 
TROY MURPHYVeteran power forward had his best game of the season, scoring 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including 3-of-5 from the 3-point line, adding 14 rebounds and two assists. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 
The three-game road trip concludes Wednesday in Houston against Yao Ming, Ron Artest and the Rockets (8:30 p.m., Fox Sports Indiana, 1070 The Fan).
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Nov. 25, 2008 at American Airlines Center
Mavericks 109, Pacers 106
 |
“It was a hard fought game the whole way. I thought we played a really solid game and they just had more weapons down the stretch with Nowitzki and Terry. Kidd made big shots when they needed to and we did not.”
(On Terry tonight) “He’s an awful good player. He’s a prolific scorer, so is Nowitzki. They put the ball in anyone of the three guys that I just mentioned, Jason Kidd, Terry and Nowitzki, and they are awfully good. They’re all guys that play at a very high level. Kidd is a clutch player, he’s been a clutch player his whole career. Terry is a prolific scorer and so is Nowitzki. They made shots when they needed to and we did not.”
(Were the Mavs doing anything to get back into the game?) “No. They were making shots. They made three threes in a row after they made two the entire game, they were two for 16 on threes. Terry’s shot that hit and went straight up in the air and then went in the basket, that’s the way the ball bounces sometimes.”
 |
(What was the key down the stretch as to why you guys lost?) “We just couldn’t really get a hold on Jason Terry. He just came out and scored time after time and we couldn’t do too much about it.”
(Were you guys getting the shots you wanted in the 4th quarter?) “We got a few. We scored a few – we got some good looks some bad looks. But I think they had all good looks. They might’ve scored four or five times in a row down the stretch. Jason Kidd hit two threes and Terry hit about two or three [shots] in a row and we can’t win if we can’t stop them.”
(You guys haven’t been able to finish some games lately…) “It’s very frustrating. It’s a habit we’re going to have to learn to break or we’re going to be very disappointed this year. We just can’t seem to close teams out. [I] can’t tell you why. I don’t know.”
 |
(On the late game struggles…) “For us to become a good basketball team and win consistently or win a decent amount of these games we’ve got to finish down the stretch. I don’t know what we were ahead going into the third, but we’ve been down this road before and for whatever reason we didn’t execute, again, and they [Dallas] hit some big shots.”
 |
(After this loss, a good thing you guys have a game tomorrow?) “That’s the only good thing you can say right now: we’ve got another game tomorrow we’ve got to play. We’ve just got to come in and learn to finish out games”
(What happened? You guys seemed to have control of the game going into the 4th.) “We just stopped doing the things we did to get the lead early in the game. It’s a recurring event for us and it’s something that we’ve got to get ahold of and get it together soon.”
(Talk about Terry – he score 16 on you guys in that 4th quarter.) “He had a good game. He shot the ball well. He did a lot of good things out there.”
 |
“We were getting stops and rebounds, which was a big problem early in the game. You know, Kidd and Terry just made play after play. Jet (Terry) got to the basket, he hit jumpers, Kidd hit two huge threes. Our veterans willed us to a win, is what happened. You have to give the credit to them."
"Antoine Wright played tremendously well. As much as this looks like an eenie, meenie, miney, moe game with the two guard spot, there was some logic to it just from the standpoint of a defensive matchup coming into the game. We just had a lot of respect for Daniels, and thought he would be the best guy to guard him. You know, Antoine had a great defense and offensive game. So, I am very happy for him and we just really needed to get this win, somehow."
"We were having a lot of difficulty early. We gave up 13 offensive rebounds in the first half and I think we gave up eight in the first six and a half minutes, which is absolutely unheard of. I thought we had become a better rebounding team. But, they were just long rebounds and they were just quicker to the ball. We got into a little bit of a frantic game in the first half, which was to their advantage. The second half, we talked about getting the tempo reasonable for us and working the game back and just staying with it. And that is what our guys did. We were hoping to cut into the lead a little earlier than the last few minutes of the fourth, but whatever you can do to get a win in this situation whenever you are trying to get back to .500 is whatever you have to do.”
(On the team’s 3-point shooting) “We were due to hit some. We hadn’t had than many really quality looks from our better shooters. We had some with some of our guys that haven’t shot it particularly well, but those are shots we want them to take. Coming into the season we had talked about wanting to be a better three-point shooting team. Last year they weren’t as good as they had been and right now we are still working to get better three-point shooting from top to bottom in term of our perimeter guys. We know Dirk is going to shoot it well. Jet, Kidd, those guys are all shooting it great. We need a couple more guys to bring us some consistency. The three’s that Jet hit, the one that bounced and went up in the air and then went in, that was certainly a huge bounce for us at this point. And then, it was similar to last game, Kidd had a couple in the pivotal stretch of the fourth and got the ball in the basket and so, we needed it.”
 |
“We had two tremendous days of practice in preparation for the Pacers. We knew they were a tough ball club. They gave us trouble in the preseason, but the 4th quarter came and I didn’t have any energy. Antoine Wright’s performance when called upon was great.”
“Antoine started the first three games for us, then he went to the bench and didn’t play the last couple of games and know he starts tonight. He played almost 40 minutes for us. He was just tremendous and had a tremendous stats line. I’ve got to take my hat off to him tonight.”
“We just had to stay positive in the 4th quarter even though we were down. We knew we were at home and had to ride the energy of our crowd. We stood our ground in the 4th and made the play we needed to down the stretch.”
 |
(New career high points for you and season high minutes, how did it feel out there tonight?) “Exhausting, coming from not playing at all to playing 40 minutes is tough, but coach has stuck with me and told me to just continue to work hard. Coach said my chance would come and it came tonight.”
“We all have our roles on this team and our bench is going to be huge for us. Jason (Terry) played great tonight. Guys just have to come into the game ready and be focused and know what the game plan is for each game.”
(Back to .500) “It feels good to be at .500, but now we’ve got the Lakers coming up. This win was big but it’s going to be short lived, it got us going in the right direction, but we’ve got to get ready for one of the best teams in the NBA.”
