Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Dallas Mavericks – Apr. 3, 2016
Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle
On the team’s defense...
“Everybody was involved. I thought Pachulia played great defense. Justin Anderson had a great defensive game. Wes is always going to give you a high level defense, but I thought our team defense and our collective will carried us because we were having a rough night shooting the ball. When you’re having a rough night shooting the ball, the only thing that’s going to hold you in NBA games is the ability to get stops.”
On the play of Justin Anderson and J.J. Barea...
“Anderson’s ability to fill in and play within our system on offense and be a real quality defender in our defensive system has been huge. Barea’s been here before - he’s been heavily relied upon and he’s had to fill in in big situations, so he knows what this is about. Anderson has learned gradually and his teammates have been a big part of his development. He’s been an attentive learner and he’s a really big part of what we’re doing right now.”
On the play at the end of the third and start of the fourth...
“It was huge. I thought the other key part was the way we ended the third with Dirk and Barea out of the game. We had two bigs in there, I think Ray (Felton) and Devin (Harris) and Wes (Matthews) and that’s one of those non-Dirk lineups where we’re grinding. We’re trying to get stops and get some quality shots and those guys gave us a little bit of separation. We got it to eight at one point and then we ended up with a five-point lead at the end of the quarter after leading by one at halftime. Both of those stretches were very, very important.”