Mavs Postgame Interviews Game 4 vs Timberwolves: Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Daniel Gafford, Kidd

Mavs Postgame Interviews Game 4 vs Timberwolves: Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Daniel Gafford, Kidd

they uh they came out that’s fine uh I think that game is on me uh just didn’t give enough energy uh kind of uh so we got to do better they won one game we just got to focus on the next one down that you guys got always got to believe uh I believed in the end uh so uh it was close at the end but we couldn’t uh so they won the game like I said we just got to focus on the next one you say not enough energy as energy energy what [Music] uh yeah I mean he’s a big Pace to our to our defense and offense so we miss him a lot great I just told him uh keep going you know when you open shoot the ball when they close out to you drive it like you do and just hope yeah it’s fine you know we won three games it’s first like I said it’s first to four uh no matter if you win in in four or in seven you just got to win for do you do you feel Carl Anthony finally uh kind of broke out of his slump did you guys were you guys doing did he do anything differently to kind of throw it to your defense or did he just finally just start making shots no yeah I think he uh there was two big victories for them I know we have one heit two victories uh so uh that was really clutch uh so we got to do a better job on him luuka from star to star watching Anthony today what do you think about his effort in a must-win game for them yeah great effort he play amazing he’s an amazing player so he’s going to play great Luka what’s the what’s the mindset going into going to Minnesota we got to win four games what what mindset we got to win one more game that’s it [Music] Kyrie obviously a chance to close it out tonight at home just what stands out from A Loss like this in your opinion umot uh what stands out is is just our our competitive Spirit um you know especially throughout the game um you know that first quarter we only scored 20 points um gave up 27 uh it’s not it’s uncharacteristic like for us to kind of be in that that type of battle in the first quarter we usually like to keep the uh the game pretty close even though you know later in the game we we caught up but how I started off in particular the game with a few turnovers and you know if I’m setting an example like that then other guys are going to follow suit unfortunately at times and you know it just leads to just that lack ofical play so that’s on me taking accountability I got to start off the game a lot better and um just get a shot up at The Rim instead of turning the ball over so I think you know starting off the game um we just weren’t in a great Rhythm as of yet we picked it up in the uh second half a little bit more um but yeah had just a few costly turnovers and um you know some miscommunications on the defensive end uh during some crucial times in the game um felt like that was the difference tonight you know Kyrie is um you know with with obviously the chance to close out this the series uh you know how much is there disappointment is that the right emotion to take from a game like this disappointment yeah we’re human I mean you know we go out there and try to win so um you know we come in here with the right mentality right prepar ation we feel like we put ourselves in a great position to win the basketball game we obviously fell short we failed at that um but there are still some positives that we can take moving forward um you know and like I said to the to the previous question just a few uh timely shots that they hit in that fourth quarter and that third quarter where it was a miscommunication um you know we just got to be better and um a few breakdowns in that first half to Mike conin get into the rim for open layups and just breakdowns happening and um you know the game is within balance and we’re trying to break the lead open a little bit more we got to do it um you know how we’ve been doing it majority of the second half of the season that’s on the defensive end you know the offensive end is going to take care of your at times we’re going to make your Miss shots but defensively that’s where we have to uh make our presence be felt um and I think it also starts uh in terms of matching their physicality or overpowering their physicality in the beginning of the game it was very physical game calls were going back and forth uh so yeah there is a level of disappointment as a human emotion um but also uh just natural reflection of just how we can play better moving forward and just you know wash our hands with this one they got a win uh they’re a great team I’ve been saying it all series so uh we expect them to do the same thing when in Minnesota just coming out with that physicality playing to their home crowd and uh making things difficult on me and Luka and then when when you and Luca both have abnormal shooting nights um you know is it is it something where you look at it and and it’s a desire to get better shots for you guys or or is it just you know it’s baked into the game plan that you guys hit tough shots and that’s what you have to the adjustment is just making more of those tough shots I mean we’re in the NBA man I don’t think you know no team’s going to lay down to just give me and Luke open shots so uh you know I think you know when I look at just the quality of our shots I think a few of them could be better uh a few of them were rushed a few of them were in and out um especially in like when game is in the balance that’s what I’m saying I’m thinking about all the plays where uh it could have gone either way um but yeah it just takes a a a higher level of focus and also just understanding that we have to run the plays that work and we have to continue to pick on the other guys that we want to see um guarding us and just continue to feed each other confidence and continue to trust our teammates you know good things happen uh when you just consistently just turn to the next play and that’s what me and Luka have done and I think he can speak for himself too but I we’ve seen it we just on to the next play and um down the stretch we just got to stay together and when the game is getting close just go to our plays and make sure we’re ready to knock down shots and um be decisive you know a few times I got in the lane I was indecisive um I turned the ball over late you know so a lot of this uh is on me just being able to start the game well and then also finish the game well we had spurts I had spurts but um you know I got to put a full 48 minutes game together with my teammates and be better for them Kyrie if you don’t mind sharing was there anything you told the players in the locker room the younger players who maybe wanted to close out tonight and celebrate you know you said what do I tell him yeah did you say anything to your to the younger players n that’s not it’s not my place right now to tell them anything you know I just allow them to feel the emotions like I’m feeling it you know be human go home and then get a great night’s rest and come to the you know practice silly tomorrow be ready to watch film consistently get better I mean we’ve been putting one foot in front of the other all season so you know a loss like this it definitely stings it definitely hurts and you know like I said to that question it’s a level of disappointment but this is part of the competitive side of basketball too um you know you win some and you lose some and we would have loved to close out on our home floor sorry fans didn’t happen you know I think um you know moving forward uh now we know this is just us getting to know one another in stressful environments like this first time closing out to go to the NBA finals it’s a new thing for us so uh I like every on the side of just giving us Grace and um you know I’ll take all the pressure that comes with this and I’m used to it so they came out with McDaniels as the primary defender on you for the first time in the series what if any impact do you think that had I he has a huge impact to him I mean you know he’s a 69 uh Wing Defender that I’m seeing now for the first time uh from the start of the game so it’s going to be an adjustment um but I love it you know I relishing these type of opportunities it’s not the first time I’ve gone against a taller Defender uh so you know we’re going to have our battles uh but I don’t want to make it a one-on-one battle between me and Jaden I got to be smart um on the offensive end and defensively just being right positions to uh to create some mismatches on the other end when we get stops so and the first thing Lucas said when he came in here was that this game’s on him he said he didn’t play with enough energy uh you know what do you think of of him feeling like this one was on him I mean he’s not alone in this um I expect him to say something like that especially knowing how much he cares and how much he wants to win and how much he wants to lead our group so I expect nothing less you know I think you heard me too just say that it’s on me and that’s what you’re supposed to hear from your leaders of your team we know that we didn’t play with the best energy or um you know we didn’t create enough opportunities for us to get easy baskets enough and um you know just got to take the the hit on the chin man it’s not the first time we’ve been hit so it’s competitive Sports what’s it’s what makes it great iy re you guys probably figured that uh Carl Anthony was due to have a good game uh and it looked like he was making concerted effort to put his head down get to the basket why do you think he was you know in general more effective tonight I mean despite the criticism that he’s received this the unfair criticism at times even though he’s not shooting the ball particularly well or he didn’t shoot for the first three games he’s a great player um you know I respect him I know my peers respect him and my teammates respect him so um you know some of the shots that he was hitting tonight he missed in the first three games and you know he was getting to the rim but we had bigs there um you know contesting his shot so it was a little bit tougher but you know there were again in the fourth quarter and and uh looking back at some of those plays that he took advantage of it was top of the key they were running the same play and then also some flare screens where he was the catch and shoot recipient uh so we just got to be aware of him where he’s moving on the floor he’s trying to hide behind the defense and get some easy ones so you know that’s what great players do they figure it out you know and it’s a series you know this a small season series so um I expected him to at least come out with the aggression um to put his team in a great position to win the ball game and he did so he accomplished that and uh now we you know move forward Kyrie you’ve seen a lot of great players and big moments over the years Anthony Edwards comes out they need to win this game obviously just want to get your thoughts on his effort tonight leading them to the win I mean uh he’s been pretty consistent uh just in terms of coming at us and uh having a no fear mentality like I talked about before but also uh he’s very confident in himself and you know I if I’m on other side I don’t want to lose either so um that’s usually when great players go deep into their bag they um you know start bringing out things that they know that they’re great at um to adjust to what the defense is throwing at them and if they convert they convert but um he’s going to keep firing away so we just got to be prepared to show them bodies and um yeah make it tough on them Harry uh despite the loss what are some positive areas within this game that you would like to take to the next game I just feel like we have a consistent fight about us I mean it doesn’t matter what lead we’re uh dealing with or if another team has a lead on us we always feel like we’re in a position to win the basketball game um I think tonight uh some of those shots that cat was hitting took the wind out of ourselves uh and Anthony got down got a few easy layups few pull-ups um and then when we went down six I just feel like we stopped pushing the ball a little bit and and that starts with me I I just got to continue to keep my Pace up and uh get into the Lane and and finish my shots that I have on Rudy um you know those are things that I’m going to correct moving forward but I just got to stay aggressive and for our team sake we we just have to uh you know consistently do the little things where we affirm each other in every huddle that we’re okay you know and and coming out tonight we felt like we’re okay but you can tell there was the emotional fatigue of fans and us and everybody was pressured and you know it’s it’s a new again it’s a new space so um now we just got to deal with this one deal with this loss and get ready for Minnesota and enjoy that ride there man cuz it’s going to be hostile Daniel obviously a chance to right here close it out um tonight with a sweep but that didn’t happen where do you think is the B dis the biggest disconnect um when it comes to tonight’s game I really can’t put my finger on it you know I felt like we fought all the way to the end we just missed a couple of shots at the end there was some great looks we got the looks that we wanted they just didn’t fall for us Daniel um I wanted to ask you about just Anthony Edwards coming out for them and kind of leading them as a you know a young guy what do you think about his performance tonight I he came out with energy really can’t put too many words to that he came out ready to play uh Dan you’ve been playing with Dereck obviously uh most of the Year first of first off how good has he been and how did you guys have to try to adjust without him tonight um I mean Derek has been great he’s came out ready to play night in night out he’s been picking up the slack with me of course cuz last couple of games I haven’t been really ready to play I feel like you know I’m let the team down in a lot of areas and he really helps me motivate myself because you know as hard as he’s working I want to be able to do the same thing so I got to be better for him um but you all honestly you know we just have to have that next man up mentality just be able to kind of like withstand that punch that they’re trying to throw at us downan when Luca was up here he said that he himself had a little bit of a lack of energy tonight would you say that that was something among team or was that just an assessment that Luca made for himself it might have been 50/50 I would say you know I really can’t talk for everybody else I know for a fact that I didn’t come out ready to play at all my energy was low and I had to really just kind of you know dig deep kind of like pull just some type of energy out just to be able to kind of come out and just play basketball at the end of the day you know those guys weren’t going to go down easy and they came out tonight and they hit us in the mouth and we had to adjust to it yeah um I wanted to ask you one more thing so you said you felt like you kind of let the team down um I know like you’re a hard worker that’s going to motivate you going into game five isn’t it oh yeah most definitely you know yeah I mean this this one hurts we was expecting to be happy at the end of the game and now we’re pissed off coach kid after that game four loss what was your message to your team yeah we get we look at the tape and see how we can get better what stands out in a game like this where they started out um Anthony Edwards defensively on Luca and he pretty much took the onus and said it’s on him but what stands out to you yeah I thought um for Minnesota they you know they got to the free throw line early in that first quarter um when you look at I think uh an had eight free throws um but I thought again you know we uh you know took took a stand and and that second quarter we started to play uh better on both ends and then um you know just understanding the third quarter we came out you know first and third we were not very good you know tonight so we’ll look at that to see how we can be better but the second and fourth put ourselves in a position to uh win the game but you know we got to be better for four quarters and you give Minnesota Credit they came out and fought and found a way to win coach with uh with Anthony today you know they’re in a must-win game he came out had a great game he led his team what do you think about his effort just as a young leader for that team he’s had he’s been playing at a high level all season uh he’s one of the best young players or take the young part off he he’s one of the best players in this league um and so again give Minnesota Credit they fought they they found a way to extend the series now it goes back to Minnesota Jason over here Jason with um with obviously the ability to close it out tonight is is there disappointment that that you guys weren’t able to do that or is that the wrong emotion to have after a game like this yeah understand what you know if we won this game it we do close it out but it’s it’s hard to close uh in this league and so um understanding that um we didn’t play our best give Minnesota Credit they did and so uh we’re headed to Minnesota tomorrow and uh you know to play game five with maxi returning what what did you see from him what was the plan with him minutes wise yeah I thought he did great Maxi was really good uh he hasn’t you know played in a while but I thought he was a plus for us and um that will only help us as we go forward as we get healthy cat obviously hadn’t shot the ball well in this series until tonight uh you know how much that is a great shooter finally finding Rhythm and how much that was the looks that you guys gave him yeah you got to give him credit he was aggressive uh he was you know posting up he was driving the ball um he got some great looks at threes that he had missed early in the series that he knocked down so give him credit switch things up on Luca putting ant on him uh what impact do you think an’s defense and then and that change had uh I don’t I don’t know if it changed anything uh he’s a competitor he loves the competition so he’s going to guard everybody um that’s what he wanted to do I mean he was in foul trouble and so I don’t know if it was uh that he did anything different Lucas seen everything defensively and so the double teams um for us as a group we got great looks coming down down the stretch we just didn’t make them um in this series uh we’ve been knocking down late threes uh wide open threes this evening we didn’t um but I you know you would have to ask Luca how he thought he did and did on him Coach sometimes uh the best adjustments that you can you know make as a head coach is maybe getting their mind off basketball a little bit calling a film study and then you know doing something else to maybe distract them or get their heads just in a different place is that maybe your mindset going into Minnesota or is it just not that Time of the Season oh uh well we’re going to watch the Minnesota teral WV in the MAV so I think that’ll that’ll be something different in the sense of we’ll have we’ll look at what we can do with this isn’t time to to go for a bike ride or go to the park or the zoo we got to figure out how to slow these guys down um we got a responsibility we got a job to do and that’s you know to find a way to win in Minnesota um we can do that after the season um take our mind off of basketball right now this is a great opportunity for us as a young team to go through this um there’s no reason to to figure out um or think about something else this is how do we get better what mistakes did we make this is a new group um going against one of the best teams in the league so um I don’t think we’re going to have time to uh to do something different right now coach you talk about trust a lot what are some things Jaden’s done whether it be practice or in the games to kind of earn more of your trust and earn more minutes in the postseason yeah you look at his ability to score he’s not scared he knows how to play the game and he’s doing it at a high level for us and and just understand we’re going to need that you know from from this point on and uh I think again the trust from the coaches and also from his teammates they trust that he’s going to do the right thing and you can see that in this series he’s he’s playing at a high level um and so again on the road uh we’re going to need his scoring his playmaking you see him getting more comfortable as the playoff games go by yeah you can see that he’s getting more comfortable uh you know the energy um you know with d live out I thought he did a great job of giving us that lift energy wise um and so uh again we’re we’re going to need his energy we’re going to need his scoring um and then we’re going to need his defense but I love the way hard’s playing right now Jason you said at the outset that you guys were not good in those two quarters later on you mentioned shot making was there anything else specifically in those two quarters that you were alluding to yeah we fouled too much we we got to stop fouling um we got to keep them off the line and then also we got to guard the three better we just didn’t guard the three better I mean as well as we should also we you know we didn’t shoot the ball well so there’s a lot of things that we can do better and hopefully we can do that in the next game last question uh coach despite all that it felt like some of the other games where you guys were going to turn it on in the last five minutes and and win this game did you have a good feeling a good vibe again that it was going to flip and you were going to get it despite those stretches that weren’t going the way you wanted yeah we had good looks PJ had a good look D Jones had a good look Corner threes we you know we couldn’t ask for a better situation um the the one that I felt that um was going to put us in a good place place was uh Lucas’s three um the three he made now it becomes if he makes a free throw it becomes a two-point game now it becomes a free throw game they it puts the pressure back on them that to have to make free throws and coming down a stretch they had missed a couple so um now it’s anyone’s game with a timeout left so um that’s where I thought the game could maybe change but unfortunately we just didn’t we we didn’t capitalize on that

Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Daniel Gafford, and Jason Kidd spoke to reporters after their Game 4 loss of their Western Conference Finals series against the Minnesota Timberwolves in their 2024 NBA playoff series. They hold a 3-1 series lead.

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