How the Mavericks are moving on from their blowout Game 5 loss to the Clippers

There isn’t much to glean from blowout losses. They’re a semi-regular part of the NBA and coaches and players look to the next game as soon as the final buzzer sounds.

That’s what the Dallas Mavericks will do after allowing the Los Angeles Clippers to run up the score on them Tuesday night. It’s all they can do.

Still, while no one wants to remember the 154-111 drubbing, there are some plays that stood out. Here’s what the Mavericks had to say after the game.

Tim Hardaway Jr.

“Most importantly, we battled this far [and] we have another game on Thursday. Coach said at the beginning of this series the first team to win two games in row is going to win it. So we’ve got to try our best not let them win that second game in a row.”

Trey Burke

“Yes, it is one of those games. We knew they were going to come out with a lot of energy, we tried to match it early on. They shot at an extremely high level. We just have to give credit to those guys tonight and we have to be better. We have to be better early on and we can’t play as much half-court basketball as they want us to play. We are going to do that by getting stops and getting out in transition. I feel like that is when we are at our best. We are going to evaluate tonight and go into Game 6 like it is Game 7, I am sure of that.”

“We are a little discouraged right now but as far as winning the series, we still believe we can win the series. Guys are a little down because that was embarrassing. To lose by 35, 40 points, that is embarrassing on any given night. As competitors, as pros, we know that that doesn’t feel good, especially with what is on the line. There is still a chip on our shoulder and there is still a sense that we can win this series. So we are going to try and learn from this and move on from it.”

Rick Carlisle

“Tough game. Very poor performance by us. It was disappointing. It was very physical and we just need to have a stronger physical disposition to start the game and throughout. We’ve got to get some more traction at both ends of the floor.”

Maxi Kleber

“It’s the playoffs. We just talked about it—it’s one game. We’ve got to forget about it. We started off hot, and then immediately broke down. Kind of like went on with offense and didn’t get stops at all [on defense]. So it was not a good game. We’ve just got to forget about it and move on from here.”