Quoteboard for Rockets 108, Mavericks 101: "Tonight was a very winnable game"

Rick Carlisle

On the status of Parsons: "He had right knee soreness and so, yeah. He tried to go in the second half. I'm not sure exactly when it happened but it was more noticeable after the game last night. He tied to go today. He gave it a real shot and just wasn't moving right and he was having some discomfort, so we pulled him."

On why Houston got to the foul line so much: "Well, the dribble penetration's a problem. We just didn't do a good enough job of keeping them in front. Harden's a foul machine. He's a foul-creating machine. When he gets into that kind of a groove, he makes it hard. We just needed to be in better position on a lot of plays and be there faster, but they put you in those spots."

On when Parsons got hurt: "I don't know exactly when it happened. No, no, no. After the game last night, I heard about it and talked to him a little bit about it. It was a little sore but he didn't think it was serious. He got treatment today and he gave it a real shot. It was just the right thing to not put him back in in the second half.

On if Parsons got injured tonight: "Yeah, we did but he got checked out at halftime. He wasn't having a lot of pain. He's just got some swelling. He wanted to give it a shot but then, we pulled the plug after five, six minutes, whatever it was."

On them possibly facing Houston in the first round of the playoffs: "Well, the important thing for us is to get playing as well as we can play. I thought we had a lot of good stretchestonight. The fourth quarter doomed us. We're going to have to do a lot of things better to get playing better. Last night was great, tonight was very disappointing. I don't like to talk about future matchups. I'm more focused on what we can do to get ourselves playing better. But they're a tough team. There's a reason they're two or three in the West, so we'll see what happens."

On why Rondo played just seven minutes in the second half: "Just the way the game was going, at one point felt we needed a little more shooting in the game. Just coach's decision."

Tyson Chandler

On the game: "I felt like in the second half, we slowed our tempo down. I think we had them on their heels in the first half because of our tempo and getting out and running."

On potentially playing Houston: "I like our chances in that series. I felt like tonight was a very winnable game. I felt like if we stuck to our strategy, we would have come out with a win."

On how they defended Harden: "He's been, if not the best, one of the best players in the game this season. He's playing at a very high level, drawing fouls, getting into the paint, putting a lot of pressure on the bigs. I think, for the most part, we did a good job on him tonight."

On always going up against Houston on a back-to-back: "We had an interesting schedule against them this year. They also played last night and they also traveled. A lot of the games that we played them I felt like we should have won. Both times in their house we had a late lead and we gave it up, so it was the same thing tonight."

On whether it's a good matchup: "I'm not really getting into playoff matchups and who we play and how we fare against them. If you ask for something, you're going to be in trouble. I think we just have to get to playing our best basketball leading in to give ourselves a chance against them, Memphis, whoever else it might be."

Amar'e Stoudemire

On potentially playing Houston: "We could have won tonight, but we just came out a little flat in the second half. We didn't start the third quarter with great energy. The fourth quarter wasn't great for us either. The first half we played well, the second half we didn't."

On posting guys up: "Oh yeah, that's easy down in the post. They're going to start bringing double teams soon, but the post up is way too easy."

On knowing they could face the Rockets: "Yeah, absolutely. We all see the standings, and we all tune into what teams are doing at this point down the stretch. We know this can be a first round matchup potentially. Again, we had a chance to win tonight, we just didn't play well in the second half."

Dirk Nowitzki

On the game getting away: "In the fourth, we just didn't close the way we wanted. We gave up 31 points. On the other, we really couldn't get anything going. They had a switching lineup out there, where all five guys basically were switching and had some length. We just didn't get enough going there to really keep it close down the stretch. I thought we had some chances there. I thought Monta had a decent look from 3 even though it was a scrambling possession. It just didn't go."

On potentially facing Houston: "We knew coming in that the West was loaded. Any team that's in the playoffs presents some matchup problems. You just have to play hard, compete, be lucky here and there, hopefully stay injury-free. I don't know how bad Parsons is -- you're got to be a little fortunate."

On concern about Parsons: "I don't really know what happened. I have no clue. All of a sudden, he wasn't in our halftime speech. Before that, I had no idea he was even hurt."