New Orleans Hornets vs. February 22, 2013 Hornets Post Game Quotes

Hornets Head Coach Monty Williams: On a tough way to end a wild game tonight: “Any time you lose a game you feel bad, but any time you lose a game that way because of your mistakes, its worse. They hit some tough shots, but a lot of it was defensive breakdowns. I thought our out the gate defense was bad. First quarter, we gave up 35 points, third quarter we gave up 30. To me, that is the game. If you look at the other quarters, 18 and 21, why is there this disconnect as far as continuity. It’s one of those things where we have to look at film and figure out what is breaking down on our defense. They made some big time shots tonight. In the first quarter I thought they were running script offense and I didn’t think our resistance was where it should be. Down the stretch tonight, you are up four, you have the ball in your guard’s hands and you can’t make plays. You can’t blame anybody but yourself, and that is 101. Back in the day, when you see a team with a four point lead with 50 or 40 seconds on the clock you are thinking that game is over. We just weren’t able to make the plays.”

On coming out of the last timeout: “I thought Greivis (Vasquez) had the chance to make a shot one time and he just let the ball slip out of his hands, I don’t know what happened. Ryan (Anderson) came out and was open for a second, but Greivis didn’t see him. I am a bit surprised that Eric (Gordon) turned it over the time when he went to the basket and tried to make a scoop pass. Hindsight is always 20/20. We have been in those situations before and we haven’t come out on top as much as we’d like but we have done it before. Ryan hits a big shot to put us up and from that point on I think it was defense. Mike James hits a shot in the corner; we held off of him, it’s an NBA player. And then Vince (Carter) hits a shot, and it’s a tough way to foul a guy like that when he has the ball because you could give up three shots. I thought Jason (Smith) did the best job he could as far as defending, Vince hit tough shots all night.”

Hornets Forward Ryan Anderson: On the inability to close out the game: “It was the last few plays down the stretch. There were things that we did to get in that position in the first place. You can’t look at those last couple of plays and say that was the key. We had chances to make runs, we had chances to extend the lead or just play harder defense and eliminate their runs, and obviously that would have taken care of those last couple of plays, but that is something experience wise we have to keep working at. We just have to get in the gym and work at taking care of the ball and making better plays. Those are key moments, playoff moments.”

On the biggest lapses in the game: “They were just making a lot of shots in the first half. Our defense stepped up a little bit in the 2nd quarter, but they hit a lot of tough shots. They are a great scoring team, they have guys that can shoot the ball and . They did a great job of attacking the glass. We just need to play better defense down the stretch. We need to eliminate their ability to get in the paint, and eliminate those stupid fouls.”

Hornets Forward : On his knee injury: “I came down on it and it started hurting, and I came to the back. It’s a sprained knee, whatever they told you that’s what it was. I was prepared to play if they needed me. It’s fine.”

New Orleans Hornets vs. Dallas Mavericks February 22, 2013 Mavericks Post Game Quotes

Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle On Guard Mike James down the stretch: “It was as big as it gets. Down four with a minute to go, the great thing was no one ever wavered or lost belief. The guys kept battling. We felt at halftime this was a mirror image of the last game. We had a seven-point lead at the half in the last game, and they battled back and beat us. I told these guys, ‘We were down five, and we got to do the same thing.’ Sure enough, we were really determined and just scratched it out, but they are all going to be hard. We’re going to have to have guys making big shots. We’re going to have to have guys making big plays defensively.”

On the blocked shots: “Well, one of the reasons there were so many blocked shots was we were getting beat off the dribble so much. We have to do better with that. We made the plays we had to make, but there is still room for improvement. I’m excited about that. We’re going to keep our enthusiasm about this and keep battling.”

Mavericks Forward Vince Carter On his three point shot late in the game: “I just tried to read the situation, see if a guy was open and try to find somebody. He was backing up in the retreat position. You can’t be afraid to shoot it. If you feel confident in your shot, go ahead and shoot it. I know when it feels good. I’ve been around. I’ve been in many situations where I’ve taken the game winning shot and missed it. I’ve been in situations where I’ve hit big shots for our team. I’ve never been afraid to take a big shot and deal with the consequences either way. In that situation, I feel comfortable.”

Mavericks Center Bernard James On tonight’s game: “We’ve had a lot of nail biters this season. We haven’t always executed the way we wanted to, but tonight we were right on point. Even when we made mistakes, we stayed together and got the job done. I know my stretch at the beginning of the game is going to be about six or seven minutes, so right around that mark, I feel I should be worn out with no more gas and need a break. That’s my mindset everyday: go out there and play until I’m exhausted.”

On his seven blocked shots: “That’s one of the things I can do really well. Tonight, I just tried to protect the rim and help out as much as I could. A couple of times, I got caught helping too much. I’m still kind of figuring things out. I was able to come up with some shot blocking opportunities.”

On the team play recently: “We’re really starting to figure things out. We’re getting a solid rotation. Guys know exactly when they’re going to play and that helps a lot to perform consistently. We finally are starting to learn each other’s game: what we’re good at and what we’re not good at. We’re doing a better job of putting each other in position to score and on defense helping out.”