Before we got nuts over Jason Terry (clutch!),don't forget Antoine Wright's steal followed by a Dirk driving, spinning, left handed layup with 40 seconds left. That was sweet.
Jason Terry
Lets talk about the last shot you hit. What was going through your mind?
Before this game I went to chapel and something told me I was going to have a big game. It's a big week for us -- playoff week has started. Before we went into the huddle those last two seconds I said "give me the ball". Coach heard me. He saw me. The guys were looking at me, like yeah give JET the ball. Dirk made a great screen. Kidd made a great pass, and the rest is history.
And you were saying "I knew I could do it"?
No. That's what I do. That is what I do.
Talk about how big the win is. It was tight, but a win is a win.
We couldn't lose this ballgame. I firmly believe that something great is in store for this team. We had a rough season thus far, up and down, turbulent season. But the best is yet to come. We believe it. The fans believe it and they showed it tonight. They didn't have much to cheer for playing against a Minnesota team that is lackluster and not playing for anything, but they gave us energy. They sparked us. Those last six minutes they were on their feet and it was like a playoff game.
Still a lot to play for Wednesday against Houston.
Definitely. Destiny is at stake, but we have to take care of business Wednesday against our rival the Houston Rockets. It's fan appreciation night, so they are going to come out and be geeked up. And we could possible see that team in teh first round, so it's going to be a big ballgame.
Is Antoine Wright becoming an enforcer for this team?
Not only is he an enforcer, he gives our team mental and physical toughness. Defensively over the last three months he has locked down some of the best players in our league today. He doesn't get enough credit for it. He has my vote for first or second team all-defense.
Rick Carlise
Well, it's something where we had an option for JET and an option for Dirk. JET's the first look and to get the ball to him was an extremely difficult path because a lot of teams usually play late game side out situations. But Kidd made a great pass, and JET made a great shot. And the little hesitation to get the defender to clear by him also ran a little more time off the clock so you couldn't have asked for a better scenario. I haven't looked at it again, so I'm not sure if Dirk would have been open or not. It was a great play and we needed some great plays down the stretch. It's jut a tough night for us. And Minnesota is a persistent team. Needless to say, they give us problems in this building.
They had 42 points in the paint.
Yeah. Craig Smith got a lot of residual stuff in there, and he's a guy that battles. Love tipped it in a couple of times. They're just a working team. They had 30 second chance points in a game against the Clippers a couple of days ago and 20 offensive rebounds. So we knew that the offensive boards and the inside play was going to be a key part of the game. We survived it. It was tough. We had to make some great plays down the stretch to put ourselves in a position to win, but the guys fought for it.