Quote board: The Mavs react to beating the Nets

It wasn’t pretty, but the Dallas Mavericks swept their season series against the Brooklyn Nets with a 96-94 win, Monday night. Luka Doncic led the way again with 36 points, but he had help from Dorian Finney-Smith and Josh Green. They poured in 18 and 16 points, respectively.

Dorian Finney-Smith

(On his performance tonight…)

“That’s Luka trusting me, he knew they had two on him and he just said go get the ball. That feels good when the best player on our team is telling me to go to the ball down the stretch. Even though I tried to give the game away, with the turnover and foul on KD. He had made 62 in a row, but he missed when it counted, and we will take that win.”

(On being a mentor to Josh Green…)

“Confidence, I have been in that position where guys play off me and you just have to shoot it with confidence. Even if you miss – cause he shoots it well in practice so you just got to go into the game with that same confidence. You can tell he’s been putting the work in. I just remember him trying to figure out if he should change his shot, and I was just like whatever you do you have to be confident in it. He went back to his old shot and that’s what I like, standing on what you believe. He believed his old shot was the best shot.”

Josh Green

(On if he has paid any attention to how well he is shooting right now…)

“Um, I mean, I think it’s just kind of one of those things, like, taking it game-by-game, you know? Shooting is – there’s 82 games in a season so there are going to be times where I’m shooting well, there’s going to be time where sometimes you’re going to miss, but for me it’s just keeping the same mindset. If I’m open, shoot it. We have a team full of shooters. We have a great coaching staff who know how to help me. I worked a lot on that in the offseason so for me, it’s just like – I shot too many times in the offseason and I put myself into too many situations now where I shouldn’t be passing up open 3’s. I feel comfortable shooting them, and it’s not so much counting the makes. Obviously, yeah, you want to make them every time but it’s more of making sure that I’m taking the right shots.”

(On if there was anything that led to his night tonight…)

“I think just getting in the right spots, you know? Obviously, Luka [Dončić] has had an amazing season and like any other team, they’re going to put all the attention on him. So for me, it’s just putting myself into positions where it’s easy for him to get the ball out of his hand and potentially either get it back or try and make a play for the team. I mean, we have, what? 70 more games left? And I’m pretty sure every other of the 70 games, the team is going to play that same exact way with doubling Luka.”

(On his confidence…)

“Yeah. I think this season, in general, I feel a lot more confident on the offensive end. I wouldn’t just say this game. Like I said before, I feel like I put in so much work this offseason that it’s just like, what have you got to lose? You need to just go out there and play basketball. At the end of the day, I’ve been doing it since I was two years old [or] three years old. For me, if I can somehow put it like – it’s fun, you know? It’s a game that everyone wants to play so my whole thing is just, have fun. Play basketball.”

Jason Kidd

(On Josh Green’s development…)

“Yeah, I think you said it. One word is confidence. You see his confidence is high. His teammates believe in him. The coaching staff believes in him. He played a lot of minutes tonight. He deserves those minutes. It’s a positive to give Reggie [Bullock] or Doe [Finney-Smith] a 10-minute break. We’ve asked Reggie and Doe to do a lot, but it just shows that – you’ve got to give him a compliment that he worked extremely hard to put himself in this position.”

(On if there is an update on Tim Hardaway Jr. after his injury…)

“I don’t. I saw him in that hallway. He was happy for the team’s success, but I couldn’t even tell you what happened.”

(On Dorian Finney-Smith stepping up…)

“Yeah, Doe played well. You look at the defensive side of the ball and then you look at being able to send someone other than Luka [Dončić] to the free throw line [and] being able to step up and make those free throws. That shows confidence. Maxi [Kleber] has confidence [inbounding to Finney-Smith]. Luka was taken away and Doe comes up with the ball [and] gets fouled. Doe did a lot of good things for us. We’ll look at that last play where he fouled [Kevin] Durant. It’s a tough play. Bang-bang. He was trying to do the right thing. Durant is a smart player and he understood that the time to score and what was taking place, so give him credit. A lot of good things. We didn’t fold and we found a way to win against a team – the Nets are playing extremely hard and they’re playing well.”

(On the offensive strategy when teams throw double-teams at Luka Dončić…)

“Yeah, it’s something that we’re used to and we’ve had success against it. You look at Spencer [Dinwiddie]’s line, he didn’t score the ball and normally when we play 4-on-4, we feel like it’s an advantage. Give the Nets credit. Their defense was good when they went to that but we just didn’t take advantage of it.”

Theo Pinson

Although he didn’t play, Theo Pinson left a mark on the game. He was jawing with Nets superstar Kevin Durant throughout, getting in his head. It worked as Durant missed two free throws in the final seconds that would have sent the game to overtime.

Tim MacMahon of ESPN captured some of what both Pinson and Durant said postgame.

Kevin Durant

(On why Theo Pinson was able to get under his skin…)

“I wasn’t pissed off. I was having an amazing time. Great time. I love talking shit to fans, other teams, coaches, and they sense that it’s a healthy thing. It’s not like I’m upset and want to fight Theo or I am pissed off at him for talking to me. No, I was having an amazing time. There isn’t a better place for me to be in my life than where I was tonight.”

(On Theo Pinson telling him he has to be Magic Johnson…)

“Yeah, I mean nobody in this league wants to let me go one-on-one or wants to see me in my spot, so they’ll throw three or four people at me and zone up when I get the ball. I was just telling him ‘this is how great I am.’ It’s a simple fact that when you put that much attention on one player, playing a team sport, it shows how great I am. He understood.”