Mavs Head Coach Don Nelson Don Nelson
I thought our effort was good from our standpoint but our play was terrible. All the turnovers that we made and the missed shots right around the basket, you hope that you can make those. In the NBA, players you would hope could make those shots but we didn’t make them tonight and again we had our hard knocks on the road as we’re trying to come together as a team.
On the Raptors defense:
Obviously you have to give some credit there, for sure. I think they really work hard at it and they didn’t make those shots easy and then they really tightened up down the stretch. We really had a hard time scoring anything down the stretch but we still had a lot of opportunities around the basket. We killed ourselves with the turnovers. I thought the decisions that we made with the ball were terrible.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[imghttp://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/antoine_walker.jpg[/img]
Mavs forward Antoine Walker Antoine Walker
We played very hard and with very good defence. Something we have been searching for this season. We got it done defensively, but we were sloppy with the number of turnovers – that cost us. You can’t turn the basketball over like that in crucial points in the game and expect to win. The effort was definitely there. It’s thought without all-star point guard Steve Nash because he gets everyone included. We have to continue to battle.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mavs forward Dirk Nowitzki Dirk Nowitzki
On the steal by Vince:
We didn’t lose the game on the that play. We were down three and it should’ve never have come to that point. It’s just our offence, there wasn’t any rhythm to the offence. And actually, on the defence, we clamped down. If you would’ve told me, we would’ve held them to 77 points, and we lose, I would say you’re crazy. I just wasn’t ready for the ball and didn’t catch it.
On Nash:
He’s our MVP. He gets us fired up to play every night. He gets our running game going and of course you miss your star point guard. But you have to find a way to win without him.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raptors Head Coach Kevin O'Neill Kevin O'Neill
Let’s be fair to them, they’re playing without Steve Nash, they’re playing the second night of a back-to-back but they lost last night. I’m not taking anything away from our guys because Dallas played very hard, I’m sure they felt like that was a must win for them, we just hung around long enough to give ourselves a chance to win and we did it by playing great defense. I thought Chris Bosh played exceptionally well for a rookie on those two guys, he did a heck of a job. He got beat a couple of times, he got tricked a couple of times but I thought he did a heck of job. I thought our guys, at the end, did a good job of taking away shots and forcing them to take some shots they probably didn’t want to take. What you hope is that you can develop your bench to be in that situation so your guys can get rest. It allowed Vince to get ample amount of rest and he was able to come in and guard Nowitzki and do a reasonably good job. We wanted to give Nowitzki a little bit of a different look at the end because he was settling in against some of our big guys. We were trying to wear on them a little bit and wear them down and our reserves gave us an opportunity to be able to do that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raptors guard Vince Carter Vince Carter
Regardless if our offence is not up to par, the defense has to keep doing what it has been doing. That means holding teams to below their average, and that is our goal, to just defend. From there, our offence will follow. Our first three games have been slow starts and we fought just to catch back up. With this team, you can’t do that because they have so many weapons that can score. Once they are on top of you, they really stomp on you and blow you out of your arena. It was important to do the job at both ends. (Missing Nash) He knows the offence in and out. He runs it for 48 minutes, for 82 games just about.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raptors guard Morris Peterson Morris Peterson
The one thing I try to do is let the game come to me. I thought we played hard defensively and we fought a tough team. Down the stretch, I thought we made some big plays, had some big steals, and that was the outcome of the game. They were coming off a loss to Washington and I think at the end, they got a little tired. With a team like Dallas, they like to run, push the ball up the court and they like to shoot a boat-load of threes. I think that gives us an opportunity to score at the other end with fast breaks. With their team, their primary goal is to put up points and tonight, I think we matched their intensity on offence.