Quoteboard for Mavericks 109, Knicks 102: "It was a blood and guts kind of game."

Tyson Chandler's monstrous outing against his former team

Tyson Chandler: "You know, at the beginning of the year you always look at the calendar and mark it [playing your former team], but honestly, once you get caught up in the season, it's not as big as it's made out to be. It really depends on how you're playing, how your team is playing. Like I said, this [win] is more important because we had dropped two and this is one that we felt like we should get."

Dirk Nowitzki: "We were actually talking before the game that we were gonna have to shoot him with a tranquilizer gun to slow him down a little bit because he was obviously amped up for this one. We wanted to get this one for him, obviously, and in the huddle he was as focused as ever. I think this is definitely one he wanted to have."

Devin Harris: "He was fantastic. He was fired up. He's always fired up, but I know it was a big win for him. Rebounds, defense, he played great for us."

Chandler Parsons, making a joke: "He was huge, man. He almost played as well tonight as I did against my former team. ... I know how awkward and uncomfortable it can be playing your former team, and he handled himself great and we don't come close to winning this game without him."

Harris: "He was barking with us; first quarter, second quarter, overtime. He was in tune tonight."

Tyson, on leaving New York: "I don't know, I don't think I was in the future plans with new management coming in. They had a different idea, different vision. It's not personal, if they want to change personnel, if they want to build for the future, I completely understand that."

Dirk Nowitzki: "He's a beast, and we needed every single rebound. We're not playing very well right now, I think that's obvious. We just had to find a way to steal this one."

The Mavericks ended a couple of losses

Rick Carlisle: "It was a blood and guts kind of games, and they were throwing in some really difficult shots, but this is the NBA. These are NBA players, and guys do that. We didn't hang our heads, we kept battling, kept fighting, and that's what you got to do."

Chandler Parsons: "We're not playing great at all but this was a good sign for us to never really get down and, when it got to overtime, we stuck with it. We had a bad first quarter but we bounced back in the second quarter and kept playing hard, stayed together. We needed to win this game."

Rick Carlisle: "Hard game, and they're all hard right now. We're not playing particularly great basketball but tonight we showed some guts and it's an important game. It's good to get back on the winning track, at least tonight, and we look forward to getting a little rest tomorrow."

Carlisle: "Some nights we'll have to do this. It's not a perfect world, you know. We'll be ok. The season is a big picture."

Devin Harris: "I think defensively, it's just energy for us. We're starting out sluggish, giving teams too many early looks and too much confidence early on."

Carlisle: "Vintage Nowitzki. ... It was his will that carried us."

Dirk: "I looked for my shot tonight, I obviously saw that we didn't have much going offensively. They were playing our stuff pretty good, they were fighting over some screens, we weren't really shooting the ball well at all -- I don't think I've seen a 4-for-31 night from three in a long time. Like I said, we're not playing well, we're not shooting well, we've just got to keep grinding. It felt like my 3-ball wasn't quite on fire, but from 16-, 17-feet I felt like I had a good rhythm so any time I got to my spots I was able to knock some down."

Everything else

Carlisle: Some nights you get good looks and you don't knock them down. Some nights the opponent is very difficult and seemingly makes every one. When that happens, you just got to circle the wagons and keep banging away, get some balls in the basket.

Carlisle on Dirk's minutes: "I was watching closing. The game was not a real fast-paced game. They slowed it down, which was one of the reasons they really carried part of the game. They played their tempo and they were able to move the ball, get deep in the clock. We were hit for a lot of late shot clock points, and a lot of difficult shots too. In those cases, you just got to keep going, keep playing. I was looking real closely at the minutes but once we got into overtime, I took one timeout about two and a half minutes in which I thought we needed to get our guys a little bit of rest. There's some times where you just can't take Dirk out. In those situations if I did, I'd hear about it, and I don't want to hear about it."

Dirk on his minutes: "You just had to grind that one out there, I feel fine."

Carlisle on keeping Monta in the game with five fouls in the fourth quarter: "I trust him. I trust he's going to stay aggressive on defense and use his quickness to not get the six. He's an experienced pro, and frankly, I didn't see any way to get him out at that point. He's earned my trust in a situation like that and his timely shot making during that stretch where he hit three buckets in a row was huge."

Carlisle on Parsons' late effort: "He was on the floors a lot of time tonight, and I encourage our guys not to look at the stats. We've just got to look at our individual, full capacity energy and effort every single play that we're out there. At the end of the year we can tally up makes and misses, and the only guys that care about that are you guys."

Harris, on how to get out of the 3-point funk: "Just keep shooting. Keep shooting."

Dirk, on what's up with that: "I don't know, I don't know. I can't put my finger on it. We're stepping into them aggressively, I don't think we're hoisting a bunch of bad shots. Maybe sometimes when you feel like the rhythm isn't quite there, maybe show and go a little bit, reduce the threes a little bit. But we're a good shooting team, we're going to keep shooting them [especially] on the weak side. That's our game; we pick and roll, we get into the paint and we kick it out. We still want our shooters to step into them."

Dirk, more on that: "Some teams are going under our pick and rolls, they're keeping us out of the lane a little more. That obviously means the big men don't have to help as much and our 3-point shooting isn't quite open as much. Maybe we gotta find some counters; teams are going to scout us and we aren't going to score 140 every night."