QUOTEBOARD: The Mavericks lose to the Rockets and nobody's happy

(Locker room reporting was done by Doyle Rader and compiled by myself.)

Rick Carlisle

On the comeback that could have won it for the Mavericks

That was good. We gave ourselves a chance, which was great, but the first 46 minutes or whatever it was were not good. It's a lot of the same problem; keeping people in front of us and giving up too many layups. We've got to do better.

On whether Monta Ellis got frustrated by foul trouble

I'm sure it's frustrating to have fouls and have to come out of the game.

On Dalembert's bad defense on Dwight

He had a couple of touch fouls in the first two minutes, and he's got to avoid that. It takes discipline, and he's got to be more disciplined than that.

On the play of Devin Harris

I thought he was playing hard, but I didn't think any of our guys were really playing hard until toward the end of the game. I don't know how many times they blew by us, but I'm glad we started fouling Howard because I was starting to get the chills over there from all of the blow-bys. It saved our guys the embarrassment of getting blow by two or three times in a row.

Jose Calderon

On the late comeback

We kept fighting. We knew we were in a tough place. We couldn't get a stop for one part in the 4th quarter, but like you said we kept fighting until the end. We got the shots at the end and we couldn't make it but we shouldn't put ourselves in those situations to be able to win this game. I think we made too many mistakes.

On missing two shots at the end

Well the first one was not anything. The second one was off the rebound was kind of quick. The first one was a good look they kind of double-teamed Dirk but I couldn't make it so it happens sometimes.

On why they couldn't get over the hump and take a lead

Every time we were close we did something wrong or a bad turnover which gave them (Houston) a layup or something like that so just a little bit both ways."

Dirk Nowitzki

On the final play

We ran a pick and roll play, they switched, and that's my isolation on the elbow. We've done it a million times. And Montiejunas bumped right back and doubled teamed me, I tried to make the right play. Pass wasn't great, but we still had enough time to swing it or even drive it, but Jose decided to pull it. Jose's our best three point shooter this year, so I guess we live with the look. We even got the offensive rebound -- I thought he had more time, but he didn't know, so he kind of shot up a runner. He could have easily passed to me, I was just sitting there in the post. But it shouldn't even get to this point, the defense was horrible every time down the court.

On what's wrong with the defense

It's a little bit of everything. You've got to have some pride and guard your man a little better and help. We don't have the greatest individual defense in the league so five guys got to scramble and work together

Rockets coach Kevin McHale

On whether he was worried when Calderon got two potential game winners

We doubled team Dirk. We wanted to make sure Dirk didn't beat us. It got over and Calderon had luck and thank goodness he missed it. We fouled them. They had 8 free throws off of two foul three point shooters and we fouled Dirk after a free throw. If we don't do that then we're perfectly fine. Make them use the clock and come up. You know we have to switch up and not foul the three point shooters. Then we had some turnovers and we two or three chances in break opportunities blow the game completely open. We had a layup, turned around and made the pass and Chandler got the charge. All that being said it was a hell of a win for us. We played last night and they came in and made some tough shots. Carter made two huge three's in the fourth. They got a lot of free throws late. We found a way to win, which is what we needed to do.