Our beloved former weird-beard guy illustrates how the game went.
KneeJerk Recap (TM) Jonthefon v1.12
The Mavs (
beat/lost to) [the Milwaukee Bucks]¹ tonight (thanks to/despite) Dirk’s awesomeness. The (cloud in the silver lining/major culprit) once more was the lack of support from his team-mates, with the exception ofTyson Chandler/Jason Kidd². Especially useless was Jason Terry/Caron Butler/J.J. Barea/Shawn Marion/Brendan Haywood³ and it is (GUESS WHAT) THEY’RE ALMOSTNOTALL USELESS.
¹ Inserted Opponent
² Only one of them, mind you
³ Two at the minimum, up to all five of them. I, too, see what you did there, Bench...
Quotes
Coach Carlisle
(What happen?) "They kicked our ass. I don’t know of any simpler way to say it. We’re not where we need to be yet.’’
(What you say? Be honest, your team blew it) "We certainly had lapses. We certainly made our share of mistakes. But credit Milwaukee, they took the game away from us. I’m not going to say we gave it away or anything like that. They took it. We gave them opportunities and they took it."
(May we have to endure enjoy more Woodchoppin' in the future?) "Sure, yeah. It wouldn't surprise me in the least. It was a good move. But, Brendan will be all right. He'll make enough free throws."
(On the streak) "What streak? Next question."
(On blowing loads leads) "I still have a great belief in our team, and I know what our potential is. But this kind of slippage we’ve seen all too often. I’ve got to coach harder, the players have got to be more conscientious, we’ve got to do better than we did tonight."
(On Jennings) "Jennings played great. He’s the quickest guy on the planet. He exposed how quick he is. He’s very difficult to deal with. We didn’t do a great job of handling him, but he made some difficult shots. He was very determined. You could see it in his eyes the whole second half. He was attacking, and we never really took away his momentum. So, as it went along, it just became a more dangerous situation."
(On the Mavs) "We’re not where we need to be yet. We’re trying to be a great team and take care of home court. Having a ‘take-care-of-business’ mentality is really important. We have yet to establish that on a consistent basis and so there's going to be frustration until we get there. Look, we have work to do, it's as simple as that. "
Dirk '3 Turnovers, 7 women on my mind' Nowitzki
When Dirk is the last line of Defense, you know you're doing it wrong.
(What happend after the 20Pt Lead?) "We just seemed to let up a little bit on both ends of the floor. We were just taking it too easy, and you can never take it easy in this league. Teams are too dangerous, too good."
(What hurt the Mavs most tonight?) "I thought in the second half the defense is what hurt us. We gave up almost two quarters of 30 points (32 in the third and 28 in the fourth) which is 60, which is obviously not what we want. That's not how we've been winning. So, the defense definitely had a collapse there. We couldn't get stops in man-to-man, couldn't get stops in the zone, so we were in trouble."
(Trouble?) "We were in trouble, but down the stretch we kept plugging. And actually on the last play, I was too open. And I was shocked at how open I was. I ended up in the lane taking a shot that I really didn’t want to take, and that’s obviously on me. And i shot only 50%, so that's not gonna cut it, obviously."
(On Wood-choppin) "That was pretty smart by Skiles there, especially in the fourth quarter. He saw they already had four team fouls so at this point you don't really waste any fouls. The next one we're going to the line anyway. So, it's a smart move by a good coach."
Shawn Marion
"Does this answer your question if i can still drive?"
(On the 20 Pt Lead) "When you're at home and you got a team down 20 points, you can almost smell the blood. But, they hit a couple shots and they get confidence, and you miss a few and next thing you know you've got a single-digit game. Twenty points is a lot at times, but it can be small at times, too. I would know, i played for the Phoenix Suns once."
(On Jennings attacking style) "He was able to come off that pick-and-roll and we really never had an answer for it."
Tyson 'Outplayed, mate' Chandler
(On the Loss) "This one is very disappointing. It's one thing to lose a game you battle and go back and forth. This was not one of those games. It was a game we clearly should have won."
(On the meaning of this Game) "It’s something we’ve got to learn from. This was a game we should have won, a game we clearly had under control,. We let them back in it. And we’ve got to learn from it, because we don't have LD, i hope. Right? Riiiiight."
(On the Streak ending) "It was a great streak, but we’ve got to start another one now. It’s over with. It’s frustrating we lost this one, but we play again on Wednesday."
Jason Terry
1st Half
2nd Half
(You mad?) "This one hurt because we lost, period."
(On Jennings) "Jennings had a lot of penetration tonight. That’s on the guards to keep him in front. We didn’t do that job tonight. Not that we could really do that job any night, but, y'know..."
Bucks
Coach Skiles
(Per GBA;click to enlarge)
(On the game) "We didn’t play very well early on and struggled. We were searching for a lineup that could get something going for us. Right near the end of the first half, we got back in the game. We started a different lineup in the third quarter and those guys got us going. We battled back. CDR got us going with some driving to the basket and we started knocking down some shots. It was a gutsy win, we played really hard tonight."
"They came out late in the game when our execution wasn’t as sharp as we would like it to be. But we made big plays. Bogut took a big charge, we had a couple of really nice offensive possessions when we needed to at least build the lead up to the point they had to play catch up."
(On extending the lead to 8 or 9 late in the fourth) "They have so many offensive weapons. We were trying to focus on Dirk a little bit, and we turn our heads and Jason bangs a three. You need that cushion against this team. We were able to make just enough plays at the end. We got a little scary with the ball a couple of times, but we made enough good plays to win."
(Was this a signature victory on the road?) "Yeah. Look that’s a great team. We have a lot of respect, especially when we didn’t play well early, it would have been very easy to hang our heads and figure ‘hey they’re a great club.’ We battled back and we were trying to get it into single digits at halftime. We came out in the third quarter with some really nice juice. As I said, CDR kind of opened some things up for us with some drives to the basket. We were able to get some easy ones in the paint, took the burden off our jumpshots, and inevitably as it happens, we started knocking down some jump shots after that."
Andrew Bogut
"If you're afraid to get hit, you get hit, mate"
(On the 2nd half) "I thought in the 2nd half it was just shoot the ball, man. If we make it we make it, if we miss we miss. If you’re open shoot the ball. Whatever comes out of it, comes out of it. There’s not point stressing about it. We’re down, we’re underdogs already at halftime, the open shooter take your shot, it’s the only way we’re going to make a run and thankfully we started hitting shots. Everything went well after that."
(On the effort by Douglas-Roberts and Dooling off the bench) "Definitely, our bench has been key for us, especially the last game. Everybody that got in really contributed if you look at rebounds, and assists, points, and free throws. And it was a huge, huge win for us. Obviously they’re one of the best teams, we have a lot of respect for them, they’ve done a lot of great things and one of the best teams in the NBA, and probably the hottest team at the moment along with the Spurs who we face next. So, it was a great win for us."
(You knew Dirk was going to get some shots at you) "He got a good look at it t the end. He got a good look and thankfully he missed. He owed us one. He knocked down the game winner in Milwaukee [last season] that probably shouldn’t have gone in, it rattled home somehow at the buzzer, so he owed us one and we’ll take it."
(This last week you said you guys have been playing better and then you get this on top of it) "Definitely, we’re starting to play better basketball. We’re starting to buy into what the coaches want us to do, what we need to do to win games. It’s nice to have that feel after a game like this and win a game on the road. And I think good teams build character by – you can go out bowling and do all that – but winning games on the road, that builds character and brings camaraderie."
Brandon Jennings
This is what happens when Dirk yells: "Security!"
(What was the difference in the 2nd half to you?) "I think our intensity. At one point we were down 20 in the 1st half and then with the bench playing and us starters just picking up before the half we were down 9. We came out in the 2nd half with a lot of intensity and we were able to catch the lead."
(You guys were struggling with the Mavs zone in the 1st, but in the 2nd half it seemed like you guys got into a rhythm) "Well, the bench played really good for us. CDR came off the bench and hit some big shots for us, Ersan Ilyasova, and also Keyon Dooling. So, the thing is we made shots in the 2nd half."
(What about just getting a signature win?) "They were on a winning streak, 12 games in a row, so to come in here and get a win is really big. But we’ve got another tough one - we’ve got to go into San Antonio and take care of business, too. We can’t just be too happy about this; we’ve just got to keep it going."
Vids
Jengut
Game Recap
Some Love for Good(en)
The One and Only Keyon Dooling
Links
For the first 18 minutes of this game, Dallas looked every bit like a team riding a 12-game winning streak. For the 30 minutes that followed, Milwaukee looked every bit like the team riding a 12-game winning streak.
Hoopdata Boxscore (Bucks 20-27 at the rim, 9-13 from 3. Mavs took 9 Shots at the Rim and went 5-20 from deep. GG Bogut)
Brewhoop's Recap
FT-Watch
Brendan Haywood missed all four FTs, is now shooting leagueworst 23.8% for the year. Could he care less? Not sure. He got paid, after all.
Disclaimer: If you couldn't tell by now, all italic sentences are made up thoughts, not actual quotes. Also, the Mavs finally succeded in their attempt to lose. How else could you explain squandering several 20 Point leads in the last three games?