What the Mavs had to say in Toronto

AVERY JOHNSON
Toronto came out and dictated the pace in the second quarter…
Yes, that was the key to the game. We got off to a slow start, but that beginning to the second quarter kind of reminded us of the end of the third quarter against the Knicks. Man, we just weren’t very good and that’s where they got control of the game. I thought we made a little bit of a run at the end of the third, and they finished off the third better than we did. We outscored them 23-21 in the third, much better quarter for us but we gave up 33 points in the second. They pretty much had control of the game the rest of the way.

Were they doing something to you offensively to get you out of sync?
We were out of sync from the start. The first play of the game that we ran is something that we normally run and we just didn’t run it right. We were out of sync from the start. We just didn’t do a good job offensively for the rest of the night.

On Dirk Nowitzki….
He just couldn’t get it going tonight. Josh (Howard) was keeping us in there for a minute. Jet was keeping us in there for a minute but we just couldn’t get going tonight overall.

DIRK NOWITZKI (13 points, nine rebounds)
Thoughts on the game…
I don’t think we were good all night at both ends of the floor. We couldn’t make shots. We shot 38 per cent on the road, that makes it tough to win a game. Plus defensively we weren’t sharp, giving up transition buckets. We were down 20 early and then we had to fight back all game. That is tough, especially against a good team. They are a great home team, so they deserved to win as we weren’t very good.

On the team’s defense…
We have to be better defensively to win, especially on the road consistently. We have to do it with energy, getting back in transition, contesting shots even though sometimes the guy might be open, you still have to go out there and do your best. (Kris) Humphries killed us on the glass, which is all hustle. You have to put a body on him and get the rebounds defensively. We just have to get better defensively if we want to win ball games, especially on the road. At home we can outscore people, if you want to win on the road consistently you have to get stops.

JASON TERRY (21 points, two rebounds)
Thoughts on Chris Bosh…
I had a bad night myself. I had two turnovers in the first two possessions. I didn’t execute a play and that is something that you can’t have when you are trying to get a good start on the road. We weathered the storm there for a minute. When you score 76 points, and they score 92 we should easily win that game 100-92 or vice versa we should easily win that game 78-76. We have got to get some stops. We didn’t rebound the ball well at all tonight.

Coach mentioned it looked like they had more energy than you tonight…
They played last night, so that is kind of mystifying. Give them credit once again they are a good team. They were amped up because T.J. (Ford) was out, but we still have to come out and take care of business. Like I said, give them credit, they outworked us all night.