Quoteboard for Mavericks 131, Timberwolves 117: "We have to do better."

Defense has got to improve

Rick Carlisle: "Not very good in the second half, we were doing some good things in the first half. In the second half they had four or five guards in the whole time, and they were putting their head down and driving in. It's harder to get stops in that kind of situation, but we gave up too much. It's a good win regardless, so we have to take it and run, but we have to do better than giving up 73 points in the second half."

Chandler Parsons: "We're getting better, for sure. I think every day we come to the gym and we compete in practice, it gets better and better. but we need to clean some things up in the second half tonight, there's no way we should give up that many points."

Parsons: "Tonight we got a little sloppy defensively, but for the most part we continued to play for 48 minutes and not allowed these teams to even think for a minute they could win the game. Just a mindset you have to have early, coming out of the gates. We've been emphasizing having strong third quarters since we've struggled with that early, but we're doing a better job."

Monta Ellis: "We just need to take it game-by-game, day-by-day. It's the beginning of the season, we have a lot of time to get going and be one on defense. We're still learning each other, but a lot of guys out there have each other's back and we're scrambling a lot. That's the biggest thing. We know we're going to miss shots, we just need to get down there and help the big guy rebound."

Dirk Nowitzki: "We got lit up pretty good in the second half, I think they scored over 70 which wasn't great, so we've got some stuff to look at and get better...[we're explosive offensively but] we're challenged in defending and rebounding every night."

Monta's big night

Carlisle: "[Monta] played great, and I thought he was the difference in the game. He scored consistently throughout; he went back in at the end and made a couple big plays. I thought Crowder's three out of the timeout was a big play. You gotta have guys ready to step in there, hit shots, and guard stuff. Jefferson did a good job, Crowder did a good job when he came in. We escaped it."

Ellis: "Picking my spots and just playing the floor with my team. Once we get the ball moving and get the ball in my head coach wants me to come of the screen so I just beat the defense."

Dirk: "[Monta] was in a great groove...that's when he's at his best, attacking and getting to the rim for us and making things happen."

Getting some rest

Carlisle: "It wasn't really Dirk's kind of game in the last ten minutes or so. My hope was that we could finish it with R.J. and some of our guys that could match up better. Tyson going back in in the last eight minutes or so, at about the eight minute mark was big because he made some big plays. We got out of here alive which is good, it's a good win. Their team is depleted, with missing a couple of their best players, with Young and Rubio out, but they scraped hard and we knew they would after what happened to them last night."

Parsons: "It's a long season, so the more games we have like this where we can get everybody in and get everybody reps and get the high minute guys off the court in the fourth quarter is always nice to do. Tonight we took care of business early so we were able to do that."

Everything else

Parsons on his shoes: "just some Del Toro kicks, got a little fringy stuff on the side. they're a little crazy."

A photo posted by Earl K. Sneed (@iamearlksneed) on Nov 11, 2014 at 8:27pm PST

Tyson on coming back from injury: "It was unfortunate because i felt great coming into [last] season and it was just an unfortunate play where a guy ran into my leg and ended up breaking my leg. and it was a setback and an uphill battle from there, missing so much time...i felt like i never really got back into a rhythm, and injuries can do that to you. but that's why i came into this summer focused, strong, ready to get back at it."

Tyson on Charlotte: "Yeah that was always funny to me...it never felt like home. no disrespect because i really like what they're doing with their organization now, but it felt more like a pit stop for me -- for both of us. ... It never felt like somewhere I was going to stick."

Monta on Tyson: "Lobs are always there, but I think teams are staring to key in on us so we have to start picking out spots. Him reading me and sometimes I'm going to starting dumping off so they won't key in on us so much. As long as he continues to set those screens he's going to be open."

Carlisle on points in the paint: "They don't have a lot of rim protection out there, and we were driving it hard. The thing we kept doing well was attacking them; we were able to outscore them. It turned into a rat game, which is what they wanted to do when they got behind, and they did a pretty good job of it. But, we got the win, so we'll take it."