What the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns said
after Game Eighteen of the Perfect Season.
Quotes
Mavericks
Coach Carlisle
(On Shawn Marion, the Bomber) "Shawn was great tonight, just great. A lot of the plays he made were ones that were very timely. The threes that he hit in the third quarter were huge. He has the green light to shoot 3s any night. The first year we discouraged it and that was the wrong thing to do."
(On Mahagoni Wood) "The activity of our big guys was really good tonight. We get 27 points out of our two centers, and that’s a huge lift."
(On if Dirk could misse more than 4 Games) "To be clear, again, he had two workouts today and there are going to be multiple workouts on most days. We'll see what's what after four games and if he's not ready after four games, then we may extend this thing.''
(On the decision to sit out Dirk) "It was calendar driven and I listened to my trainer. He's been with Dirk for a long time. We're here and we have our facilities. It just makes sense. He wasn't right. It's mostly the knee. And there's been improvement. He's going to talk about it on Thursday. There's some conditioning things and there's some things with the knee. And they need to be resolved.''
(On Beaubois being able to take more hits) "He's gotten so much tougher. His first year, you would have needed a spatula to get him off the ground. Honestly, he fell in a heap every time he got touched. He took a lot of heat from his teammates, he took a lot of heat from the coaches, and he’s raised his level of toughness quantum over that period of time."
(On the Flagrant 2 by Telfair on Beaubois) "The Flagrant 2 play was a massive play in the game – a big momentum play. I thought Beaubois showed toughness, he showed resolve, he continued to concentrate. He’s more and more coming to the realization that his game is predicated on the defensive end first, and that’s what’s going to bring us success this year.’
(On Roddy's game) "I like Roddy tonight. Nights like tonight where maybe the shots aren’t going in and there’s a couple of uncharacteristic offensive mistakes, he stayed into the game mentally and he was in a stance and he was a positive factor for us. Look, he’s a smart guy. He understands that if you crumble every time you get hit, they’re going to keep hitting you in this league, and it’s going to be harder and harder to get back up. He gets hit now, he pops back up and boom, he’s ready to go again, and it wasn’t always that way.’’
(On Odom) "Lamar got off to such a slow start in the first half that the lineup with Brian Cardinal and Wright and Ian Mahinmi has been a good lineup the last couple games, and their energy really got us back in the game and got us the lead. The second half, Lamar got off to a good start and, hey, he earned the right to go back in the game. And again, it's the whole accountability thing. You play well, you put it on the coach to get you back in there. You don't play well, your ass is going to be sitting."
(On stepping up) "Every night we’re going to need someone to step up big. Tonight, Marion was the big star. But the bench was right there. A lot of other guys played well, too."
(On the Mavs) "The end result numbers look good, and to hold them under 90 looks good. But we still have areas to clean up. We're still making too many mistakes. We go through periods where our energy and our alertness aren't where they need to be, so that's my job to stay after our guys and make sure that we keep working to get things in the right direction."
(On Gortat) "Gortat is an impressive player and getting better every year. The reality is if you do a good job guarding Nash on the screen-and-roll, you've got a better chance of guarding Gortat because a lot of his activity comes off the Nash screens. It's one of the hardest situations any team has had to deal with in the last 10 years."
Jason Kidd
(On Marion) "He’s playing the best out of anybody on this team right now. He’s been carrying us. The more touches, the more you get in a rhythm, the better off you’ll be. Especially when you’re a scorer, and that’s what he is."
Rodrigue Beaubois
(On Carlisle's assessment that he's getting tougher) "I think it’s true, for sure. Now, I can take more contact and now I’m good. I'm tougher, but I can get tougher for sure. I'm getting tougher every day. Just because I've been here. My first year it was new for me to play against big guys like this. Obviously, with the contact, that was tough. Now, with all the practices, I get used to it.''
(On getting poked by the Coach, the Staff, the Team and the Janitor all Day) "It’s a good thing. That’s a challenge for me and I’ll take it."
Shawn Marion
(On Threes) "I’ve shot the three my whole career; I just don’t have to do it here. Here I don’t have to do it, because they need somebody who can score inside the paint. I had to concentrate on playing defense like I did if we wanted to win a championship, but I’ve always had the 3-pointer in my game. When you stop shooting threes it definitely feels a little weird, though."
(On 29 Points) "My teammates are looking for me. I’ve been able to do a lot of different things on the floor. This is about just helping my teammates."
Lamar Odom
(On Marion) "He has a knack for putting that ball in the basket. His game is so unorthodox, but he’s so fun to watch. He’s definitely one of the most underrated players in the league."
(On the Mav' Side Story) "How many teams are in the NBA? Thirty? And all of them have stories for their team. The story for our team is depth. We’ve got so many guys that can play, play big-time minutes, have big games and fill stat sheets up."
(On his body) "I've got aches in places I never had before. I got pains in places I never had before. Sometimes when you're hurting, sometimes a play happens or something, people mistake it for not playing hard, but you're hurting, you know, you're hurting. When you're hurting sometimes it takes you some time to get into the game, to get into the flow. I know what I'm doing, I know how my body feels. I know how to call on it, make it react and respond."
(On if he's running more in Dallas system than the triangle) "Ask my feet. Dem suckas are bandaged as tight as a f00kin mummy!"
(On his 2nd half) "I've learned in this league, you don't have to finish games the way you start them. That's the beautiful thing about basketball. Just try to stay focused and going after it, going after it, going after it until I can involve myself in the game. Just keep playing and not getting down."
Ian Mahinmi
(On the Benchspark) "We came in with a lot of energy. I think the starters weren’t flat, but it was one of those games where you needed that spark. Me, Brandan, Brian Cardinal and the other guys off the bench, we did a good job of bringing that energy and that got the starters going."
Suns
Coach Gentry
(On the Loss) "We didn’t play very good. Our turnovers, we did a poor job with the turnovers. We didn’t shoot the ball well. We didn’t deserve to win. We didn’t play well enough to win."
(What points were you arguing with the refs over the fouls, particularly the flagrant 2 on Telfair?) "I just thought that if it’s a foul in the NFL then it probably should be…no, I’m not saying that. I’m not giving them my money. They call it and that’s the way it is. And that’s the way it is. That’s the way it is, so we have to live by what they call. That’s it."
(With the shortened season and the back-to-back games is this the hardest time you’ve had coaching?) "Everybody has the same. It’s not an advantage either way. Everybody plays under the same rules, so it’s no more of a disadvantage for us then it is the other 29 teams. So, it is what it is and you get yourself ready to play and do the best you can."
(Disappointing wind up to a road trip that was going pretty good for you) "You’ve got to execute; you’ve got to execute and we’ve got to make plays and we didn’t do that and it doesn’t matter. They’ve got good players. They didn’t win the championship with one guy by the way, guys. They’ve got a deep team, and they’re a good team. Obviously they’re a great team with Dirk out there, but they’ve got some very capable guys. We know about Shawn Marion; we had him in Phoenix. And Jason Terry is a big play guy. And I thought Mahinmi did a great job. I thought he played great."
Jared Dudley
(On Marion) "Shawn was Dirk tonight."
Steve Nash
(On the Game) "It didn't feel good out there. It didn't feel like we had a good rhythm. It's disappointing. You'd think, after two days off, we'd be well-rested, but sometimes you just feel funky."
(On the Story) "Matrix was on fire. That was kind of the end of it."
Marcin Gortat
(On Marion's production) "I wasn't surprised. He always has good games against us. We've just got to be smarter against him."
(On the Suns’ performance) "We started kinda slow. Again, we started to play better and better with each quarter, but honestly, it was a tough loss. We really believed that we could win this game, and being honest with you, we got to change something, we can’t start games like that."
(On what the Suns need to improve upon) "First of all, we got to take care of the ball a little bit better, we had a lot of turnovers today, again. Basically we got to play harder."
(On the Suns’ hot first eight minutes) "The game is 48 minutes, not eight minutes. I would still say we started slow because at the beginning we were just giving up points for points. We definitely can’t go like that, we’ve got to have a different ratio, two offensive scores to one defensive stop. We can’t go one-for-one like that."
Vids
Game Recap
Postgame
Marion FSSW
Mahinmi (see Bryan leave)
Gentry on Flagrants
Gortat
Links
MMB | Bowecap Solid #2
Remember that part in The Matrix when Neo realizes he's "The One" and then completely kicks the shit out Agent Smith? That's what seeing Shawn Marion reminded me of. It's as if Shawn Marion knocked down one three and then remembered "Hey, I used to be a 38 percent three point shooter!" and then proceeded to rip the Suns hearts out with three more unlikely three-pointers. As unbelievable as Marion's outside shots were (only made five last season) the reliance the Mavs put on him for getting buckets was perhaps slightly more crazy. For the last two years, Marion has never really been more than a defensive, fast break, hustle points type of player save for the few times the Mavs would isolate him ont he block on a mismatch. But this season, and tonight especially, Marion WAS the offense. Dallas routinely made sure to run pick and rolls and yes, even isolated him on the wing in the "dagger" possession with around 40 seconds left. Dallas would be slightly foolish to believe it can ride Marion to 29 points in 21 shots in Dirk's absence, but on nights like tonight and when the matchup is there, why not?
BrightSideoftheSun Outgunned by Shawn Marion
This was a game that the Suns just didn't and couldn't see coming. Without Dirk Nowitzki, the suns focused on stopping Jason Terry and Lamar Odom, and were pretty successful in doing so. The problem was that Shawn Marion had one of those flukey games against his former team tonight, and Dallas got great contributions off the bench from Ian Mahimni who the Suns never accounted for. Meanwhile, the Suns only shot 38% from the field and got very little contributions from their bench...Not a winning formula
ValleyoftheSun Marion unloads
Holding Dallas to only 17 points on 30.4 percent shooting in the second, the Suns’ 49-46 halftime deficit didn’t look so bad.
But the third quarter did.
Again, the Suns scored 19 points, but this time their shooting slumped below 30 percent. The defense wasn’t there either. Marion alone went for 14 points on 5-for-8 shooting to give the Mavs a nine-point advantage at the end of the third.
The 6-foot-7, 228 pound forward appeared as if he’d slipped on his old Phoenix Suns jersey, hitting 4-of-6 three-pointers and aggressively attacking his old team on 21 shot attempts for the game — most them in the paint. Meanwhile, Phoenix put Mahinmi at the foul line 12 times and Haywood scored all 10 of his points in or near the paint, making the Mavericks’ low shooting totals look harsher than reality.
2MG's Difference
Lamar Odom scored 11 points on 10 shots, registered five assists, grabbed a few boards, and committed no turnovers — and yet I nearly thought his performance was unworthy of consideration for a bullet point. Sure, Odom is getting a greater opportunity to be involved in the offense in the absence of Dirk Nowitzki and has yet to have a "breakout" performance. And indeed, Odom still isn’t the player he can or should be. But the fact that decent performances have become nondescript for Lamar already indicates a notable improvement. Odom didn’t connect on more than 30 percent of his field goals in any of his first five games as a Maverick, and has scored in double digits just once in his first 13 games this season. It’s not hyperbolic to say that Odom’s term in Dallas began miserably, and though he still fades in and out of games and has his share of defensive lapses, the productivity appears to be returning incrementally. There are no grand moments of revelation in the NBA; there are merely the gradual, continuous processes that nudge players towards success, or in Odom’s case, toward normality. Monday’s game was a continuation of that course.
Hoopdata Boxscore
Brandan Wright still leads all Mavs in PER at 30, Some playing time, maybe?
Stats
FT-Watch
Brendan bricked none of nil from the line. Still bricking about 54%. Celebration for our
thirdbest Center, Beaches! [nsfw]On the other Hand, the Candyman missed 4 of 5 lollypops.
Rest
Outrebounded? Hell yes, 42-52! I blame Gortat-Morris
33 FG, 23 Assists for the Mavs. We like to...MOVE IT!
Bonus
Disclaimer: If you couldn't tell by now, all italic sentences are made up thoughts, not actual quotes.