Quotes after last night's win

Head Coach Avery Johnson
What did you tell Jason Terry for him to play good defense against Chris Paul? “Jet was highly motivated like all of our men, and fortunately (Chris) Paul missed some shots tonight, but I thought Jet had a lot of energy and it takes a lot of energy to attempt to guard Paul. We brought a lot of energy to our defense and we simplified pretty much every single thing we were doing against him.”

Attacking the rim and going to the line 38 times: “We think we have to be aggressive, sometimes overly aggressive if you’re going to make strong moves and during this time of the season that’s what’s going to get rewarded. You’re not going to get rewarded for shooting fall away three’s. You’ve got to make strong physical moves and I thought we did that tonight.”

Jason Terry in the starting lineup: “More than anything tonight the men hustled tonight and rebounded the basketball and we were physical tonight. This is the first time in the series where we have actually been really physical on both ends of the floor so I think more than a lineup change I just thought our men were really physical tonight.”

Dirk’s overall performance: “We tried to put him in situations where he was a little bit closer to the basket. Dirk’s one of the best rebounders in the league and he was mixing it up in there and was really making strong contact.”

Jason Kidd
“It was good to get one under our belt here at home. Everybody played well, everybody pitched in and that’s the way we have to play for 48 minutes.”

“We knew that we didn’t play well in New Orleans and we’re a veteran ball club and much as everyone has written us off and said the series is over, we feel that there is a lot of basketball to be played and we can take a page from New Orleans and understand that they protected their home court and we have to do the same and try to tie this series at 2-2.”

Defending Chris Paul: “We want to make him take tough shots and then on the other end we try to make him work a little bit too. We’re just trying to take some of that energy away from him and make him work on both ends of the floor.”

“For us it’s been the third quarter in this series. No matter if we’ve had the lead or not, we’ve come out kind of flat and tonight we were aggressive, took the ball strong to the basket and trying to get to the line and we did that tonight.”

Jason Terry
Your role for this team when you start: “The thing about me in the starting lineup is I get a chance to set the tempo, set the tone for us on both ends of the floor; getting out in transition and defensively picking up guys in the backcourt and getting out in the passing lanes just whatever I can do to be a factor out there. We did a good job of that tonight, but it’s only one game and we have to come back here on Sunday and really have a great defensive performance.”

Defending Chris Paul: “We’re just trying to make it as hard as possible for him, contest his shots and see what happens. He’s a great player and you are not going to stop him, but as long as we limit the guys around him and not let him get 30 points, 20 assists then we put ourselves in a good position to win and that’s what we did tonight.”

Energy of being at home: “When you come home and the fans are behind you and you just have another level and this is just one game and we’re not going to get too excited. We need to come out with the same focus, the same intensity and have another great effort on Sunday night.”

Dirk’s leadership: “He’s been great. He’s been great all season long actually. He’s been a lot more vocal and he’s shown a lot of enthusiasm when someone else makes a good play and that’s all part of being a leader.”