2002 NBA Playoffs: First Round
April 24, 2002
Mavericks 122, Timberwolves 110
American Airlines Center
Dallas leads series 2-0
Recap | Box Score | Playoff Index
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"I thought we hung in there for a while in the first half. I wouldn't say the tempo was really what we wanted, that much up-and-down. They force you to play at that tempo. In the second half, they made shots. They said before they haven't played their 'A' game, but I thought they came in and shot the ball extremely well. They made some shots that were contested and pretty much made every individual shot. They did a better job on the boards."
"We have to regroup. We have three days now to get back home and regroup. We have to make it a series by winning a game and at least put a little pressure on them. That has to be our main focus."
"He (Garnett) is extremely competitive and he is going to come out and give the same effort. He had 31 and 18 and got to the free throw line 17 times and single-handedly, with Wally, kept us in the game. When you have two guys who got their playoff career highs, you can't ask much more from those guys. We didn't shoot the ball that bad, but they blistered us from the three."
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"We did a good job of containing; they just shot lights out tonight. They turned up the heat in the third quarter and we could not recover. It's going to be tough, but this is a team that is capable and we are going to be up for the challenge."
"It's going to be a war. They're a good road team and we're a good home team. We have to defend our home court."
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"They have four guys who can shoot consistently and try to mix it up, and that makes it tough for us."
"At times I didn't defend well and did a lot of other things not well. I'm not thinking about what I need to do individually, though — I'm thinking about what we need to do as a whole.'
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"Their fans were something special today. That's what we need from out home crowd in Game 3. It gave them a lot of energy and got them going. Something must be in the air — they hit some big shots. Hopefully, they don't go down in our building."
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"It wasn't an even first half. They had 21 second-chance points in the first half and none in the second half. It could have been my talk at halftime, even though I gave the same talk at the beginning of the game, or it could just be the luck of the draw, the bounce of the ball or fatigue. I think fatigue has a factor in these games because we are playing the best players and it is hot in a lot of the arenas."
"I was conscious of coaching my players to win. I was more interested in the matchups and the results that we were getting in our set offense, what was working and what wasn't. Oftentimes, even when you don't make shots, you're getting shots and you like those shots. They really defended us well for periods of time, but our superior outside shooting and our range really meant a lot in the second half."
"It is amazing that we lead the league in scoring and also commit the fewest turnovers. That hardly ever happens. I think I have two sensational point guards. Neither one turns the ball over. The other players take care of the ball. The other thing that cuts turnovers is that when we have shots we shoot them. We don't over-pass sometimes, which can lead to turnovers. I have been an advocate of not taking risky passes. The worst thing in the world to me is the guy that wants to make the sensational pass and makes them occasionally, but turns the ball over more than he makes the sensational pass."
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"I was trying to make the most of the opportunity. I knew if I would have went in there soft or not aggressive, it probably would have gotten blocked. I just wanted to make something happen and get the crowd and my teammates into the game."
"I wanted to be aggressive both offensively and defensively. I wanted my teammates to see that I took this game seriously and I knew it wouldn't be a cakewalk and that Minnesota was going to come out hungrier than in the first game. My teammates fed off my energy and we started to do the little things on the defensive end. It carried over to the offensive end, and as result, we got a win."
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"In the first game we were sluggish, so tonight we were going to play to win and not to lose, and when we play to win, it's up-and-down at a high tempo. Steve started it with his tempo, and everybody else followed suit."
"That's something special, to only have six turnovers for a team that likes to run like we do. Usually you have more turnovers than that, but we did a good job of taking care of the ball."
"KG is KG. We tried to defend him the best we could, get a hand in his face, and if he misses it, we try to get the rebound and not give him as many second-chance shots. He played big for them tonight."
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"It's important for our team to play at a high pace and not turn the ball over, and we did that tonight. I don't know how much more loose we were tonight, but we definitely made more shots. Whether that was loose or it was just our night, I really can't tell you. We're a pretty loose team in general, and I feel pretty confident about our attitude."
"Game 3 is going to be a much different story playing in Minnesota. Their fans are going to be unbelievable, and we're going to have to play even better than we did tonight to beat them."
