Quotes: Spurs vs. Mavericks : November 11, 2009

On Defensive effort - “I think it’s the competiveness, focus and some of it is getting use to what we do defensively. We had a lot of guys who did there part tonight and that really helped especially against a really competitive team that is so offensively potent as the Mavericks.”

On Antonio McDyess against Dirk Nowitzki - “We used a lot of different guys but I thought Antonio did as good a job as you can do on a Hall of Fame player. Some of our other guys took turns on Dirk but you need to remember Dirk is going to get his points. You can’t hang your head and you have to keep competing.”

On Richard Jefferson’s play tonight - “I think he has been pretty aggressive since the start of the season. He has taken a good number of shots in most games. I think Richard is fine.”

On George Hill running Point Guard - “I have been happy with George all year. I think he is our most improved player and one of the most improved players in the league. He is a wonderful player on both ends of the court and he has really increased his aggressiveness and confidence in both areas. He will have some ups and downs but overall he’s been really impressive.”

On Keith Bogans’s defensive play - “That’s what Keith Bogans does. He knows his roll and he takes pride in it and he helps us be a better team.”

On his play during the season - “I just have to believe because it’s a long season. I will have my ups and downs, good games and bad games but I have to keep going to the gym and helping this team win ball games.”

On Keith Bogans - “Keith Bogans is a good defender. He has been through some battles with great players before. He can knock down the corner 3-pointer, he is going to be a great role player and even more so when he learns the system more and get comfortable.”

On improving on defense - “The game is so much different than practice. We have to keep trying on defense and keep doing what we do.”

On what contributed to their lack of performance tonight - “I‘ll make no excuses, they played harder than we did, simple as that.”

On the Spurs showing up on defense tonight - “They were extremely aggressive and we had a lot of good looks that we missed early and that‘s tough when you‘re on the road but you got to keep playing. I thought that when we got behind a bit our shot selection suffered as we could have gotten better shots and moved the ball better. You have to credit them for how they played and I’m disappointed with how we played simple as that.”

On Mavs clearing the lane for Dirk in the second half - “Well, you don‘t want to have to reduce it to where you‘re just going to one guy, we have to get on a roll, eight days ago against Utah, we had to overcome a huge deficit, ride him completely and now we just need to do it with more balance and more as a team. It‘s an area where we have to continue to work to get better and that‘s by having the right balance offensively and make sure there is plenty of help out there for him because we have plenty of good players.”

On how the absence of Tim and Tony impacted this game - “It doesn‘t matter if you don’t play hard enough you’re going to get your ass kicked and that’s essentially what happened.”

On taking Josh Howard out of the game tonight - “He was limping so we took him out. Well tonight was the first back-to-back so we’ll evaluate it and treat it accordingly. He’s had some soreness in practices as he’s in the stages of a long process of recovery and reconditioning of his ankle. So at times this soreness will occur and we will have to get him out of the game.”

On his injury being a setback or just an unexpected speed bump - “I’m gonna go with the unexpected speed bump right now. I’ve just got to keep working towards getting healthier.”

On when he realized he couldn’t go 100% - “When coach took me out.”

On how much it was a concern in his first back-to-back - “It was something I thought about. I didn’t know how it was going to respond and this is how it turned out. It something I’ve got to deal with and work on getting better.”

On the fine line between being the go-to guy and taking too many shots - “Yeah…I pressed a little bit there in the second half. I felt like we didn’t really have much going and the team was cold. I probably took a couple of shots that I shouldn’t have taken. But hey, we still had a chance there. We were only down four and came all the way back. We just gotta quit putting ourselves in a hole like that. We’ve been playing from behind almost every game. At some point, especially on a back-to-back, it takes a lot of energy to battle back all the time. I don’t want to take anything away from the Spurs though. They were without Duncan and without Parker. They battled. They made big shots when they had to and they played a heck of a game.”

On fatigue - “Especially on a back-to-back, it’s a tough position. I felt we had nothing going and just took some shots that I shouldn’t have taken. I probably should have swung the ball and run some pick-and-roll and get even better looks, but I just have to learn from it and move on.”

On George Hill’s rebound and being spent at the end of the game - “I think the big play was when we had it down to four. I took a bad shot, they came down and we played zone. Then Bonner hits that three from the wing to push it back up to seven with a couple minutes left. I think that was really the game-winner right there. If I make a better move or a stronger move and get fouled it turns into a two-point game and we’re right in it. That was a big swing. Maybe I was a little tired and just pressed too much.”