On the game: “Early on, everything we tried on (Chris) Paul didn’t work.  We wanted to come out and get the ball out of his hands.  We tried that and he split us a couple of times and got away from us.  And then the main thing is their other guys stepped up big for them tonight.  They were playing 4-on-3 a couple of times, which we wanted them to do, and (Morris) Peterson made shots, (Tyson) Chandler caught lobs on us, and they really jumped out on us in the first quarter.”

On the next games: “We’re going back to Dallas.  We’re going back in front of our home crowd.  We’ll take a look at some things, but we’ve got to have a better effort than we had tonight.  Offensively, we have to move the ball a little bit more and execute.  Home has been good for us, and we gotta go home and get some home cooking.  That’s what we need right now.”

On wearing his championship ring for this game: “We talked about doing it during the season.  It’s just a form of camaraderie, and hopefully a sense of motivation, but I guess it didn’t motivate tonight.” 

On the Hornets’ play:  “They protected their home court; we have a chance to go home and do the same thing.  They are a number two seed that deserves to be number two.  We’ve go to play better than we played in these first two games.”

On Chris Paul: “We’ve got to do a better job of trying to deny him the ball.  But at the same time, he’s pretty quick.  The easiest thing to do for our guards is just deny him the ball.  Just because you try to deny him the ball, he’s not going to stop and give in.  He’s a very strong-minded and tough player, and he’s quick to the ball.  Sometimes you need two guys to try to deny him the ball, and I’m not sure that’s the easiest thing to do.  I just think we’ve got to really do a better job of being much more physical with him in our traps, and physical with him on his drives, and we’ve got to do a better job of screening him on defense.  He just runs around on defense and disrupts our offense.”

On his team’s effort: “Our men are disappointed, but you’ll see a different team for Game 3.  Our men are competitors, and they don’t want the result that we had in these first two games.  Tonight was just an awful first quarter, and they pretty much had us on our heels at that point.”

Mavericks Guard Jason Terry

On the game: “We just got out-played, out-fought, and out-worked. They out-worked us on both ends of the floor. We’re in the hole now 0-2, but we’re going home and we’ve got to take care of business at home.”

On stopping Chris Paul: “You’re not really going to stop him. You’ve just got to make him work and limit him getting other people the ball.”

Mavericks Forward Brandon Bass

On the game: “We’ve got to continue to work and defend better, but we put a hand in their face tonight, they just made shots. Chris made plays and he put the ball in the right places and he was successful. You can watch every game they played this season and they made shots, but tonight was one of those nights were they made most of their shots. I haven’t looked at a stat sheet, but they must have made seventy percent of their shots.”

Mavericks Forward Dirk Nowitzki

On the game: “It’s a disappointing loss. After the first game, we definitely wanted to get this one. We just didn’t go for it. They out-hustled us for some balls, but you’ve got to give them credit, they were on fire tonight. Paul had his thing going again and the shooters were on fire. They really had us strung out there. We can’t give up almost 130 points and expect to win.”

On the next game: “It’s not the position we want to be in. Now we’ve got to go home. It sounds dumb, but we’ve got to take it one game at a time and hopefully win that third game and put some pressure on them. In front of our fans, we’ve been great at home all season long.”

Hornets Head Coach Byron Scott
On if he has seen a better performance from many others in their first two playoff performances:
On Chris Paul: “He’s been pretty good. I think he’s averaging about 34 a game and about 14 assists. He’s doing pretty good. Magic (Johnson) was a triple-double type guy every single night it seems like. Sitting there and watching Chris really develop into the best point guard in this league is amazing to watch how he has just risen his game to another level for the playoffs. That’s what great players do. I think that he’s definitely one of the best players in this league right now.”

On if there is a way to defend the Hornets when they are playing explosive on offense:
“They could put an extra defender out there, but I don’t know if they will allow that. The way that we played tonight and the way that CP was able to navigate his way through the defense and then find open guys…and Peja, Mo, and David and all of those guys were making shots. It makes it tough (on a defense).”

On tonight’s win: “We just held serve. We’ve done what we were supposed to do as far as keep home court advantage. That’s the only thing that we have accomplished so far in this series.”

Hornets Players
Chris Paul:
(On how the Mavericks trapped him differently) “They came a little bit earlier on ball screens, but I got rid of the ball and Mo Pete, Peja, and D.West made shots and really got them out of it.”

(On if he thinks the Mavericks can defend him) “I am sure there is, but to me I hope not, to tell you the truth.  One thing that I’ve learned through this season and watching these games is that you have to be aggressive.  If I just sit back and let them trap me then they succeeded in what they had to do.  I know I have to pick my spots when I get the ball up and let other guys go, but at the same time I have to still be aggressive and attack and that’s what we did.”

(On how good the pick and rolls are doing) “The pick and rolls have been good for us all year. When you watch us when we play, that’s when we’re at our best.  When Tyson sets that screen you have to pick your poison.  I’m coming off aggressive and D.West is spotting up with Peja, and Mo and Tyson going to the rim.  When we are clicking on all cylinders it’s tough to defend us.”

(On if he got his pre game nap in and how the game went) “I got an hour and a half in today.  There weren’t any games on.  This playoff thing is funny because its like a chess match.  The first quarter you come out and see how they adjust and see how we adjust and then play to win.”

David West:
(On the game) “We didn’t want to wait to get things going in the game.  My mindset was to come out with an aggressive mentality.  Dallas is a tough team because of their ability to make shots and we didn’t want to give them any life.”

(On the growing confidence of the Hornets) “I think the guys came in and had the right mindset.  We wanted to approach the game the right way.  We had confidence when the ball was out of Chris’ hands.  Peja was hitting some shots and Mo was hitting some shots. It was something we stuck with.”