Quote board: “We had no other choice but to hit back”

The Dallas Mavericks almost overcame a massive deficit and suspect officiating to clutch victory from the jaws of defeat. It wasn’t to be, though. James Harden poured in repeated clutch buckets to help the Los Angeles Clippers crush the Mavericks’ dreams of a 3-1 series lead heading back to Los Angeles.

Despite the loss, the afternoon proved thrilling for Dallas fans who attended the game and watched at home. Here’s what the players and coaches had to say after the game.

Luka Doncic

(On his knee and how it affected him on the defensive end…)

“It’s hurting, obviously, but I shouldn’t make excuses. We came out a little sloppy so have to do way better than that.”

(On if his defensive struggles and if his knee has affected his ability to move laterally…)

“I mean, yeah, I was in foul trouble. We said to try to limit [James] Harden’s 3s. I was just trying not to give him 3s. Obviously, it wasn’t good, especially me.”

(On maintaining a positive mindset…)

“I mean, we came back. We were down 31. We came back. I gotta really give—the fans were amazing. Kept supporting us. [Even] When down 31. They kept supporting us so really gave that to the fans. Like I said, we have to start the games better, especially me.”

(On Kyrie Irving having 40 points in three quarters…)

“I have to help him more. I feel like I am letting him down so I have to be there. I have to help him more. He’s giving everything that he has. He’s been amazing for us the whole series.”

(On how Irving has influenced his game…)

“Yeah, it’s way easier for me, so I have to take advantage of that. He just makes my life easier that he’s on the court.”

(On keys to starting strong in Game 5…)

“Play with energy. We’ve had two day games. We struggled in both. We just have to play with the same mentality as Games 2 and 3. We just have to go out there and play 48 minutes hard.”

Kyrie Irving

(On another slow start to the game, similar to Game 1…)

“They started off the game hitting shots and taking advantage of some of our rotations. They got some open looks. Some of them were contested, but they got into a great rhythm in the first quarter. When you give up 39 points in a playoff game and try to come back, it’s going to be difficult. We knew from that point on, we had to play almost perfectly. We dug ourselves in a hole. There was no time to complain about it, or look to each other for excuses. It was just time to get it going. We fell short. This has been consistent in the series where Kawhi [Leonard] doesn’t play and we’re dealing with Paul George and James Harden going off. We learned from the first time, but I guess we needed to go through it a second time as a team. In a basketball game like this, it’s tough to give a great team like that 39 points. I feel like we did some good things moving forward, but we dug ourselves in a hole.”

(On the Mavericks’ second-quarter performance…)

“We had no other choice but to hit back. I felt like in the first quarter, we got some good looks, but our pace wasn’t matching theirs. They forced us into some tough contested 2s and 3s. I felt like we settled a little bit in that first quarter. We should have gotten to the free-throw line a little bit more. I felt like we took some strides in a positive direction in that aspect of responding. But again, when you give a team like this 39 points, and you only score 16, it’s going to be tough to get out that hole.”

(On playing a Clippers team without Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard in the lineup…)

“When Kawhi [Leonard] is not in the lineup, you can see they are different players to a certain degree. I don’t want to disrespect their talent, but I think [they] play with a little bit more liberation [and] they take a lot more tough shots. When Kawhi is out there, I think they’re looking to be efficient and get each other going a little bit more. For the second game where Kawhi isn’t playing, we came out and I don’t think we were prepared for some of the shots they were taking.”

Derrick Jones Jr.

(On his performance tonight…)

“I played OK. I could have been beter defensively and get more stops. I probably could have created a few more open looks for my teammates. But my main thing was on the defensive end, I think I could have been a lot beter.”

(On the Mavericks’ large deficit at the beginning of the game…)

“We didn’t make a shot. We couldn’t buy a bucket at that time. [The problem was] hitting shots. That’s prety much all it is. We’ve just got to sure-up on looks that we’re getting and knock them down.”

(On what the team was emphasizing during timeouts when the Clippers had their big lead…)

“Stay together. It’s going to let us back in the game either way. We can’t go a whole game without making shots. That’s one thing I know about this team. At the end of the day, it’s going to let us back in the game, so we have to keep fighting and keep going.”

(On Kyrie’s Irving play in the second quarter to cut the Clippers’ lead in half…)

“It’s Kai [Kyrie Irving] being Kai. It’s nothing new, we’ve seen it all year long. He’s been doing the same thing all year long, and we don’t expect him to stop now.”

Jason Kidd

(On what went wrong to start the game…)

“That’s a good question. Give them credit. They came out – and we talked about it – Paul George and [James] Harden, we had to keep them off the free throw line but also the 3. They made 14 [3s] there in the first half. We talked about it at halftime, and we did a lot better job. They made four there in the second half. Just understanding the guys that can hurt you, Paul did a good job of getting going early. Our defense, again, in that first quarter was not up to par.

We had great looks offensively, we missed some. It was kind of like game one all over again, having a bad quarter. The big thing is we fought to take the lead, go up one and then George hits a tough corner 3 and they take the lead again. Just looking at the start, we’ve got to be better. To answer your question, we have to be better. Contested 3s is one thing but when you give guys warm-up 3s, you can put yourself in a bad position and that’s what happened there in the first.”

(On staying small in the fourth quarter…)

“Understanding offensively, we needed to space the floor. Maxi [Kleber] did a really good job there. Understanding the options we have of being able to play Maxi, being able to stretch the floor was the option we went with. Living with 2s in this league doesn’t hurt you but 3s kill you – and 3s killed us this afternoon. We’ve got to be better. When [James] Harden is taking 2s, it’s better than him shooting the 3. Understanding what they were shooting from 3 in the first half, you’ve got to give up something. They’re talented. We gave up the 2s – but contested 2s – and they made them. They gave us a chance to get back in the game and actually take the lead.”

(On how Mavericks guard Luka Dončić played on defense and the status of his knee…)

“I thought he did everything he could. His health, you’ll have to ask him about his health. I thought he competed on both ends. He put us in position – we took the lead there in the fourth. We just came up short. I thought he did a really good job on both ends.”

(On the play of Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving over the last three quarters…)

“All four quarters. If he didn’t get going, that game would have been over in the first. For him to be able to get going in the second got us back. We just talked about if we can get it within 15 there going before halftime, and we got it 17. I told the coaches I think we can get this down to four by the fourth – and we did. It was a four-point game going into the fourth. But again, we had to play perfect in that fourth and we just didn’t come up with the key rebounds. There was one that [James] Harden came up with an offensive rebound; we got the missed 3 but Harden comes up with the rebound. We have to be better rebounding the ball. We had the guys we wanted shooting there in the fourth. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t capitalize on it.”

(On the slow starts…)

“This is like game one, early [in the] game. For whatever reason, we just haven’t played well. We’ve gotten off to slow starts. We played better in the second half, so that’s just something we’ve got to talk about as a team. If there’s another afternoon game, we’ve got to make sure we’re ready to go from the jump and we can’t wait.”

Paul George

(On Kawhi Leonard being out for Game 4…)

“I don’t know how many times we’ve got to say it—regardless of who’s playing and who is not playing—I’ve got to be aggressive. We feel good with where we’re at, with who we have.”

(On his shot with 1:55 left in the fourth quarter to re-take the lead…)

“I was just trying to stay in rhythm. I got confidence in myself, I can knock any shot down, and get any shot off. Just trying to create space and find space, and was able to do so.”

(On the back-and-forth between each team’s two top scorers…)

“It’s what this is about, just trying to will and put the team on your shoulders and make plays when it matters. I thought both sides did that. James [Harden] was special down the stretch, he found something. Lately, he found his rhythm in pick-and-roll and one-on-one situations. [Kyrie Irving] as well. Kai is just lethal, he’s deadly. But it’s just what it came down to, both teams trying to make plays to give a team a chance to win.”

James Harden

(On if he has to be more aggressive with Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard out with injury…)

“I’m blessed to be able to change it up and be a facilitator or a scorer. I’ve been doing it throughout the course of my career at an elite level. My mindset coming to this team was just doing whatever it takes to win and get to the end goal. [With] scoring or facilitating, it goes possession-by-possession and game-by-game. I think like the course of the regular season I had glimpses where I scored the basketball, or I had glimpses where I had double-digit assists. So, to answer your question, [for] game one we knew Kawhi was out, and [we] had to be more aggressive. Tonight, we knew Kawhi would be out, and [we] had to be more aggressive. So, it’s pretty simple for me.”

(On what it was like to be alongside Clippers forward Paul George in a clutch-time scoring battle with Mavericks guards Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving…)

“It’s a show. It’s elite, skilled, Hall-of-Fame basketball players going at it so there’s only so much we can do defensively. You then have to worry about other guys scoring the basketball and all of us are obviously scorers. But we can pass the ball as well, so it makes it a little bit difficult as well. It’s whoever comes up with the stop and I think we were the ones that got the stops consecutively when we needed to. That was the game right there.”

(On his floaters…)

“They weren’t helping so that shot was there, something that I work on consistently. I had a couple more opportunities, but I passed them up. In the fourth quarter, [in] those last five minutes, I had to shoot them.”

(On if him being poised and being experienced helps his teammates in high-intensity playoff games…)

“I think we’ve seen the blueprint in what its going to take in order to beat this team. So, for us, it’s just watching the film and getting better and finding ways to do it consistently in the course of a four-quarter game. It’s easier said than done, but for us I think we can’t have any wasted possessions because this team is so gifted offensively, they can make you pay for it. So, for us, it’s just making sure we get the shot that we want. [In regard to] turnovers, we had 12, which is still too many. We live with the results. As long as we can get the shot up, we live with the results.”

(On what adjustments he makes to shoot the mid-range…)

“Adjustments, you said it. If you can’t make adjustments, if you can’t change the game and still be effective, then you probably won’t make it to the next round. You probably won’t get far. For me, it’s the adjustment offensively [when] I got the three-ball. If they want to try and take away the three-ball, I get to the paint and I got my mid-range or floater. If they want to come help, then I’ve got my passing. It’s a four-step process you got to think about, and it all happens so fast. [The] majority of the time, I make the right decision.”

Tyronn Lue

(On what gave the team confidence to finish the game and get the win after the Mavs came back from down 31 points…)

“Just keeping our composure. They are a great team. Kyrie [Irving] and Luka [Dončić] are going to make some crazy shots, some tough shots. We needed to make a run. But also, we didn’t think we would come into the building and be up 31 points either. I told our team ‘Just get the win, however you have to get it.’

In the playoffs it doesn’t matter how you win - if you win by one point, or 40 points. In those spurts, we still have to play better. We can’t turn the ball over. We can’t give up straight-line drives. We have to make quick decisions in the offense like we did when we got up 31. Overall, I am just happy with our team for keeping our composure, staying in the game and making big plays down the stretch to win the game.”

(On the benefit of having Clippers forward Paul George and Clippers guard James Harden while Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard is out…)

“Yes, it is huge. Acquiring James [Harden] this year and having someone that can step up and score when PG [Paul George] or Kawhi [Leonard] is out. PG was phenomenal [in] the first half. I think he got a little tired in the second half, but we needed every bit of it to win this game. This was a huge game for us to win. James was great. PG was great. Norm [Norman Powell] made some big shots. But overall, I thought our team really stuck together when it got tough. Don’t hang your heads, don’t point fingers, stay together and figure out how to win the game. I give our guys credit for doing that.”

(On his key thoughts heading into Game 5 in Los Angeles on Wednesday night…)

“We need to get our rest. Physicality [will be important] with how we start the game. We have seen Kyrie [Irving] and Luka [Dončić] make some crazy shots, so we just can’t let that take away from what we are doing. We just have to have a good start to the game. We need to have a defensive mindset, making it tough on those guys like we did to start this game. Then, we have to be physical on both ends – not just defense, but on offense as well attacking the rim and making the right play.”

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