Quoteboard for Mavericks 135, Thunder 131: "Definitely an old school shootout"

Hey guys! I went to Oklahoma City for Wednesday's game. GOOD DECISION, TIM. No but for real GIVE YOURSELF A HIGH FIVE. That was a NBA basketball game worth watching.

Here's what the dudes said afterwards.

Rick Carlisle

"Every once in a while, you stand over there and say, 'This is an unbelievable game to be a part of.' And it was. The extreme momentum swings back and forth, the shot making was breathtaking. The defense was probably better than the numbers indicate, but when you get two teams that desperately want to win a game like this in this kind of environment, special things happen. We survived. There were a lot of times we could have folded up -- big runs -- but everyone held the line. Everyone contributed. Our bench was into it. We had balance. Ellis and Parsons gave us a great one-two punch during the game and then Parsons made some huge plays down the stretch to help get the lead back. It's a great win for us."

On Parsons: "He hit outside shots, he drove it well, he made one great pass to Tyson for a dunk. We needed everybody and I thought everybody really played an essential part."

On Stoudemire: "Stoudemire was a major factor in this game. He was great on offense but I thought defensively he had one of his better games too. He gave us a strong, physical presence on the inside.

On putting the ball in Parsons' hands down the stretch: "They had a weaker defender on him. We roll with it once then we rolled with it again. There was one time where he got stuck late clock where he manufactured a shot, hit a stepback shot that was massively important. We've been putting it on Monta most the year. Having another guy who can create a little bit only helps."

Chandler Parsons

"My outside shot wasn't falling tonight, so I wanted to get to the basket. I thought I had some mismatches there on the perimeter where I could get in there, use my size to finish. Just being patient and staying aggressive. Just trying to make some big plays down the stretch for our team. We all knew how important this game was. We needed this one in a bad way. Especially after fouling Morrow on that 4-point play -- that was not a smart play so I needed to pick up the slack after that."

On the style of offense being sustainable: "In the first half, we had a great pace. We were getting rebounds. We were getting out in transition. Even though we didn't hit every shot, we were still getting great looks, and we were getting great looks early. That's what we've got to continue to do with our personnel. We're not meant to play slow or grind it inside. We got to get up and down, and that really set the tone. It's tough to play against and it's tough to defend."

On taking over in the final few minutes: "Anytime for a player when you see it go in it obviously helps. Anytime you get to the rim and get easy layups it gets you going. Mine just happened to be in the fourth quarter tonight. Like I said, I wanted to be a threat out there and with my size and my skill I can get into the paint and make plays for others."

On keeping the turnovers down: "That's very impressive. That's been a big problem all game long but we were definitely more solid tonight, especially against a team like OKC.

Amar'e Stoudemire:

On when the last time he had this much fun offensively was: "Oh man, I have this much fun all the time offensively. Defense is where it's a harder game to play. Tonight, we did a great job offensively. We moved the ball well. Spacing was great, shot the ball well. It turned into a lot of points."

On whether the team is clicking now: "Yeah, we're getting that. We've still got some room to improve but I think we're definitely improving. We're buying into the system a lot, so it's a great win tonight."

On slowing down Kanter: "Yeah, I tried to put an end to that. You can't let him go out there and just have his way out there. You have to get physical with him, you have to get into him, you have to make him make tough shots. Gotta keep a body on him when you go for boards."

Dirk Nowitzki

On how much fun that was: "Definitely was an old school shootout. Not a lot of defense played, but had to find a way. We needed this one. They keep coming in waves in this building. Keep making shots. Westbrook attacking, Morrow unconscious with those 3s. They were incredible, kept making plays. Down the stretch, it seemed like Parsons made every play for us on the offensive end."

On whether this shows offensive potential: "Yeah, I mean, we have a lot of scorers, we know that. When we do slow down sometimes, we get in trouble. We've got to fight most times against more physical teams who try to grind it out against us, so that's why sometimes we get in trouble. If we play a fast paced game, guys were fantastic at getting to the basket. I don't think I remember 72 points in the paint in a long, long time, if ever, since I've been here."

On only having six turnovers: "Yeah, both teams didn't have a lot of turnovers, and coming in, that was our goal. Turnovers, they're so fast and athletic, especially Westbrook, that it's a layup or a dunk on the other end. We wanted to give ourselves a chance, a least get a shot up, because that's better than a turnover for us. That was we can halfway set our defense."

On Monta: "He moved really well. Really efficient. I thought right away he had our first couple of points, got us going there. Looked comfortable tonight and I don't think he had anything slowing us down."

On turning a light on: "It's the consistency. We've had some really good quarters, some really good halves. We needed to compete for the whole game. We know there's going to be runs on both ends of the floor but it's a game of run. We've got to stop runs by hard play, be more physical, be more aggressive, and at times we did that today."