POST GAME QUOTES......

[ÜberDirk]

Only confirms my hate for nellie, spineless worm won't even take his blame!!!!!!!

"Postgame Quotes Dec. 30 vs. Bucks



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Mavs Head Coach Don Nelson Don Nelson


You have to take the good with the bad, I guess. It was a hard fought game. I was very disappointed with our second period. I thought that set the tone for the entire game and it was anybody’s ball game for most of the time after that. Of course we didn’t win it, but we competed hard and my mother said there will be days like this. We played against a team equally able to score. We got beat at our own game. I don’t have any complaints about that. Some performances I have some complaints about, but they came in here and beat us. I didn’t think that was going to happen, but it did. We will go to work tomorrow and see if we can’t find where we threw this thing.

On Raef’s performance:
What performance? He didn’t perform tonight. I played him a lot of minutes the night before and I thought that got him over the hill and there was nothing there. So I thought I would go with Popeye (Jones) and there was nothing there for even a short period of time. I had to go with the regulars most of the way and you saw the fatigue set in towards the end of the game. We spent about everything we had out there. It was tough going. We were still able to win the game, there is no question, all the way until the end, but fatigue was a factor tonight.

On the effect on three point shooting:
I wouldn’t say that necessarily. I thought defensively more than anywhere, loose balls and things like that, is where it shows up. Sometimes in rebounding, all though that was fairly even and they are not a good rebounding team. I thought the way they were able to attack our rim and get easy baskets down the stretch was a nightmare for us.

On Nash’s last 3-point attempt:
There was other parts to that play. I think he made up his mind that he was going to be open and I don’t think he was open. Instead of letting the play dictate, I think he pre-judged that play. That will happen. Certainly nobody is going to blame anybody on a last second shot.

On Raja Bell:
He sprained his ankle tonight. He was a very big positive.

On Raef’s confidence:
I am really tired of hearing about confidence problems. He is a guy who has had enough opportunities to get his game in order and hasn’t. It is time to get it in order and we are going to start tomorrow. There will be no punches pulled anymore. We need him to be an effective player and he hasn’t been. It’s really that simple.


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Mavs guard Raja Bell Raja Bell


On if he is beginning to feel comfortable in his role with the Mavericks
We’ve had some injuries, and as a reserve in any sport, your job is to play when called upon. I have been trying to give the effort that I know (Don) Nelson wants and expects out of me. That’s really all I am trying to do. I am starting to understand that that is my niche on this team. With the opportunity to play a little more, I am starting to get into the groove of that, so hopefully when everybody comes back healthy, this would have been a good experience for me to find out what my role is and play a better part once my minutes go back to where they were.

On what changed late in the second quarter and allowed the Bucks to come back from a 17 point deficit
They play real tough. I think they stepped it up and were the aggressors in the second quarter, because on the court, they were playing strong basketball and we were looking for fouls sometimes when it was just hard solid basketball. I think they picked up the intensity and we didn’t match it. That’s what happened in the second quarter. Once you let a team with that type of offense get shooting and get in a rhythm, they are like us, it’s hard to contain them.


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Mavs guard Steve Nash Steve Nash


on what allowed the Bucks to come back after the Mavericks built the 17 point lead in the second quarter
We just had so many let downs defensively, and we just gave them confidence to win. Really, we just gave them a lot of momentum by a lack of defense. I was disappointed because it was a game where we could have easily blown them out.

On the disappointment he feels about this loss
It’s disappointing because we knew they were going to try to run, and we just weren’t up for it tonight. We didn’t battle. We didn’t challenge. For long periods of the game, we let them do whatever they want, and that’s why we lost.


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Bucks Head Coach George Karl George Karl


We’ve had situations like that. I still think our team is playing better than its record and we needed a confidence booster to beat a good team. A team that has only lost four games. A win on their home court is a huge win for us. We have been talking about winning a big game on the road against a good team and that is what we did tonight.

On their strategy:
Our strength is their strength. They’re shooters and we’re shooters. They’re longer and stronger and my decision pretty early was to play small against them, give up a few offensive rebounds, let Nellie have more paint opportunities and try to outshoot them a little bit. We have a lot of good looks in fourth quarters that we haven’t made. Tonight we made them.

On Jason Caffey:
Jason energy was huge. I couldn’t find another big guy to go with Mase (Anthony Mason) most of the night. Gadzuric got five fouls. The athleticism of the game wasn’t the type of game for Irvin. Joel was sick tonight. Jason came out and gave us great minutes and great offense and was really tough-minded. In the second quarter when the game kind of swung a little bit our way, we got a little bit more physical with them, I think Jason was a big part of that.


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Bucks Tim Thomas Tim Thomas


We fought through it. That is what you have to do. We buckled down on defense in the fourth quarter and that was the difference. We know that we can score the basketball when defense is most important. We came out with the mindset in the fourth that we were going to play defense. Of course making shots is a lot easier, but the defense end was key.

On his three point shot:
We saw that they were playing a zone in the second quarter and a lot in the fourth and they were running the baseline trying to get open. I ran on one end, saw the ball and ran back to the other and nobody spotted me. I was in the corner wide open."