Quote board: Hear from Jason Kidd, Luka Doncic, and Justin Holiday after the 142-116 Dallas win over San Antonio

The Dallas Mavericks beat the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night, pulling away in the fourth to dominate 142-116. There wasn’t a lot of defense in this game but it was pretty fun watch with a ton of offense, including a great contribution from new Maverick Justin Holiday. While you can read all about the game here, here’s what Jason Kidd, Luka Doncic, and Justin Holiday had to say after the game.

Jason Kidd

(On the game…)

“I think after our practice yesterday, it was great carry-over with the energy and the spirit. Guys were connected. We talked about it before, just being unselfish. There are going to be some guys that their minutes come down as we get healthy here. That’s what happens when you have a deep team, and I thought the guys did a great job tonight.”

(On Justin Holiday’s debut…)

“As I talked about, he can start here. Just to look at that, see how he does in a starting role. He’s a pro, he’s been in the league, won a championship, he’s happy to be here and he’s going to do whatever it takes to help his team win. Tonight was a pretty good display, a little catch and shoot, open shots, and defensively I thought he did a really good job too. Good start, we’ll go back to work tomorrow and get ready for the [Los Angeles] Lakers. Again, anytime we can score 142 points and Luka [Dončić] doesn’t have to play in the fourth, that’s pretty good.”

(On the ball movement…)

“I thought the ball from yesterday’s [practice] was moving, we saw that before the break. Guys moving too, and then your quarterbacks, with Kai [Kyrie Irving] and LD [Luka Dončić], finding open guys, I thought they did a really good job. I thought Josh [Green] did good job of finding guys. The ball doesn’t stick, especially when people have said that Luka and Kai need the ball, they also know how to use their teammates, and their teammates are delivering right now.”

(On the advantage of having both Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving…)

“When you can finish at the rim and then also in the paint, that helps. A lot of times those [shots] that they don’t make lead to offensive rebounds or to the free throw line. So, that’s something that both of those guys can do, Luka did that there in the first quarter, I think he got [to the line] 10 times. Just being aggressive, and the mind set of getting in the paint. When you have those two quarterbacks getting into the paint and being able to get to the rim … We would say that Luka is a great finisher, and we would say Kai is the best finisher in the league with either hand. So, to that ability to get to the paint or the rim is big.”

Luka Doncic

(On his comfortability on catch and shoot 3-pointers…)

“Good. There is a lot more space now so I feel good.”

(On what allows Kyrie Irving to take the game over in the 4th quarter…)

“He’s just a clutch player. 4th quarters are for him. That’s what he does and since he came here, every time he’s amazing.”

(On how Kyrie Irving has gotten acclimated into the Mavs system…)

“He’s doing great. Like I said, we have a lot of spacing, and I think that’s good for other players. A lot of open shots, so it’s been really good”

(On the addition of Justin Holiday…)

“He’s a great player. Obviously now, you saw it and he was amazing. I played against him a couple of times, and he’s a really good player on both sides.”

Justin Holiday

(On if he thought he might have a performance like he had tonight…)

“I mean, I don’t come in and think I’ll go crazy. My plan was to come in and play hard. I knew there were going to be open shots. Our team is so good that those open shots can go to anybody. I got a few looks, but if I get the looks, I’m pretty confident I’m going to make it.”

(On if he felt comfortable in the corner when shooting three-pointers tonight…)

“Yeah, I was like ‘I’ll stay all day.’ Once you make one, usually you can duplicate that.”

(On if he feels confident he is going to get a lot of open looks playing with Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving…)

“Those two generate a lot of open shots for guys and they are willing passers. So, if it was myself or anyone else, there’s going to be open shots to be had. The beautiful thing about it is, I’m okay with it not being me and these guys are okay with it not being them. That’s the way you play as a team to be good when you have it for the next guy to get a shot. It’s hard for teams to beat that when you have that type of camaraderie and that type of feel.”

(On if he sees the team playing and committing to good defense and making a run in the playoffs…)

“Yeah, a comment I continued to make when I was on the bench was ‘I feel like guys were there to help me.’ Guys were rotating and doing things, the things we were doing in practice. We know exactly what we’re supposed to do in certain situations. That’s the first step to being a good defensive team. I just think with a little more time, I think we have a lot of potential to do well on the other end.”

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