Postgame Quotes March 31, 2007 vs. Clippers

Play of Mavs tonight
“Any time we can hang on to a victory is good. We did some good things tonight, our defense was good except for trying to contain Corey Maggette, which is tough to do. When we needed to get stops, we got stops.”

Looking ahead to the playoffs
“Right now we are just concerned about looking at our post-game video of this game and seeing how we can improve. We’ll take a look at some more of our mistakes against the Warriors for when we play them on Wednesday.

Making the playoffs
“We are in control of our own destiny. All we have to do is try to get better on defense and keep moving the ball on offense. If we can get some of these same performances we are getting out of our guys right now without Dirk Nowitzki, when he gets back we think we can be a pretty good team.”

Mavericks Guard Jason Kidd

Winning on the road
“This was a big win on the road in the position we are in. Everybody responded tonight to win against a team that played hard. We held on there at the end.”

Clippers Head Coach Mike Dunleavy

Tonight’s game
“I was definitely pleased with how hard our guys played. They stayed in the game. They kept us in the game after [Chris] Kaman got hurt, after [Cuttino] Mobley got hurt. They kept battling and kept going hard. I thought our guys played well.”

Play of Clippers
“Thirty-two points off of turnovers was just too hard to overcome. Down the stretch of the game we had to leave all our guys in. Corey [Maggette] had to play outside. Cat [Cuttino Mobley] tweaked his calf muscle or something and he couldn’t go back in. They played so well at times. I didn’t really want to break it up either. Defensively I thought we did a pretty good job other than the easy dunks they got. Unfortunately, that’s the way it went.”

“I kept telling them to keep playing hard, to keep our coverages right. I thought [Dallas] would let us back in the game and we could get a little run and make some easy buckets. But then our turnovers gave them so many easy baskets. I thought if we could keep that under control, with the way Corey and Al and Dan in the second half, were playing we could get back in the game.”

Los Angeles Clippers Guard Quinton Ross

On the Clippers fourth quarter comeback attempt
“We tried to fight back in the end and we made a run in the fourth quarter, but we put ourselves in too much of a hole.  It was tough to get the win.” 

On defending Jason Kidd
“He was definitely a problem.  He came out and made shots tonight.  Any time he makes shots, he makes them a tough team to beat.”

Los Angeles Clippers Forward Al Thornton

On his progress this season
“I think I have been doing well.  It’s been a struggle, there have been a lot of ups and downs.  I think for the most part I have been doing well,  I am learning.  I think this whole year has been a great learning experience for me.”