Video Quoteboard: Through "thick and thin"

Happy Thanksgiving, Mavs fans!

Last night's game was a lot of fun. The Mavs always seem to find a way to make things interesting, but at least this season thus far they've been on the winning side of interesting more often than not. Last night was no exception, as the Mavs built a 17 point lead against one of the hottest shooting teams in the league, but saw that lead shrink to four in the final minutes before finally icing the game with a couple key shots. I was having a hard time not hollering from the press box with every play.

You'll want to tune in to my (extremely amateur) video of Carlisle's comments -- a lot of laughs, especially towards the end.

Rick Carlisle

On Vince's game...

He got some better looks. Teams are laying all over him. They know how important he is to us. And so there's gonna be times he just has to let the game come to him a little bit. And the attention he gets off the ball opens up opportunities for other guys away from him. There's a certain amount of patience and discipline that he's gotta use, and he will. But he's such an aggressive nature that he's always going to be looking to attack.

On the team's progression on defense...

I say it all the time, shotmaking comes and goes; it's fickle. But consistent defense is what you win with in this league, and tonight we showed signs of being a better defensive team.

On Monta's night...

We're finally able to play him a reasonable number of minutes. He was playing hurt tonight, he had a very stiff back, and last game he banged his ankle...he hits the floor a lot so it's amazing he doesn't miss more games. He's playing hurt, he's having a rough shooting night, and yet he was still a major factor in making winning plays. It's huge for us.

On Dalembert and Blair's roles...

They have to be a tag team. Blair was physical; he applied some good, legal hits. Golden State is a physical team and they try to hit you too...Sam's dunk late in the fourth was a huge play...we have to keep those guys fresh and keep shuffling them in and out, back and forth. One guy gives us girth, one guy gives us length: they're like thick and thin out there. They both supply a really important element to our team.

On Mekel versus Larkin...

The backup point guard battle is a good battle. Mekel has earned minutes, Larkin really earned his minutes tonight. Those two guys are a little different. And I really labored as to which guy to play tonight. I gave Shane another shot, I thought his speed could help us, and he had by far his best game.

On whether he'll continue to use Larkin on defense in fourth quarters...

Stay tuned.

Dirk Nowitzki

On the bench play...

Sometimes the starters, the energy is just not there, or the shooting or whatever the case may be. We need the bench to be game changers sometimes....I thought Jae [Crowder] was phenomenal, Blair was a beast on the offensive glass, Shane I thought was great picking up fourth quarter late plays on defense. The bench was phenomenal tonight; they probably won us the game.

On the fourth quarter...

[The Warriors] are very explosive. If Curry gets hot, it doesn't matter if he gets double teamed, he made some tough shots and we missed some shots in transition...they can erase any lead really quick. But we got some stops when we needed to.

On Monta's game...

He was great. I thought he stuck with Klay Thompson all night, he's battling, offensively 10 assists is huge for us, for him to keep attacking in the lane. [The fourth quarter assist to Dalembert] was probably the biggest play of the game, it took some of their momentum away...we want him to keep shooting the ball, he's been phenomenal so far this year he made enough plays for us to get the win.

Shane Larkin

On the bench play...

Everybody was making shots off the bench. Coach got on us the other night for not bringing energy to the court, so we just tried out best to do that tonight an it worked in our favor.

On pushing the pace...

That's what they brought me in to do, that's what they saw on draft night, that's why they brought me here. Just using my speed to my advantage to help the team, whether it's on defense with my speed, or offense pushing the pace, or whatever. That's what I need to do to stay on the court and build up my equity so the team believes, the coaches believe in me as a player....and just make a contribution every night.

On Carlisle playing him in the fourth quarter...

He just told me to get a stop...it showed me he had a lot of confidence in me.

Monta Ellis

On his progression as a player...

The biggest thing for me is playing within the system. There are a lot of guys on this team that can shoot the ball, doing what the coach asks me to do, and really just picking my spots and then taking them.

On his rough shooting night...

Just have to continue to play. There were shots that I took that I've been making, even when I go to the basket, my layups I missed, it was just one of those nights when they just wouldn't go in. Coach just told me to stay aggressive and I did and had 10 assists...if it's not one thing, it's just going to have to be something else.

Warriors head coach Mark Jackson

On turnovers...

That's the big thing. You can't go on the road against a good basketball team and give them extra possessions. That's not who we are and that's not the way we're built. So, we turned it over, we were careless, and we paid the price.

On the fourth quarter run...

That's the positive note. We didn't play well, we were careless, and we didn't pay attention to detail on either side of the basketball. We just were not sharp. That being said, down 15 or 16 with five minutes to go, I thought we showed a lot of fight but we have to bottle what we did during that span and start doing it for 48 minutes.