Quote board: What the Mavericks said after losing to the Warriors

Mar 23, 2023 - 2:02 PM

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The Dallas Mavericks fell to the Golden State Warriors at home Wednesday night, 127-125. Golden State, one of the worst road teams in the league, spoiled Luka Doncic’s return after Dallas’ star missed five games with a left thigh strain.

It was a close game throughout, but like so many games of late, the Mavericks we not able to put together a closing run down the stretch. Not only that, but the team thought that the referees completely miscommunicated an inbounds play to them, giving the Warriors an easy bucket. Mavericks governor Mark Cuban plans to file a formal protest with the league because of it.

It was a weird game where the officiating drew a lot of attention and ire. Here’s what the players and coaches had to say after the game:

Luka Doncic

(On your view of the play in the 3rd quarter when you…)

“It was kind of weird. I think the refs called it correctly the first time, but when we came out of the timeout, I think the ref on the sideline thought it was our ball. I think in those situations they needed to group up. They could have waited because there was a ref all the way on our side. In this situation they just needed to group up.”

(On what went through your mind when the Warriors got a gift basket…)

“I was surprised. Honestly, I didn’t even know what was going. I have never seen that ever in my life.”

(On how you felt the first game back…)

“Good. I think a little better than I expected. I missed a couple of shots. I just tried to get back.”

(On the mood in the locker room after the game…)

“The mood is not good obviously. Every time you lose it’s bad. We have to figure out what is next. We have one more home game and then a long road trip which is always tough. We have to just refocus.”

Jaden Hardy

(On your comfort level with the offense…)

“Yes. When I get out there, I just try to let the game come to me – play within the offense, take the right shots, make the right plays.”

(On how comfortable you feel in these big games…)

“I feel very comfortable just trusting in the work I have put in at the gym late at night. When I get out there, I just stay poised and try to make the right plays.”

(On his 15 points from catch-and-shoot 3-pointers tonight…)

“Just my teammates finding me and me being in the right place at the right time. LD [Luka Dončić] is going to find you, so it’s just getting ready to knock them down whenever it comes to you. I think my teammates did a good job today finding me when I was open, and I just happened to knock them down.”

(On having Kyrie Irving on the team to help learn…)

“Since the time he has been here he has helped me a lot. He is always in my ear giving me feedback on what he sees and thinks when I am out there on the floor. When I was younger, I looked up to him and watched a lot of him. I tried to take things from his game and add it to mine. Just having him here with me and him being able to tell me things and help me get better, I am super grateful for that.”

Jason Kidd

(On the Warriors’ fourth quarter in-bounding play...)

“It wasn’t really explained. I think there was a lot of confusion, a lot of people were out of position. The court was split – we were on one side, the Warriors were on another – and you have a referee on the baseline, (referee) Mike [Smith] was on the baseline. So I assume Mike [Smith] thought it was our ball, too. To explain or ask Mike, if there’s confusion, it’s easy to just come in and blow the whistle and get us restarted – because there was confusion. We thought it was our ball. The referee pointed towards our bench but that was a signal of the timeout. There was confusion on the play before it even started with whose ball it was. He pointed, I thought, to us first and then he changed it. Then it went to a timeout and pointed to us. As I asked Mike, I said, ‘Mike, why are you there on the floor if it’s not our ball?’ There were quite a few people out of position on that play. It’s easy, it’s correctible but you first have to admit there was a mistake. But there wasn’t, we have to continue to keep playing.”

(On the play of Jaden Hardy...)

“It was great, it was great. Offensively, he was great. Defensively, he did his best. He was really, really good and just shows, again as we talked about pregame, his growth and the minutes that he deserves. He gave us a spark off the bench.”

(On the final two plays of the game...)

“You look at the split of being able to corral [Stephen] Curry – it’s not easy and he made a heck of a play by driving it. The read that Luka [Dončić] and Reggie [Bullock Jr.] had was the right read. They top-blocked. We’ll take the quick two and then we’ll play the free-throw game. Understand, we got a good look, it just didn’t go down for us.”

(On the play of Dončić in his first game back from injury...)

“I thought he looked great. For the 10-plus days that he was out, to play under 40 minutes – I thought he looked good. One of the positives is we came out of this healthy. Now we’ve got to go back to work tomorrow to get ready for Charlotte.”

Kevon Looney

(On Draymond Green’s screen on the game-winning score…)

“That’s something that Draymond [Green] has been talking about us doing a lot throughout the year. Having every once in a while for us throughout the game, and that was a perfect opportunity for it. He executed, he did great. He probably is the best screener in the league, and I don’t think he gets enough credit for that. He got Steph [Curry] free, and that was a big play for us.”

Steve Kerr

(On the biggest key to Golden State’s success down the stretch tonight…)

“I thought we got some key stops. I thought Draymond [Green] was incredible down the stretch defensively. Offensively, he sealed his guy on Steph [Curry]’s layup, which was a brilliant play. I just thought we got key stops when we needed to down the stretch.”

(On Jaden Hardy’s game…)

“He was terrific. We knew he would play quite a bit, especially with Kyrie [Irving] out, but also with [Tim] Hardaway out. I thought Hardy kept them in the game. Luka [Dončić] is always amazing, but for him to come back and play 41 minutes after not playing for a couple of weeks was pretty remarkable. But, he had to have some help out there. It felt like we were right there to pull away several times, but somehow, they kept hanging in there. I thought a lot of it had to do with Hardy and his play.”

(On play the inbounds play at the end of the 3rd following the timeout…)

“Number one, it was my best ATO [after time-out play] of the year. It worked brilliantly, just the way we got organized and confused them. When I saw them at the other end, I had to stop and think, “wait, isn’t this our basket?” Because I had drawn up a play for an out-of-bounds underneath – a baseline out-of-bounds. So, I don’t know what happened. You’d have to ask their side. I thought it was pretty clear it was our ball and that’s why I was drawing up a play out-of-bounds on the baseline. But they all lined up at the other end. I guess they assumed it was their ball.”