HEAT Head Coach Stan Van Gundy

On the Game:
“I thought that in the first half we did not match their speed, energy or intensity. I thought that we came out in the first 15 minutes of the second half playing extremely hard and with great energy to get back into the game. On the offensive end I just didn’t do a good job finding stuff for us to run. We got unorganized, we did not move the ball and we took several bad shots. I just, quite honestly, couldn’t find anything for us that we needed to get. I’m upset with myself for not finding an answer for us offensively. We shot the ball very poorly especially from three, we didn’t even make one. You put all of those things together and it was a tough loss.”

“We made some good runs at them, but we could not just get over the hump.”

On Josh Howard:
“Josh Howard was great. He was huge for them.”

On Eric Dampier:
“Eric Dampier had a great night. The guy is averaging five points a game and comes in and scores 17. He was a real presence in the paint.”

HEAT Forward Udonis Haslem

On the game:
“We had defensive breakdowns when we got them down to two. They switched to the zone [defense]. I think we got a little flat-footed offensively. We were just standing around and lost our ball movement. Teams are throwing a lot of zones at us the last couple of games, so we have to figure out how to deal with that.”

“We are not going to make shots every night, but it boils down to defense. When we got the lead down to two, we had some breakdowns defensively and it caused easy buckets for them.”

On the zone defense:
“We got flat-footed. We have to continue to have movement. The big guys have to flash in and out of the lane.”

HEAT Guard/Forward James Posey

On the game:
“We just dug ourselves a hole early in the game and we couldn’t get back. They made plays when they needed to and got stops when they needed to. Those are two things that we were not able to do tonight. We have responsibility to take care of the ball and to get stops. They did a better job of that tonight and that is why they got the win. [Our coaches] do a great job of preparing us. [The players] just had some mental breakdowns out there. Sometimes, you have those mental lapses and that is something we need to get better at as a team.”

HEAT Center Alonzo Mourning

On the game:
“It is difficult when you know you had an opportunity to win. I don’t think we made the right decisions down the stretch to pull the win out. The best thing about this league is that you have the next game to have an opportunity top make some changes. It is a 48-minute game, and teams go through ups and downs. In the first quarter, they were up and we were down. We put ourselves in a position to win but did not finish it out.”

Dallas Mavericks Head Coach Avery Johnson

On the Game:
“The first half was well played. We came out in the second half and got a cushion. They made a run like all good teams do and got the score down to two. We made some adjustments and took off from there. I really liked the pace of the fourth quarter. Although Jason Williams penetrated and beat us several times. This is a very good Heat team. We did what we needed to do on the road. We haven’t arrived defensively yet, but we are getting there. We have made great improvement in that area and hopefully we’ll continue to improve. We thought that if we could keep their bench under control, we would have a chance to win the ballgame. We were very fortunate that Miami missed a lot of shots. We didn’t expect AntoineWalker to shoot that bad.”

On Josh Howard:
“Josh has been steady. He had a tough task tonight to guard Dwyane Wade. He didn’t have any blocks tonight , he usually has one or two blocks per game. He had a double-double tonight. He can be a special player when he puts his game together. He was very consistent and played well.”

On Dirk Nowitzki:
“He wanted to drive the ball a little tonight so that opened up his outside shot. He hit two key three pointers in the fourth quarter.”

On Alonzo Mourning:
“He is a true warrior. You can’t say enough about what he has done. I loved Zo since he’s been in the league. I’ve run into him a few times when I was a player. What a testimony to perseverance . He’s a wonderful example to a lot of people who may not have everything they need to be a complete player.”

Mavericks Forward Josh Howard

On the game:
“You have to be ready for guys like Dwyane (Wade) night in and night out. Right now, we are gelling. We still have things we need to work on. One of these days, we will have a perfect game and we will not have anything to say.”

On the fourth quarter:
“We stayed mentally focused especially on the offensive end. We made sure that they only got one shot and we got the rebound. We went down and finished on the other end. We hit some big shots and we hit our free throws at the end which was big.”

Mavericks Erick Dampier

On the game:
“It is up to us to be mentally focused and prepared. We are ready to work when we are out there on the floor. I think we kind of had a let down in the third quarter. We might have turned the ball over a couple of times and missed a couple of baskets here and there. Teams are going to make runs and I think we responded with one. I think every win is a confidence builder for us. We are just going to keep playing hard and try and win as many games as we can.”

On guarding Alonzo Mourning:
“It doesn’t matter who I am playing against. I just try and go out there and do whatever I can to help this team win. Some nights it might be playing better defense, some nights it might be rebounding and some nights when I get the opportunity, I score. I think we were just taking what the defense gave us. That is our plan every night.”