They were playing loose and had nothing to lose.

Our first quarter defensively really set the tone. We worked on a lot of stuff this morning. They (Atlanta) missed a lot of shots but the defense was better than it was in that last...

I don’t think words could describe what that could do for the city. The city has been ravaged. They need some good news. Tourism is a big part of their whole economic structure. Hopefully they...

I sure hope we’re different. We seem to have been playing more physical basketball on the defensive end. Again, that was just one of those special games, the guy got on fire and obviously, since...

We could have gotten a little lethargic. We won’t rule it out.

There is going to come a time here – I don’t know when – when we’re going to start getting some guys back. And it’s going to be very important that those guys get back...

All you’re going to remember is the last shot. That’s all that matters.

He understands what we’re doing,

We’re not going to win a championship because some guy comes in and plays like Michael Jordan, … We’re going to win as a team. We’re going to win when Dirk Nowitzki continues to move...

He’s giving us the big drives when we need them and the big assists. He draws a lot of attention. On nights when his offense is not there, we need him to be a ball...

What they have done the first half of the year, I wouldn’t have disagreed with five.

I thought this was our best performance of the series. We talked about playing tough, hard-nosed defense tonight to try and close this series out.

It was not a flawless game … but I thought we were a little bit more aggressive and our aggression paid off.

We were lethargic physically and mentally. We didn’t show up. We didn’t have that juice that we normally have off the bench.

That’s the key, play at our tempo. We don’t play as fast as we used to, but we’re at our best when we get out in transition. That’s what we want to do when we...

A very disappointing loss. We played a short stretch there in the fourth quarter a little bit. But other than that, we didn’t play well at all again tonight and that’s what concerns me.

We are trying to win a championship. But we’re in the first year of implementing a program.

We didn’t want him to play 40, but he felt pretty good and he looked OK.

We looked like we were a little tired. But our guys have been battling. I’m on the train with them, whether it gets rocky or not. Right now we are just sputtering.

We’ve been going pretty hard in practice and in the games. It’s something we like to do.

I’m at a loss for words on our defense. We’ve got to have significant improvement.

I don’t want our team to misconstrue the message of us trying to get to the next level. We’re not going to get there in one night, all right? No matter what’s been said over...

If the commissioner changed the schedule and you had to play three or four games in a row, championship teams still find a way to win. So we don’t use tired as an excuse. We...

That game [Thursday] took a lot out of our team. We tried to act like it didn’t, but these guys really battled.

That was pretty much a complete game. I’m really proud of the way we battled. We played a tough, hard-nosed game.

We thought we were pretty good defensively, for the most part, against one of the tougher teams in the Western Conference. We knew we had to be physical.

I think I’m gifted to do what I’m doing, that this is what I’m here for. I felt like a coach when I was a player. … In a lot of ways, I know some...

Obviously, this is a very disappointing loss. We felt we had a chance to win this game, but they executed better than we did down the stretch. We battled, we fought, this was a playoff...

They scored, we didn’t (down the stretch). They got stops, we didn’t. That’s what it boils down to.

I’m so happy we went through that little period, because it seems to have brought our team closer together. Nobody pointed fingers. At the same time, we played against some really good basketball teams that...

We were just battling uphill all night. We couldn’t get it in gear tonight.

That’s huge. He doesn’t have to lead us every night. I want him to be aggressive and get his shots. But we’ve got to be able to get some offense from someplace else.

We were climbing uphill all night long. We thought if we could have had a normal quarter offensively and not be in the hole down by 20 points like we were in the first quarter,...

We’re not looking at anything like that right now.

I don’t’ think we’re going to actually find out who we play until the last game or two of the regular season.

Everybody’s not going to play in the exhibition games, so we needed to get some work in. I don’t look at training camp being the first week of October. It’s the whole month of October.

Hopefully the next game. I’m hoping that if this were a playoff game, he’d be playing.

We are fortunate to get out of here with a victory. Both teams played some really awesome defense and we just couldn’t get our offense in gear in the second half. This is another game...

They have two really terrific players in Shaq and Wade.

We had some good moments of team defense, but there’s nothing really to get too excited about, … I thought the big guys really tried. They’re making a conscious effort to improve.

The more they can do this consistently, the better off we’ll be.

We were fortunate enough get some stops and play some tough, hard-nosed defense. This is the fifth win on a five-game road trip. We have been on the road eleven or twelve days and we...

You always worry about what adjustments they might make. We thought they might change their lineup the last game. You just never know.

We’re not playing any defense. They shot 55 percent from the field and score 56 points in the first half. You’re not going to win many games in this league playing like that. We’ve definitely...

It could be a good thing all the way around if we use it to our advantage. A lot of things were supposed to be in our favor last year and things didn’t go our...

They made a run. They’re a very good basketball team. The second half, they got it within two, and we just suggested ‘stay tough-minded.’ And we were able to get somewhat of a cushion.

I thought this was a gutsy performance by our team. Cleveland really jumped out on us and put us in a big hole and our team responded in the second half. Our third quarter defense...

You just play it out, because you’re just trying to win as many games as you can. Wherever you land in the playoffs, you’ve got to go out and play anyway. I just couldn’t see...

We were fortunate to win for several reasons.

We won it with our defense, which gave me some ammunition. We didn’t score much in the fourth quarter, but neither did they. To hold them to 18 points, that’s the only way we could...