Mavs Weekend Donuts: QUOTEBOARD from a Lakers at Dallas Classic
DONUT 1: MAVS-LAKERS QUOTEBOARD The Dallas Mavericks Quoteboard following Friday's 119-100 OT loss to the visiting Los Angeles Lakers (game story here) begins with Dallas coach Rick Carlisle's answer to a question about watching the triple-double duel between LeBron James and Luka Doncic.
“It’s great television,'' Rick said. "You can’t watch this game and say that the NBA isn’t one of the most compelling things to watch in the world. We just aren’t happy about losing. That’s all.''
A perfect summation, really.
DONUT 2: 'YOU'RE A BAD MF'ER' LeBron was good for 39 points, 12 rebounds and 16 assists; Luka was good for a 31-points/13-rebounds/15-assists effort. And afterward, the greatest player in the world sought out the defending Rookie of the Year - the "Euro-Bron'' -- to make his thoughts clear.
"You're a bad m--------!'' James told Doncic. (Full story here.)
DONUT 3: LUKA'S RESPONSE "The words he said after the game were something very special to me,'' said Luka.
DONUT 4: ENDING REGULATION Danny Green hit a 3 (along with some controversy) to send it to OT after Dallas had taken a 15-point lead in the first half. Said Rick:
"We didn’t execute a couple of things and that’s totally on me. I take responsibility for the Lakers getting that 3 at the end.''
DONUT 5: ON THE ZEBRAS “I was upset, too, (in addition to Luka) but I’m not going to spend 50-grand to criticize. It just doesn’t make sense.'' - Rick on the fine that would be coming had he ripped the refs in the postgame presser.
DONUT 6: GUARDING LEBRON "He is a great player, one of the best, and when he is making 3's he becomes even more tough to guard. He did a good job doing what he is doing. He did what he did.'' - Dorian Finney-Smith on LeBron.
DONUT 7: AD ON BIG D “They play hard, they play the game. We knew coming in it was going to be a tough game.'' - Anthony Davis on the Mavs.
More from AD above.
DONUT 8: BLOODY MESS “It was a physical game,” said Doncic, who earned a bloody head after a collision with Dwight Howard. “I had a little headache for a few minutes, but I put some ice on it and then it was better. ... After I got hit and then after the game (I did the concussion protocol), so I did it twice. I think it was a great game to watch. We could have won that game.’
DONUT 9: 'RATTLED' “We still had the game won at the end of the game and we made a lot of mistakes, and they didn’t make a call that they should have made, and Danny knocked down the shot. A lot of stuff happened on that last play and we were all rattled going into that overtime and we couldn’t get it back together.'' - Seth Curry
DONUT 10: KP'S WISDOM “We didn’t even play that well and we were still right there at the end to win it. They’re a much more experienced team, they know how to close out the game, and we didn’t. We’re still learning, so it is what it is. We’ve got to learn from this one.” - Kristaps Porzingis, who contributed 16 points and nine rebounds.
DONUT 11: LEBRON'S EYES “Yeah, you see it when he gets that look in his eyes. He had it in the third quarter. ...
He really just changed the momentum of the game and put it in our favor, and then obviously late in the game his ability to not only make big shots, but to [also] quarterback the action out there is just special.'' - LA coach Frank Vogel.
DONUT 12: THE FINAL WORD “I learned that we have a talented group. We have an amazing ability to make plays, but we have to work on the ‘next play’ mentality when things do get difficult.'' - Rick Carlisle.
