Mavs defeat the Kings 114-110 in overtime.
HEAD COACH RICK CARLISLE
(On executing in the clutch…)
“I believe we had seven stops in a row to end regulation which was huge. Their collective will to win the game was as strong as I’ve seen all year. We got a lot of good wins but this was really special because we were up against it the whole night. Down 10 at the end of the first, played better in the second. Third quar-ter was not so great. In the fourth we had to hold them to 13 points to get to overtime. We had pretty good looks during the game. We missed a lot of open shots and then we missed some layups but everyone just kept hanging in so it was really a well-deserved win for our guys. I’m really happy for them.”
(On Tim Hardaway Jr.’s and Maxi Kleber’s games…)
“Nothing came easy in this game at all. It was a struggle and everybody kept everybody together. We just kept saying ‘we’re going to find a way, we’re going to find a way.’ The guys were encouraging each other. I really liked Tim Hardaway’s patience and discipline tonight. He busted his butt on defense. Offensively when the shots were there, he was stepping into them aggressively. Maxi had a couple of easy looks early in the game. They didn’t go but he stayed in the process and he knocked in that huge three in the overtime so this game was all about staying with it. I’m really happy for our guys. After two tough losses, to get this one is great.”
(On Dorian Finney-Smith’s game…)
“He’s been a little bit hobbled with the hip issue. It’s just kind of come back a little bit so he’s been working on that. Our medical staff has been working with him on it. It’s clear today that he felt much better. He was a force. Defensively he was great. On the boards he was great. Big free throws down on the stretch. He had some pretty good looks from three but when it really counted, he knocked in a big one in the second half so he was doing the things. He’s kind of earned the reputation. He’s doing the dirty work and he’s a guy that’s encouraging his teammates all the time.”
(On the rest of the season…)
“We want to get better. We want to win games here. We had rough luck in the first couple. This one was a great one. The next game against the Clippers is a very tough game and possible playoff matchup. We held Seth Curry out today because his leg was bothering him a little bit. Hopefully he’ll be okay for Thursday. We’ll look at everybody medically on a game-to-game basis and we’re not going to take any risks medically. We’re going to try to get ourselves ready to play in the playoffs. But we do want to win games here. We feel it’s really important to do that.”
(On Trey Burke…)
“Trey has been terrific. He is enthusiastic. He has improved defensively and you know he can score the ball down the stretch. Those two free throws at the end of the game basically put the game away. Our guys had the confidence to get the ball in his hands so I’m really impressed with how he’s really evolved his game over the last couple years. We had a great experience with him after the trade with New York. I was sorry that we were unable to bring him back because he impressed everybody with his character and his ability to score the ball and play the game. He just keeps getting better in all the areas. His vision keeps improving. His defense keeps improving. As I mentioned, the guy can flat out score the ball and he puts pressure on the rim too. He’s not just a shooter so I’m really pleased for him. This is a great opportunity for him. I don’t think there’s many guys that have been signed on the COVID exception, or whatever it is, that are taking advan-tage of their opportunity quite like he is.”
MAVERICKS GUARD LUKA DONČIĆ
(On how proud he was of his defense today…)
“Since I have been here I have been working on my defense, just getting better. We got this win though, we needed that. I think we played one of our worst games ever and we won. We didn’t play good, but we still hung in there, helped each other, never gave up and came out with the win.”
(On grinding out a victory after losing the first two games…)
“Like I said, we needed that win. It wasn’t our best game, far from that. We fought, we hung in there, fought for each other and never gave up. We needed that win and you can never count us out.”
(On how the Mavericks can benefit from these next five games even though they are locked into the seventh seed…)
“Chemistry between us, learning to play with each other. Being off for four months, obviously, it wasn’t our best three games. We have to be tough on defense, that is our goal, from defense to offense.”
(On how well Dorian Finney-Smith played…)
“It was great, he has been great for us. Sometimes you are not going to see it in the statistics, but he is one of the most important players for us. Playing amazing defense, rebounding the ball, making shots. Some-times you won’t see it in the statistics, but he is a very, very important player for us.”
MAVERICKS FORWARD DORIAN FINNEY-SMITH
(On defensive play in clutch time…)
“That’s pretty much what we’ve been saying. We’re not going to make shots every night, but we can control our energy. We just found a way to win and just kept battling. I feel like we took a step forward today.”
(On stepping up when Kristaps Porzingis fouled out…)
“I would say it was a team thing. Maxi [Kleber] came in and did a great job guarding. Guys did a good job of stepping up. When you lose a star like that, that’s when role guys have to step it up and find a way to win.”
(On offensive rebounding success…)
“I have to get my legs back. It takes a lot of energy crashing every time. It takes time. We didn’t play for a long time, so I’m just getting my legs back. It’s pretty much just effort. Guys do a good job of getting in the lane, scrambling with the defensive team around, and that’s how I find gaps to crash.”
MAVERICKS GUARD TIM HARDAWAY JR.
(On his intense demeanor coming into games, especially for today’s game…)
“I just know that the last game, I laid a goose egg and I know that I’m better than that as a player. So, I just wanted to come out here a little more aggressive, not do too much, but play the way I am supposed to be playing. I’m happy that my teammates have my back. I [will] just continue playing hard and not worrying about anything, moving on to the next play.”
(On how today’s win affects the psyche of the team…)
“I guess it just shows that you’ve got to keep on playing. Sometimes, the game isn’t going to go your way.The ball bounces a certain way, here and there. But, like I said, you can only control what you can control out there on the floor. Today, even though our shots weren’t falling at a high clip like normal, we grinded, man. That huddle in every timeout stayed tight. It showed that everyone cared out there on the floor. [I’m] not saying that it hasn’t done that all season long, we’ve done that, but today it really showed and I’m happy we got back to that.”
(On how important it was to have communication in a come from behind game like today…)
“It was great. We knew at practice yesterday that the first thing was to get back in transition, find the shooters, and try to live with the tough contested two’s out there. They got it going in the first quarter. We just wanted to keep on pushing, hitting them, and just trying to be as difficult as we can on the defensive end. We did that as the game continued to go on. Once we started to get our feet wet a little bit, we knew what they were doing and we just tried to do the best we can to go out there and finish the plays.”
(On how much energy it takes to be a two-sided player and how he is able to use that in the game…)
“People don’t really understand, it’s tough when you are playing against those guys like Buddy Hield and Bogi (Bogdan Bogdanovic). They are coming off screens, flying over screens, and then you’ve got to try and go out there and score the ball. But, that’s what we get paid to do out there and there’s no excuses. So, I just wanted to go out there and do the best I can on both ends of the floor, especially down the stretch with stopping [De’Aaron] Fox and then getting the rebound. Then with Luka [Dončić] coming down and having a big stop to force it into overtime, which is huge. When your star player is doing that out there on the floor and leading by example, it shows a lot and it makes the guys around him play just as hard, if not even harder than what he is doing.”
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