“We expected them (Phoenix) to come out in the third quarter and really pick up the pressure”, Dirk Nowitzki said. This game is the real world debut of all the offseason additions that the Suns, and also the Mavericks, have made. Leading the way was Raymond Felton’s 18 points, eight of which came in the fourth quarter when Dallas took its largest lead (28) of the game. “With our depth, I feel like we’ve got to come at teams in waves”.
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The Mavs are an old basketball team that’s likely going to struggle against the pace the Suns want to play. “Our defense was rotating for each other and we got a few rebounds and it was fun out there”.
However, Williams, Matthews and Chandler Parsons may not be in uniform in tonight’s game because of injuries.
“It is not a bad thing for us to be flying under the radar, since we have so many new faces”, he said. “That was motivation enough for us”. We’re getting healthier and healthier. “He’s one of the best at it so we’ve got to do a job on him”. “If we were in the East we would be looked at as a top three or four team”. “I think we were chalking the early part of the game up to a little nerves, a little being jacked up because it was the first game”.
“I hate to say it, but coaches don”t get as much time as they used to when it comes to building a foundation,” said Don Nelson, who offered a heartfelt congratulations to Carlisle on his upcoming milestone.
Another thing the Mavs revealed was that they are still going to be a good offensive team.
It won’t be easy in a conference that might require 50 wins to make the playoffs.
“You’ve got to flush it down the toilet”. How they show in this first game will be the trigger for a lot of hype or frustration on social media, even though it is only one game. That doesn’t happen at just anywhere you go.
Mavs also lost Tyson Chandler to free agency, a key man of Carlisle’s championship team.
“Everyone top to bottom can take a piece of this loss”, Chandler said. If we have to win a game 89-80, a few nights it will be like that.
No, the shots never went down. “We had eight guys in double figures, I believe, which is going to be our calling card”. But the Mavericks answered with seven straight points in less than a minute, with Felton’s 3-pointer restoring the Dallas lead to 21 at 99-78 with 6:54 left.
“It was a tremendous team effort”, Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said.
He’s got insane confidence, though, saying the shot felt great every time it left his hand.
“We stayed in attack mode all night and never let up”, Carlisle said, “and that is how we are going to have to play”.
Williams finished with 12 points, including 8 in the first 4+ minutes of the first quarter, draining his two three pointers in the opening minutes of the game. Since re-upping with the Nets that summer, persistent ankle issues and a revolving cast of teammates and coaches led to Williams’ demise as a prominent player.
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– At 3:42 of the third quarter, Bledsoe was hit with a technical foul, something he received on 10 different occasions last season, second-most on the team. More importantly, he looked quick and decisive all night long, appearing very comfortable and confident within Dallas’ offense. When Dallas offered Wesley Matthews $57 million over four years before Jordan had made his final decision, it seemed like a smart move to bolster its pitch to the big man. But without Jordan, signing a 29-year-old shooting guard who is coming off of an Achilles tear to such an expensive deal seems a lot more like a risk. “He’s a remarkable guy who is extremely strong willed and when he puts his mind and focus on something he just fixates on it”, Carlisle said. “He wanted to prove to people he could get back and start the season.”…
