March 20, 2009 at Conseco Fieldhouse
Mavericks 94, Pacers 92
PACERS COACH JIM O'BRIEN
“That is why Nowitzki is Nowitzki. He hit a tough shot. It was good defense. Jeff (Foster) defended him well and I thought he did a nice job on him, as did Murph (Troy Murphy) and Danny (Granger). It was a hard fought game on the part of both teams. "
(On the last play) "We were trying to go for the lob or get Stephen Graham a look at the top of the key. (On the team’s effort) I thought we were very focused and I thought our defense was tough.”
PACERS GUARD BRANDON RUSH
“I felt we had a chance to win."
"Dirk hit an incredible shot. Jeff played perfect defense on him."
"They’re definitely a great team. We played hard tonight.”
PACERS CENTER JEFF FOSTER
(On Dirk Nowitzki’s last shot) "He’s an All-Star and he made an All-Star shot. We didn’t get a real good look at a last shot."
"It’s a game of flows. Every time you lose you’re not happy. We didn’t execute well in the first half and the first couple minutes of third quarter. We fought our way back in."
"It was a great game, unfortunately we couldn’t pull out a win.”
PACERS FORWARD TROY MURPHY
“They’re all tough when you lose. T.J. hit that big shot. Jeff played great defense on Dirk."
(On the end of the season) "It’s about finishing strong. There’s no quit in this team. We’ve played hard all the time and continue to try and win as many games.”
MAVERICKS COACH RICK CARLISLE
(On Dirk Nowitzki’s last shot) "He had a decent shooting night. But at the end of the game, we’re going to live and die with him. And he hit a great shot for us."
(On the Mavericks’ game) "Kidd did a great job running the offense tonight. And I liked our tempo. It’s a big win for us and we needed that going into our short break."
(On the end of the game for the Pacers) "I’ve seen a lot of great finishes at Conseco Fieldhouse and after Danny banked in the jumper and then T.J. (Ford) hit his, Dirk hit the big shot when we needed him to. And then we got the defensive stop. We’re getting out of here alive.”
MAVERICKS GUARD JASON TERRY
“It was a huge win for us, a tremendous win. We couldn’t afford to lose another game on this road trip. Indiana played tough. You know you’re going to get that from a Jim O’Brien team. We kept getting stops, and they hit some tremendous shots. But I think we hit the best shot of the night with Dirk."
(On Dirk Nowitzki’s final shot) "At worst we wanted to go to overtime. So we wanted to try to get the clock all the way down and give it to our MVP. He has hit big shot after big shot his whole career, and this was nothing different. We got him to his sweet spot, around the elbow. He didn’t have to maneuver, he was just able to dribble and raise up.”
MAVERICKS FORWARD ANTOINE WRIGHT
(On what he did to hold Granger to 8 of 26 shooting) "I just wanted to make it as tough as I could for him. I’m not going to give you all my secrets, I can’t do that. I have to play him again some day. He’s a great catch-and-shoot guy, a great cutter, a great finisher. I tried to make him put it on the ground and force him to my help."
(On the importance of the win) "It was definitely a game we needed coming down the stretch. Indiana has played us well. So it was a game we definitely needed.”