The team bounced back from a blowout
Tyson: "I wanted to see how guys were going to respond the following day. I thought coaches did an excellent job pointing things out in film, correcting all the little necessary things and I thought guys responded on the practice court. I talked to a couple of people before the game and I thought we would come out with the right type of energy because of the fire we displayed the following day in practice. You could tell guys were kind of fed up with the way things were going."
Amar'e: "It was definitely helpful and therapeutic. I'm sure we sat down and thought about what we're doing here, what our goals are. We have a special situation with this team, we've got players who can play from any position with hte best in the league, so we've just got to put it together and get these wins."
Rondo: "Tuesday happened. I don't even think about it anymore. We always try to look to the future, build off this type of win. Great momentum going forward to the last stretch of our season, but tonight the best thing we did tonight was communicate. Our communication was the best we've had since I've been here. I think we have to build off of that."
Monta: "It was great. Great team, we needed to make this statement and get this win for us to get on the right track, get feeling good about ourselves and put some wins together."
Amar'e: "The good thing about this is we showed what we could do. Now it's about putting together consistency, and doing this night in and night out. I think it all started in practice yesterday, we really got after it. We competed and it carried over to tonight's game."
Dirk: "We had to sit on an embarrassing loss for two days. We competed pretty good in practice the last two days, watched some film and I thought overall our energy was good, we were talking out there, trying to rotate for each other. And offensively, that was probably as good as it's been in a long, long time, with the shot making, with moving the ball, with penetrating, getting into the lane and finding the open guy, I just thought we thought overall we had great energy again."
Rondo: "I think we lost three tough games on TV, three out of four, against some great teams. We needed a great win tonight against an elite team and obviously, they came last time and beat us pretty bad here last night. Jordan had some crazy numbers, Chris Paul had some nice numbers. Tonight, we made a stand and stuck with it for 48 minutes."
Tyson: "The thing is, before [the blowout] everyone's kind of skating on thin ice, not knowing which way to go, and not wanting to step on toes. After you take an ass-whoopin' like that, you say, "F that," and you say what you need to say."
Amar'e, on speaking his mind after the Cleveland loss: "It's always about speaking the truth. Once you speak the truth, you can get positive results from that. It may start off a little rough but the moral of the story is you get positive results, and that's what we got to continue to do -- get positive results and speak the truth about ourselves.
The defense was good
Dirk: "With Blake out and Crawford out, we felt like Paul needed a great offensive night like he had in OKC [in their last game]. We watched that game. We tried to be aggressive with him, we trapped him some off pick-and-rolls and tried to get the ball out of his hands. Rondo picked him up for court, or JJ even, Devin was trying to get into Redick. Our overall activity on both sides of the floor was good."
Rondo, on defending Chris Paul: "It wasn't just me. It was a collective effort team-wise. I got to give my bigs a lot of credit. They helped me out a lot. Some was individual but for the most part it was great team defense."
Monta, on the change in the second half: "Our defense. We were helping each other out, scrambling, getting defensive stops, getting out and running. Rondo did a great job of finding guys, CP had a heck of a game, we were just feeding off one another."
The offense was also good
Carlisle: "The ball moved tonight. I give a lot of credit to Rondo. He just kept finding the right people. His play calls were on point. He had a presence out there defensively that we really needed with Chris Paul out there."
Carlisle: "Parsons was really good start to finish. The hot start was much needed. In the Western Conference, you're going to come up against a lot. You're going to have to face a lot. When DeAndre Jordan hits a 3 at the end of the shot clock, they banked in one or two 3s, when the game was close and they had a lead, to have the wherewithal to play through all that is challenging, but our guys, they understood the importance of stepping it up, and now we have to keep it up."
Rondo is calling more plays
Rondo: "It felt good. I think this is the best I've been since I've been here as play calling. Charlie got hot, CP got hot, I knew the right plays to call to get those guys shots, not necessarily the same play calling every time down the floor because teams obviously load up on the same plays that you run. I was able to give different play calling signals and give guys those looks."
Rick Carlisle: "Well, we were due. We were due to play better, we were due to compete better as a group, and the challenge now is to sustain that. It's going to be a challenge, but we made significant strides. I thought our guard play was tremendous, really fantastic on the ball. Rondo had a fantastic presence in the game at both ends. He's really developed a good handle on this team. With 15 left, I love the way he played tonight. I thought Ellis was terrific. Barea and Harris, they brought energy and pace off the bench and we had a lot of guys who were really, really good."
Rondo: "I think I did a great job tonight as far as playcalling. Obviously it's a lot better when guys make shots. I was in there with a great group, which I always am, but tonight we made some shots and the playcalling I did tonight worked well for us."
Rondo: "It's been gradual. The trust is becoming more and more better between coach and I. It's tough to give a guy keys to the cars when he first gets there. Tonight, we were on the same page a lot. We talked before the game as far as the playcalling he wanted to stick with. We were very locked in this morning during shootaround and it continued over tonight into the game."
Rondo: "I think it took [my teammates] to know the ball was coming. I may pass up shots other guys may normally take. Me being a pass-first point guard, just having guys ready at all times on the floor, having their hands ready, expecting the ball. That's how we continue to grow for one another as teammates. It's a learning process and we're going to continue to get better. We had some turnovers tonight but we didn't let it transfer over into the defense."
Carlisle, on how much playcalling Rondo does now: "As much as he can. He's really developed a good sense for our team, when to push it, when to get into something. He really understands all the guys he's playing with. And some of these plays where he would steal the ball, or deflect it and get it, that's Rondo. That's where he's really one of the unique guys I've ever seen play. "
Tyson is healthier
Tyson: "Yeah, this is the best I've felt from start to finish in a while. I'm getting there."
Dirk: "He was struggling a bit after his groin thing but I thought he was fine, he was battling DeAndre in there. I thought he held his own and that was great."
Carlisle: "[Tyson's] doing better. There's no doubt about it. I don't think he's 100 percent yet. We got some guys dinged up. With Aminu not playing tonight, the way Villanueva and Jefferson stepped up tonight was big time. That was really big time."
Everything else
Dirk: "The good thing is our schedule has slowed down some. We've had a lot of games out of the break coming at us, and now we had two days, and we have another two days, so that's kind of nice. Take a day off tomorrow, stay focused on Sunday, have a good practice and go after in Monday."
Dirk: "We haven't really been healthy, and if we want to do anything or get some momentum going we need to stay healthy. Parsons missed over two weeks, Rondo had his face fracture, Tyson's been in and out and playing hurt some. We need everyone on deck, playing at a high level, and then I think we have a chance against anybody."
Tyson, on sustaining this: "It's that time of the year. We've only got 15 games left and then the playoffs are right around the corner. It's that downstretch at the end of the year that you want to be playing your best basketball, and I think it's important we sustain it throughout."
Tyson, on the Mavs' bench: "They're going to be huge, because I feel like we have one best benches in basketball. It's important that we play the same way from start to finish, from the starters to the bench players. If you get your number called, we've got to play Mavs basketball."
Carlisle: "It's been a while since we've had a dominated rebounding performance, but we were playing small a lot of the time. They were playing small a lot of the time, which probably influenced the other way for them, but our guys weren't going to be denied tonight and the challenge now is to maintain and sustain, and keep this edge going."