Talk about being able to lead this game wire-to-wire.
"This series is always a fierce rivalry, but tonight we just showed guts. The key was our start. You don't want to get behind in a close out game. you want make them spend all their energy trying to catch you. For the most part, they tried some adjustments, loosened up on Dirk which surprised us, and big boy came to play tonight."
I thought Carlisle made a great decision to go with the three guard lineup when they switched to a full court press.
"Yeah, Coach Carlisle has been tremendous. It had to be nerve-wracking for him going up against one of the great chess masters in the game today. He made adjustment after adjustment. What he said was 'guys, it's not going to be the gameplan. It's going to be how hard you go out there and want the game.' And we wanted this series. It's all about matchups in the playoffs. This team we are about to face, Denver if that's the team, we've played them tough all year long."
It's been along time since you guys got to taste winning a playoff series. What did it mean to win this one in five games?
It's tremendous. Over the last three years we've obviously been through a lot of adversity -- not getting out of the first round. But that's not our goal. Our goal is to win a championship. Obviously there is some urgency, with Jason Kidd probably not going to be with us next year. The time is now. We feel we are still under the radar. Nobody expects us to win. We are definitely not going to be favored in the next series, so we all have to continue to play and keep it going.