Rick Carlisle after the season finale loss: "We're the masking tape Mavs"

Rick Carlisle

On the team heading into the postseason

"We're the masking tape Mavs. Our guys have done it on grit and guts. We're banged up, but we got a couple days to heal up more. I just love the way this team has fought for the past two weeks. Tonight was disappointing. We've got to flush it and get ready for the playoffs."

On David Lee's injury

"It's his right heel. We hope it's not serious. I don't have an exact diagnosis. He came down and felt something, so came out, and that's it. We'll probably get more tests done on it."

On the third quarter lull

"We bombed. We were struggling to make shots. Our defense was poor. Bottom line: their second half was better than our first half. We played a great first half. They played a better second half."

How do the Mavs fix their trend of poor third quarters?

"Play better in the third quarter."

Wesley Matthews

On heading into the playoffs

"I would have liked to get tonight, for our fans, our last home game in the regular season. But, we're getting guys back healthy, it was a good night for guys to rest. We just want to get to full strength, we got some quality wins under our belt, we went on a nice little treat to finish the season off. But, we will patiently wait and see who we have, and figure it out."

On how their finish to the season preparing them for the playoffs

"It was a good test for us, we really saw who we were and who we wanted to be. The Utah game was a great game for us, it was a playoff game before the playoffs. Houston was a playoff game before the playoffs. So, we've been in that tight situation, been in a must win, we stepped up to the occasion, especially shorthanded. We just need to continue to get healthy and get everyone back together. Just gotta get focused; play one game at a time."

Raymond Felton

How do the Mavs beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in a possible playoff matchup?

"Win. Nothing else to say. Win. We gotta play harder, play smarter, and go out there and get a win."

Dirk Nowitzki

On heading into the playoffs

"I think we deserved it after a long year, up and down season. Last few weeks we battled and gutted out few wins on the road, at home. Fought some injury problems all year long, no different today.  I think we deserved it. We'll see what happens. We would of loved to win tonight. Didn't think we had it tonight. We didn't shoot well enough. We gotta wait and see what happens in the late games and get ready for the weekend. "

On turning their late season push into playoff sucees

"Basically our playoffs started two weeks ago when we were three games under .500. Our intensity wasn't there. We just picked it up a notch. We just had some injuries. We played hard, played defense. Defensive rebounding was the key. And offensively, we played a slower, grind it out type game. That should carry over in the playoffs."

Will Dirk watch Kobe or Steph?

"I don't know. I don't have the split screen on my TV. I might just go back and forth. Kobe just made the last five and the place is going nuts. Steph already has five threes. Can't go wrong with either."