Avery Johnson Games Quotations

I have been waiting for 79 games to get some internal leadership, and I haven't gotten it yet. This is one of the most disappointing games that I've been a part of as Mavericks coach. At the same time, it's my fault.

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 didn't deserve to win. We weren't very efficient offensively. And give their defense credit. They did a good job of limiting Dirk and Josh's looks late in the game. They have a lot of pride in their locker room.

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 that we proved to ourselves that we can win basketball games with our defense. I don't know if we would have won this game in the past. Now we are a different team.

It is a disappointing loss. When we come to the games we try and give ourselves a chance to win. I wasn't trying to rally the team by getting ejected; I think it was more a difference of opinion.

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 myself doing anything but giving 1,000 percent on the sideline.

Three games in four days, playing teams below .500, above .500, it really doesn't matter at this point. Everybody's got schedule stuff. The schedule is not a problem. We haven't played well since the All-Star break, all right? We have not played well since the All-Star break.

We haven't done anything. We can win 30 games in a row and what does that mean?

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 taken a step back in that area.

We kind of threw the first punch and kept on punching. We were fortunate enough to put together one of our better games of the (season).

I've never really gotten excited about games too much in February. But at the same time, obviously the guys are doing a lot of positive things on the court. You'd be crazy not to think so.

It's a game we've got to go to San Antonio and play. Then we have to come back and play another game (against Charlotte on Friday). I think the big swing games will be in April. I think there's too much of the season left to call this a swing game.

It's nothing about me. If we're fortunate enough to be a part of that situation, it just shows that the guys that play for the Mavericks won some games and we're in the heat of the race. It's no goal of ours. It's a nice honor if something like that were to happen.

I'm going to stop saying every time we have games like this that I failed. I've been waiting 79 games to get some internal leadership. I haven't gotten it yet.

I love it. I wish we could play the last 20 games like this because I really want to try to go into the playoffs playing at a high level. But you can't play at a high level when you're playing against teams that don't really have anything to play for.

In my opinion, looking at that game and looking at some of our recent All-Star games, the game was much more serious. Now, they still scored a lot of points. But the games were a little bit more physical from what I can tell.