That's what I get for showing our guys a film of how good we were defensively last night (at Houston). We started out good, then we got soft. Our bench came in and was soft. A team that loses eight games in a row is going to come out fighting for their lives. That message was delivered, and we didn't respond. |
The best situation would be one NBA team for each (D-League) team, ... That would make it more like a farm system. |
The biggest issue we had was the transition game. We had been keeping our turnovers down significantly the past 10 games. Tonight we didn't do the job. |
The difference in the game was our careless turnovers that turned into easy points for them. Our turnovers and shot selection weren't very good. I credit their defense. |
The game was a lot closer than the score indicates. They played extremely hard and had a good showing. |
The good news is now we know where we stand, that we have a lot of work to do. It is like someone just bit us in the (rear) as far as I am concerned. So I hope they take it that way, that we have a way to go and a lot of work to do. |
The good news is we got a win. I was a little disappointed with the way we played, especially at the defensive end. We made a couple of their guys look like All-World tonight. |
The important thing is to not let (Anthony) shoot the shots he wants and to have him shoot the ones -we're willing to give up. |
The loss had nothing to do with the referees. They didn't force us into 25 (24) turnovers, I know that. |
The Mavericks are getting the short end of the stick. |
The Mavericks are getting the short end of the stick. They're playing the five seed when they should be playing the seven. The fair way to do it is just seed one through eight based on records. |
The part about playing hard, we've got that down pretty good. We play hard every night. No matter how many we get down, guys are resilient and we bounce back. We missed some opportunities down the stretch, as far as being late with some of our execution, but I was really pleased at the way we played. If we play like this every night, it will be a successful trip. |
The referees weren't the reason we lost. They didn't force (24) turnovers. |
The reports were he was in the gym every single day. When he came into camp, he had lost 18 pounds. You could see his quickness. He was much livelier, shooting the ball great. That's a big reason why he had such a great year and our team had such a great year. |
The time I got to spend with him when he was coaching, that was great. That was a tremendous advantage for me. I was having a good time with it, but I didn't realize I was learning so much at the same time. |