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POSTGAME QUOTES
NOVEMBER 21, 2002


On the game:
"They are really good; very hard to guard. Everybody makes mistakes in a game; they’re so good, that if you just miss an assignment or leave a guy open for a couple feet, they’re just nailing it. That’s what they had today. I was happy with the way we were playing. Against a lot of teams, that would have been a good win for us. I thought we did a lot of good things, but they just keep coming at you and at you. I thought we did a real good job in the first half; we wereover50-percent against the zone. Then in the second half, they made some adjustments and we didn’t get the ball inside as much and ended up in the fourth quarter, not really getting much out of (the middle) at all."

On the play of Yao Ming:
"He’s had great practices, doing things that you don’t think a guy his size can do. He’s got quickness and the guy has a heart. He really does have a heart. He does it at a really even temperament, he loves the games, and he is so unselfish. Late in the game, he gets a one on one underneath and could have gone for the points, but passes the ball off to an open guy. He’s just a class player."

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On the play of Yao Ming:
"I thought he was real aggressive on the inside and when we got him the ball, he finished. That is all we can ask him to do."

On the Mavericks’ zone defense:
"Don Nelson’s not stupid, he knows they can’t beat us unless they play the zone, so he packed that zone in for 48 minutes. That’s probably one of the smartest things he’s done this season. They did a good job of packing it in on Yao (Ming) late in the game. I thought they sat a guy in his lap (in the second half), so every time he got the ball, he was away from the bucket. I still think we can build from this. I thought we did a good job of executing against the zone. They just capitalized on every one of our mistakes."

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On the Mavericks collapsing the zone on Yao Ming in the second half:
"I think anytime you have a big fellow that is doing damage in the middle like he was doing, you have to tighten it up. When they were tightening it up in the middle, it’s up to us, on the outside, to loosen it back up."

On what made the Mavericks’ zone so effective:
"Tonight, we couldn’t really get other guys to hit shots that they normally hit. That’s going to happen from time to time. The great thing about it is that we see that there are openings. And when you have the big fellow rolling like he was rolling, there’s no way you can coverall the grounds defending him."

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On the game:
"That was a good basketball game. It was fun to coach and I am sure it was fun to play. They (Houston) countered a lot of things, we made a lot of adjustments and it was just one of those fun games as a coach and it makes it a lot more fun when you win. The Rockets are going to be good. We all knew Yao Ming was going to be good. I didn’t think he was going to be good for two years, but he was good tonight. He’s got the whole package. All he needs to do is learn a little bit about the way we play. Rudy (Tomjanovich) has got him running some simple things, using his strengths and staying away from his weakness and he is some factor. We are keeping it going the best we can and played what we considered to be a really good team in the West. People who underestimate him are going to be sorry. I was really proud of our team tonight. It wasn’t always easy. Shawn (Bradley) ran into foul trouble and we a little light with our big players and Eddie did a great job. I got bench production. Avery (Johnson) came through a gain in a short period of time with big numbers and Eddie was really sensational. I thought Walt Williams was trying a little bit too hard against his old team and didn’t have the game he wanted. He was still quite a factor in our win."

Was this a test for the team?:
"We don’t ever think of anything as a test. It is just another good team coming in. And we have another good team coming in (Seattle) and surprise everybody. I just think the longer the winning streak goes, the more vulnerable you become because somewhere along the line someone is going to get hot and you are going to get cold. It is kind of fun because you never know what is going to happen. It could very well have ended tonight because I thought they played really well. Again, we are just having fun with it to see how long it will go."

On the backcourt:
"I thought Finley was sensational. I thought he kept our heads above water when things weren’t going well for us. He always seemed to walk into a shot or make some sort of sensational play and did it on both ends of the floor. I thought he was good defensively tonight."

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On Yao Ming’s play:
"He showed tonight how good he’s going to be. He gave us a lot of problems. We came back well and showed that we have a lot of character."

On the Mavs' zone defense:
"Well in general, our zone is our best defense and it was good again tonight. Yao had a big game and (Glen) Rice got hot for a little while, but we still were pretty good defensively."

On the rivalry with the Rockets:
"I don’t know what’s going to happen in the West because it’ s so open and there’s a lot of teams that could sneak up on people, but Houston is a very difficult team for us to play."

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On the game:
"Steve Nash and Michael Finley are two of the best guards in the league. Even though we are playing against other terrific guards, we feel like Steve and Mike can match up against any backcourt."

On the Mavs' zone defense:
"It was effective. More in second half than in the first half. Yao (Ming) kind of got behind us quite a bit and made us pay. Del Harris is a terrific zone coach and he came in at halftime and we made some adjustments and it worked out great for us in the second half. The zone is not designed to be played the whole game, but it is designed to throw you off a little bit and that’s what we fortunately have been doing."

On his play:
"The main thing with me is that I just play to my strengths. You never see me come off the bench and try to play like Steve Nash. Our games are totally different. I’m more of a guy who likes to get to the basket consistently. He has the three, he has the in between, he just has a lot of things that Avery Johnson had dreamed of having. I just try to help the team in ways that best fits my game and that’s the way that Nellie uses me and that’s what makes me comfortable."