JJ Barea
Was it the Los Mavs jersey that brought it out in you tonight?
No, it just felt great to be out there tonight especially with some Spanish on the uniform.
Talk about the end of the 2nd where you had those 8 consecutive points.
I think I had a layup that got me going, and the JKidd did a god job running the same play for me. That pick and roll was working and he kept running it for me. I kept attacking and it worked out.
How great was it to get the win and also get some guys minutes while resting others?
It was huge. We needed a little bit more energy in the third so I made sure when I came out there I had it. And it was great that we could rest Dirk, JKidd, and JET for the fourth quarter.
Were you worried about coming out flat after the break?
No, I think we were ready because we know every game is important. We came out of back to back good practices so we came out pretty good tonight.
Rick Carlisle
I thought all things considered that they handled it well. We had two good days of practice. They weren't long practices, but they were hard and guys worked. I'm happy with the way we played. We played a great offensive game. Defensively we struggled. We were able to get some rebounds and string stops together in stretches, but we're going to have to do better in the upcoming games obviously. But Golden State is a difficult guard, especially when they have all the little guys out there driving, and kicking, drawing fouls, and shooting the three. We had a poor ending to the second quarter, but I thought the beginning of the third quarter when we were able to stay big when they went small and extend the lead was a key stretch. They cut it down again but we were able to pull away so it's a good win.
The decision to start JET again?
It was virtually last minute. He jammed his wrist yesterday in practice. He was sore today so my plan was to start Barea because we had been getting off to good starts with Barea out there. But after seeing JET taking some shots on the practice court and he kept doing this [stretching his wrist] before the game I just felt he'd have better chance to work through it if he was able to go right from warmups to the game. So I basically told him as we walked out there, "hey you're starting." And then I went and told Nellie because I had told him it would be one or the other when I sent my lineup down there. And of course he sent a message back saying "if you don't tell me who you're starting I won't tell you who I'm starting." It was one of those deals. Which I understand. He has every right to do that.
Anyway, JET got a couple of layups early, and it led to some opportunities. The more we have out there with Kidd the better. I don't know what we'll do on Friday. We'll see how his wrist is going, how everything else is going, and we'll go from there.
Antoine Wright
You're getting the tough defensive matchups. What have you learned going against the best this season?
I've just been in practice and watching film doing all the extra things to try and understand what the players like to do that I play against. We have a lot of veterans on this team so talking to Stackhouse and guys like Darrell Armstrong on the staff ... they do a good job helping me try and take away thing from the guys I have to guard.
Are you confident if you don't move up that you guys can play against whoever it is?
People have been asking this question for a while now. We're still just working on winning as many games as we can to put ourselves in the best position to advance. I feel like if we're playing our best basketball in the playoffs we can compete and beat any team.
Have you guys put a number on how many games you need to win now that there are 11 games left?
11. We feel like if we win 11 games we'll be exactly where we want to be.
One game at a time. We've got Denver next and they're a good team. All we can say is we have them in our building and we'll be ready to play.
Can you explain the home/road disparity for you guys?
It's good to be here. We have the greatest fans in the world. We have our owner here at the home games cheering us on and getting us ready. It's good to be home, but we're also conscious of our road woes and trying to get better at that. We're getting better every day, and that's all we can do.