PGQ Game 65

Morning Shootaround

"We worked on  it (handling their zone defense) a little bit."

How'd work out? 'ump!

Mavs vs Timberwolves | March 8, 2010

Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle

Another win.

On Wolves turnovers "It helped a lot, I mean we weren’t necessarily doing a great job of stopping them, their field goal percentage was up over fifty for a lot of the night."

On others stepping up "It's been a true team. Somebody's down a little, somebody picks them up. Guys have stuck together; guys are competitive in practice and stuff, cheering for each other in games. When you get on a roll like this those kinds of things have to happen, they have got to stay consistent."

"We were able to get lead at the end of the first, which I think was a spiritual boost for us."

On Barea's injury "Were not sure how bad it is yet, he's getting x-rays so hopefully he's not too bad. Kind of a freak play, we'll get him to our doctors and try to get him back on the court."

On Marion "I'm really glad he had a big game. He's sacrificed so much of his game this year; you know to be one of the best defenders, to get rebounds, to be screener and a movement maker. Tonight he was a featured scorer, which he has been really the majority of his career. Its good for him, and every week I tell him how important he is to us and how much as a coach I appreciate what he's done this year. He is the guy who's made the biggest adjustment of any of the new guys we got. It's showing up in wins and losses."

Mavericks Guard J.J. Barea

Ryan: I tell you, i can beat Matt at DJ Hero! JJ: No way, bro, no way. MC earns 4,7 Mil $ for a reason.

On the Wolves "It's a team that we knew was going to keep coming at us. They played hard, they're talented, so they're always going to keep fighting; and they did a good job of that."

On the Wolves turnovers "Anytime you turn it over that much, it's not easy to win. I think we've been doing a good job lately of moving the ball and playing as a team, so that's always going to help us."

Mavericks Center Dirk Nowitzki

I don't like where this is going, Darko...

On the Mavericks' offense "Offensively I think we're a pretty good group. With the small lineup, we're moving the ball, we're playing off each other."

On passing in their offense "It's just a bunch of veteran players playing off of each other, so it's been fun sharing the ball."

On Shawn Marion "Obviously we all have to make sacrifices on a good team, we all know he can get a lot bigger numbers than what he's scoring. Ultimately if you want to win the championship the whole team has to make sacrifices."

Mavericks Forward Shawn Marion

'xcuse me, Kevin.

On the Wolves "They're a hard-fighting, spunky team."

On their team "Everybody came here contributing, whether it was guarding somebody, hitting a couple of shots, making the extra pass or whatever."

Late game Jason Kidd high-five-to-the-elbow

Timberwolves Head Coach Kurt Rambis

I miss to crochet...

"Our guys got off to a good start; I liked the way they played at the beginning of the ball game. They seemed to run out gas, and they lost their focus, had an extreme amount of trouble playing against the zone early until they figured out how to attack and get inside. Guys just didn't execute properly, trying to move the basketball, trying to force it inside too much instead of working the zone and using pass fakes and being attentive and we got high quality shots. So all that was good. Defensive wise we were okay in the ball game. What caused us a lot of problems was a lot of turning the basketball over, those were high scoring percentage points were higher for them, their percentage would probably be significantly lower but when you turn the basketball over 26 times for 34 points the differential was 24 points, you are starting in a hole of minus 24, you are just trying to dig yourself out of a hole its too big of an obstacle and thats been a problem for this young team all year, and it continues to be a problem. Until we correct that its going to make it very difficult to get wins."

"Moving the basketball against the zone should be one of the simplest things in the world to do. You always have outlets on your outsides because the zone stays compacted. Also, they did not do a good job of using their pass fakes and simply using the ball. You have to shift the zone, you have to stay inside and then go back outside, move it around the horn all the while you are looking inside to lure the basketball. But any time you try to hold it or force it, any time you telegraph passes you are going to be in trouble because they have too many eyes focusing on the ball. So our guys did not do a good job in those areas."

"Our guys want to win. They are trying to fight, they are being aggressive, they are trying to attack inside. I like Ryan Hollins aggressiveness, I don't always like his decision making; but I like his aggressiveness. When guys play hard there is a lot of physical contact and tempers are going to flare."

"[Kevin] didn't look like he had any energy to play in stretches, also a lot of it had to do with matchups, keeping an inside presence scoring inside for us as well as somebody out there that could match up with Dirk."

"His flagrant foul [did not look malicious]." [I'd know a thing or two about malicious...]

"Al started out well, and there were pockets in the game where he played well. There were times when he pushed himself through it; he had a good game for the most part. When they are going small and you have Nowitzki out on the floor we have to find somebody to guard but also be able to take advantage against their zone."

"I think we can matchup with guys, Beaubois, Barea; those guys were out there and so our one man can match up and I think Corey is very versatile, he can guard different guys, and so is Sasha just using their size."

"I probably shouldn't have [grabbed the ball]. I should have put more pressure on Dirk to save that basketball. I didn't think he could get to it."

What he said.

Wolves Center Al Jefferson

Two beers over here!

"Too many turnovers against a great team like that. We just didn’t take care of the ball."

On good night personally ""I was working real hard before and after practice so I was just real anxious to get back. I feel like I let my teammates down, my fans down. I was real anxious to get back and get a win tonight. My confidence has been up, I have kind of lost my confidence in the past two weeks before my little trouble and I got my confidence back and I know what I'm able to do."

On game play "It was an intense game, I don’t think anyone was out there to hurt anybody. It's just the game of basketball though."

"If you want to be a playoff team you have to take care of the ball. You cannot have twenty some turnovers."

On turnovers "We have got to focus, we can't let bad plays, get us down. That’s one thing you deal with when you're on a team. It's so easy to feel sorry for yourself, but basketball is a game of mistakes. You know, you make a mistake. Life is mistakes. When you make a mistake you have to learn from them, just put them behind you and continue to move on. And that’s what we have to do out there on the court."

On becoming Chuck's Grandmother "I just love'm. Every single one of his threehundredfiftyfive pounds of him."

Whaaa?

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