and Butler so difficult tonight) "The ball is going to be in their hands. The offense runs through Dirk. When Dirk’s not in there, Caron’s isolating and cutting to the basket. With everything right now, they have a big size advantage at us with the two and the three which makes it harder. They took advantage of that, but that’s why they brought Caron over. If Dirk is having a sub par night or average night for him, Caron’s a guy that can take over a game with his scoring. They are very deep. They’ve got size now with Heywood up front, and that’s why they are one of the better teams.

(Has Acie Law earned more playing time) "For right now. Everyone has got to improve. I never really worry about guy’s offensive tools. I think Acie’s has proven that he can get to the basket and do some things. But we’ve got to tighten up some things defensively, that’s how we won early in the season. We can’t control the paint and we’re not controlling penetration as well as we’d like. We just have to keep trying to find ways to improve in a lot of areas, and it makes it

Bulls Guard Kirk Hinrich

Not exactly a sneakers deal, but everything counts...

(Defensively you guys were a little bit better in the second half) "Yeah, we just were a little bit tougher in the second half. In the first half we gave up a lot of fastbreak points. We just played overall better in the second half."

(Besides getting healthy, and can you guys improve?) "Well, defensively. I don’t know they [Dallas] finished up the game with but in the first half they were shooting a very high percentage, I’m assuming they finished the game that way. But, we’ve got to dig in on defense. We’re shorthanded; everybody’s got to step up."

Bulls Center Brad Miller

*mmmppphhhffff*

(You guys have been snakebitten with the injuries, that didn’t help tonight) "It’s the joy, and the way the league goes. A lot of teams – that’s the thing – you’re always going to have injuries. There’s never been a team that at some point of the team wasn’t shorthanded. That’s just physically impossible in this league. We’re just obviously not playing good. Just a lot of new parts, a lot of big parts out, but nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. We’ve just got to try to get better with the guys we’ve got playing."