Postgame Mavs@Kings

[sefant77]

Postgame

b2b

[badfish22]

[tcat075]

epic beasting.

epic beasting.

[GermanDunk]

[rabbitproof]

lovelove thethe doubledouble tanktank actionaction

jkidd messed around and got a triple double.

this weekend was a good two days.

[Budapest Maverick]

I only saw the second half, but it was a nice "Hollinger abuser" win. Dirk was Dirk, Kidd was Kidd. When Stevenson makes a three point shot and it hits nothing but net, you know that's your night. On to the next one. Go Mavs!

[tcat075]

[sefant77]

The 3rd quarter had the sweet taste of that 4th against the Jazz.

Overall nice game. Ball movement was just awesome and ppl hitting their open shots (Butler, Terry, even Deshawn).

Still worried about our center, both look like crap.

[tcat075]

And on to the next one.

[badfish22]

Originally Posted by GermanDunk

wtf man? Why only one?


lol

[NoTnERb]

KIDDIRK owning the queens!

KIDDIRK owning the queens!

[badfish22]

Originally Posted by sefant77

Still worried about our center, both look like crap.

Ricks gotta figure out what hes doing there.

[sefant77]

Haywood -7 in 7min and Barea -2 in 18min....wtf

[mary]

[aurelino9]

Mavs have 26 road wins now...tied with Cleveland and Boston for first in the league.

[GermanDunk]

Originally Posted by badfish22

wtf man? Why only one?
lol

Carlo is so unique, man. He is unique...

[GermanDunk]

Originally Posted by badfish22

wtf man? Why only one?
lol

OK, here ya go

[tcat075]

[Dirkadirkastan]

[sefant77]

Dirka is cheating!

[Underdog]

[rmacomic]

Nice Win
Nice Win

[rmacomic]

Nice Win
Nice Win

[fluid.forty.one]

dammit dammit horse horse

[basketman61]

[monty55555]

SACRAMENTO (NBA.com exclusive) -- The Mavericks final assist of the night was dished out in the Mavericks locker room.

Towering over a crowd of media after the game, a reporter asked Dirk Nowitzki if he would have any time to rest before the playoffs.

Sitting off to the side in his locker, Dallas guard Jason Terry poked his head up and delivered the one-liner: "We got all summer to rest."

There won't be any rest for the Mavericks to end the regular season as Dallas hopes to secure the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.

Dallas gave itself a bit of breathing room in the standings on Saturday night as Nowitzki scored 29 points in the Mavericks' 126-108 victory against host Sacramento.

The Mavericks (53-27) are now a full game ahead of the Nuggets (52-28), who fell to the Spurs on Saturday night. The idle Utah Jazz (52-28) are now also one game back of Dallas in the standings, tied for the No. 3 spot with Denver.

"Obviously we would love to get the No. 2 seed and get homecourt advantage as long as we can," said Nowitzki, who also added seven rebounds. "But I think we showed this season that we can get big games on the road when we really focus in like we did (Friday)."

The Mavericks clinched the Southwest Division with a victory on the road at Portland on Friday night.

"We talked about this morning sometimes after a big emotional win like last night sometimes you have a little letdown," Nowitzki said. "We definitely wanted to focus on that and come out strong."

Jason Kidd recorded a triple-double of the season with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists. It was the 37-year-old's second triple-double of the season and the 105th of his career.

"It always starts with our leadership and that's Kidd," Nowitzki said.

"He is a phenomenal passer. When your leadership is playing unselfish that sets the tone for everyone else."

Not counting his postgame assist, Terry finished with six dimes in the game. The Mavericks were sharing the ball all night, finishing with 27 assists.

After dropping two straight at home against Orlando and Oklahoma City to start April, the Mavericks have now won three consecutive games and are looking to build momentum for the postseason.

"We're taking some steps, we're not there yet," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. "Each game has critical meaning in terms of the seeding and all that. Our guys our focused in on what we need to do."

The Mavericks finish their current three-game road trip against the Clippers on Monday and conclude the regular season at home against the Spurs on Wednesday.

The Nuggets finish the regular season at home versus Memphis on Monday and at Phoenix on Tuesday. Utah finishes at Golden State on Tuesday and at Phoenix on Wednesday.

Nowitzki made 13 of 13 free throws on the night and broke his own record now having made 68 consecutive free throws. The streak began on March 29 versus Denver and is a new franchise record, breaking his own previous mark of 60 consecutive free throws from the 2005-06 season.

Dallas led throughout the game and held its largest lead at 25 points in the third quarter. The Mavericks shot 60 percent in the first quarter to jump out to a 35-24 lead and led 65-53 at the half.

Shawn Marion missed his third straight game with a strained left oblique (abdominal) muscle.

Kings rookie Tyreke Evans finished with 27 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

Evans is looking to become the fourth player in NBA history to average at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in his rookie season, joining LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson as the only players to ever do so.
He entered Saturday night needing just 51 more points in the final three games to reach the mark. With 27 points against Dallas, Evans now needs just 24 points in the Kings final two games. The rookie has already clinched the total number of assists and rebounds needed.

Sacramento finishes its home schedule on Monday night against the Rockets before ending the season at the Clippers.

Carl Landry, who has averaged 17.8 points and 6.7 rebounds and has started all 25 games since being traded to Sacramento from Houston on Feb. 18, tied his biggest scoring output with his new team with 30 points. He also had 30 on March 26 at Boston. His season-high was 31 points at Phoenix on Jan. 6 when Landry was still with Houston.

Landry talked after Saturday night's loss about the difficulties of matching up against Nowitzki.

"We just let him have easy shots," Landry said. "We were not contesting any of the shots.
"Dirk just kept throwing daggers at us."

http://www.nba.com/games/20100410/DA...t2hp0020901193

[monty55555]

I love this quote from Kidd:

Asked if he tried to get the ball to Nowitzki more often because of the offensive roll he's on, Kidd said: "No, not really. We're going to him no matter what."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...e.41f6ae0.html

[JCmasta]

Glad to see this team playing good ball going down the stretch instead of fading into the background like a pretender. I hope things stay as they are, because i'll sleep easy knowing SA is our 1st round opponent rather than Portland or OKC.

[AngieO41]

So happy the Mavs kicked it in this game. I was out late last night having waaaay too much fun so I missed the game. The boxscore looks pretty sweet and congrats to Dirk for that awesome FT streak he has going. What a stud!

[DevinHarriswillstart]

Originally Posted by JCmasta

Glad to see this team playing good ball going down the stretch instead of fading into the background like a pretender. I hope things stay as they are, because i'll sleep easy knowing SA is our 1st round opponent rather than Portland or OKC.

And just a pinch of it has to do with the best player scoring 79 points in the past two games, 56-56 fts in his last six games, blah, blah, amazing, blah. Dirk is playing otherworldly basketball, and it's incredible to watch.

[tcat075]

Originally Posted by DevinHarriswillstart

And just a pinch of it has to do with the best player scoring 79 points in the past two games, 56-56 fts in his last six games, blah, blah, amazing, blah. Dirk is playing otherworldly basketball, and it's incredible to watch.

Its extremely fun, coupled with the fact that this team has been taking care of business against the weaker teams. Portland, not a weaker team, we still win, Dirk scoring nearly half of the points the team scored overall.

[iggymcfly]

Yeah, was out last night too and didn't see any of the game, but it's awesome to see the roll Dirk's on lately. Shooting over 50% for April and back-to-back games with at least 39 is sweet. Honestly, even though I was a Mavs fan for quite a while before Dirk came to the franchise, I feel like more of a Dirk fan than a Mavs fan right now. Like if he got traded next year, I'd definitely root for whatever team he got traded to over Dallas.

[Dirkules41]

Dirk just got into destroy modus in the 3rd!

[dude1394]

This is a mavs and dirk lovefest going on in the postgame quotes.

Mavs vs Kings | April 10, 2010

Dallas Mavericks Rick Carlisle
On how tonight differs from the win last night “Different kind of game, different kind of team. It is the same kind of formula for success: tough, hardnosed defense and rebounding and being efficient on offense. It is a solid win for us. We need them all.” On getting ready for the playoffs “We are taking some steps. We are not there, yet. Over the next five or six days, we have to keep working toward that. Each game has critical meaning in terms of the seeding. Our guys are focused in on what we need to do. We did some good things tonight.”
On their improved play and Dirk Nowitzki in particular “Our execution has been good. He (Nowitzki) has been recognizing situations when he should drive the ball and find open spaces. We had 27 assists tonight which means we were really moving the ball and he had a lot to do with that. If he’s open, there is a good chance he is going to make the shot. He is that kind of a scorer and that kind of big shooter. It was not just him.”
On the play of Jason Kidd “(Jason) Kidd had a triple-double, which was phenomenal, in 31 minutes. He came out with such great urgency to begin the game. He came out and ‘bang, bang’ hit two jump shots to start the game and that set the tone for us.”
Dallas Mavericks Forward Dirk Nowitzki
On the strong team game “I think we set the tone early on. Kidd was pushing the ball for us. We were getting some stops and got an early lead. We carried it on through there. They made a couple runs and a few pushes at us, but we made some timely shots when we needed them and got some stops. It was definitely a good outing for us. Now we are going to try and get the second seed if we can.”
On how he is playing lately “Just being aggressive if I’m open. Shoot the ball or put it on the floor and get to the foul line. That always helps. And just working with the guys. We have a lot of guys that can score. Caron (Butler) has been playing well. If our guys are shooting the ball the way we were tonight, it makes everything a lot easier. It was definitely a good game.”
Kings Head Coach Paul Westphal
“Well we had a nice crowd out there supporting us tonight and they got to watch Dirk Nowitzki show what he can do. He showed why he’s one of the greatest players ever to play this game. It looked like the basket was like three times the size of a normal basket whenever he shot the ball tonight. On top of that, they had their other players shooting the ball extremely well – 13 for 21 (three-point shots). You want teams to shoot more three-point shots as opposed to getting inside when you’re a smaller team like we are but when they shoot 62 percent on threes it’s hard to mount much of a comeback. It seemed like it was a great offensive performance by a veteran team who’s tuning up for the playoffs. If they shoot the ball like that, they can win any time they play. So it was a tough night for us trying to stop them – we couldn’t do it – and that was pretty much the name of the game tonight. We’re thrilled that our fans are still supporting us. We’re looking forward to our last home game – Fan Appreciation Night – we hope that that’s a sellout. We want to finish this season strong. I’m sorry it’s coming to an end, I really am. I love coaching these guys. I see better days ahead as we add to the mix that we have and we’re staying positive despite setbacks. Like I said, I give the Mavericks and Dirk all the credit in the world. That’s a team that’s playing their best basketball at the most important time of the year. They steamrolled us tonight after they got Portland last night. We did hold Dirk to 39 – he had 40 last night.”
“Well we turned it over too much in the first half – we can only blame ourselves for that. They played good defense and you can’t turn the ball over 11 times against a team like that. We were chasing them because they were so efficient offensively. We needed for them to hit a lull and whenever we thought they might hit a lull they just threw it to Dirk. So it was the first half that did us in with our ball handling. We did play pretty well – we played solid but we couldn’t stop them. When a team shoots 62 percent on threes, it’s gonna be a long night.”
On Carl Landry: “I’ll tell you the truth, nothing surprises me about his scoring ability. Carl’s one of the top scoring forwards in the league. Per minute played he’s showed what he can do this year and he’s getting more minutes so he gets more points. He’s a high-percentage shooter, he’s versatile and the more we learn to throw him the ball and get him more shots, the more points he’ll score. He’s always going to be an efficient scorer.”
On Jason Kidd: “It’s beautiful to watch him play. He fills up the stat sheet but he doesn’t play for stats. He just plays for making the right play every time and he gets them in the right situations. He knows who the shooters are and where they like the ball and he’s a genius at doing that. To have as much energy and conditioning as he has at this time of the year, at this stage of his career, is extremely remarkable. He’s in the perfect situation for him – he’s got enough big guys to protect the basket, he’s got shooters all around him and he’s got Dirk. It’s going to be an interesting playoff run. I think the Mavericks are poised to really do some damage.”
Carl Landry
On Dirk in the third quarter “He did a good job of running, transitioning and getting to the open spot. They were already up about 15 points, they are a veteran team and they just want to stick a dagger in you. Every time he had a good look at the hoop he shot it. He kept sticking those daggers into us and nailing those shots.”
On Dirk’s overall performance “We just let him have easy shots. We were not contesting any of the shots. In the third quarter there was a man by him, but just in transition. Anytime a team gets up and gets on a run and starts to gain momentum that is when you take those big shots. That is when you take quick shots and try to make big plays and that is what they did tonight. That is what we have to learn. Dirk just kept throwing daggers at us. Unfortunately we just lost tonight.”
On his performance “The game isn’t over until the horn sounds. I continue to just play. I just wanted to continue to play hard, score, play a little offense, a little defense. I just wanted to do whatever I could to find my open teammates.”
On the Mavericks “They are a veteran team. They have been together for a long time and the starting five has been together for a very long time. Erick Dampier, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki have been together for some years. They are veteran players who know how to play the game. We are still young and trying to find ways to understand the game. They are getting ready for the playoffs so they just came out here and played well. Unfortunately, we came up short.”
On the season coming to an end “I love basketball. I never want the season to come to an end. I wish that we could go to the playoffs like I did the last two years in Houston, but at the same time I can look at it as a positive. I have more time to become a better player for next year and help this ballclub get to where we need to go.”
Omri Casspi
On Dirk in the third quarter “You just can’t stop the guy. He is very impressive. We tried to make adjustments and tried to trap him, but when they kicked it out to him and he has such a high percentage shooting it is tough.”
On the Mavericks going into the playoffs They are vey dangerous, when they shoot like that. They can beat anyone anywhere. It will be interesting to see them in the playoffs and I wish them all the best.”
On his play tonight “I was just happy to be out there on the court. I had some good opportunities and I kept rolling and got into a groove. I am just happy and I had a good game. I am going to continue to learn and finish the season out strong.”

[aurelino9]

That's playoff intensity right there.

[Rick41]

F rest! Keep it going!

[FINtastic]

Anyone else feel like Dirk was coasting for a while there? I kind of feel like now that the playoffs are about to start that he's turning on beast mode.

[ribosoma]

Originally Posted by FINtastic

Anyone else feel like Dirk was coasting for a while there? I kind of feel like now that the playoffs are about to start that he's turning on beast mode.

I think the entire team was doing that during stretches of the season. But it's understandable. The Mavs have one of the best road records in the league, they are loaded with veteran talent and depth, so I think they were just looking forward to the playoffs. The swarming defense and playoff intensity recently pulled the curtain back on who they really are when they are focused and intent on punching their opponent square in the mouth.

[kg_veteran]

Originally Posted by FINtastic

Anyone else feel like Dirk was coasting for a while there? I kind of feel like now that the playoffs are about to start that he's turning on beast mode.

Yeah, the beast is coming. Like Carlisle said, "Do you wanna play us?"

Or somesuch.

[tcat075]

Stat I just realized, and this doesn't have any research behind it, just hoping my memory is correct. So Dirk scored 22 in the 3rd, right? The Maverick high in ANY quarter was Dirk's Utah crazyness earlier in the year, the 29 in the 4th. But I recently was watching a video of that just for fun, and if I recall right the previous high in a quarter was 22 by Mark Aguirre.

So yeah, if it was last year that third quarter performance might have tied a Mavs record.

(It could have been 24 by Aguirre, but Dirk's still amazing regardless)