The Dallas Mavericks started the calendar week with a big win over the Brooklyn Nets, dominating them 130-93. Dallas got up early and continued to press the lead throughout the game, never giving the Nets much of a chance to bounce back. Following the game, Cooper Flagg, Daniel Gafford, and Dusty May spoke to the media.
Cooper Flagg
On his growth in playmaking:
I think obviously there’s been a lot of growth and that’s something I’ve worked on a lot. Just making reads, but I think it speaks to our group as well. You know, everybody just trusting
each other. That play that you were talking about, I think I remember, you know, Kyrie got it out of the double team quick… So I think it’s just our group coming together and everybody just sacrificing and making the right play, and it makes it easy for everybody.
On his in-game peanut butter and jelly:
Listen, you know, I thought about this. I want to give a shout out to our strength staff, our medical staff, they’re the best in the business. And I’m trying to put on some weight, gaining muscle… And I’m just trying to stay ahead of it. We’ve got another game tomorrow, so just checking my calories and staying ahead of it, and be ready for another one tomorrow.
On the makeup of the sandwich:
Grape jelly. Smooth, smooth peanut butter.
Daniel Gafford
Also on the PBJ:
You’re going to throw bananas in there? That’s crazy. That’s the Elvis way. You take out the jelly, though, and you add some bananas. It’s just peanut butter banana. That’s pretty good.
On playing with Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving:
Offensively, they’re just making my job easier. At the end of the day, they got a lot of gravity out there on the floor. And when it comes to the game plan, you know, guys are paying attention to details and they’re just making taking some of the pressure off the two main guys that we have on the floor, honestly. So just prepared to catch anything around the rim.
On Cooper’s strength:
Oh my goodness. You know, I’ve had the opportunity to really just go against him throughout the off-season. Trust me, I was tired after every practice. So it’s like, you know, going against a guy like him. He works in the weight room every day, and I’m pretty sure he’s building his body to last throughout this season. I mean, it was shown on full display tonight. I’m not going to talk about the plays, of course. I’m not trying to get fined. But y’all know what I’m talking about.
On the Dallas defense:
We were pretty much just backing off from the beginning. We paid attention to detail, stuck to the game plan. We knew a lot of the main two guys were going to come out and try to get every shot off. And we just tried to really just disrupt a lot of stuff and just cause a lot of discomfort when it came to their offense. I think that’s what we did tonight, for sure. 100%.
Dusty May
Opening Statement
I think for the first time this year, we strung together four pretty consistent, well-played quarters as far as where we are in the season. A lot of different guys contributed. Thought we shared the ball. Thought we did a nice job on the glass and managed to win the shots battle. And overall, just a good home win in front of our fans.
On Flagg’s passing and assists:
Just making the right decisions. That’s one thing with Coop, he can play over the top of the defense. And so they play an almost identical system defensively, and so we’ve seen it every day in practice. So we were more equipped to attack early in the season better than we would be some other defenses we haven’t seen in practice, and we can’t really replicate it. But just his court vision, his unselfishness lend itself to him having a lot of games like this.
On Flagg’s fast start:
He made some really, really nice plays, good decisions, and then I thought the shot-clock three was big for him. Made a really nice individual play and banged it in. And just, you know, he played a very consistent game across the board. Even I thought it was his five rebounds — sometimes you walk in here, and you look at the five rebounds, and you get a couple at the free-throw line, and a couple of them just land in your arms. I thought he had several rebounds in traffic that weren’t 50-50 balls, maybe 40-60 or 30-70. I thought he was up battling and then tipped a couple to his teammates, and he didn’t get the stat, but I thought he was mixing it up on the glass as well tonight as he has all year.
On getting the starters rest via a fast start:
I’d love to do this every night if possible. Obviously, to not have to go to the wire, it’s less taxing mentally and physically. And we were able to play some guys. And when we got to the locker room, there were already players ready to hit the road and get out, get their treatment, leave. So hopefully they get a good night’s rest. We could come in and replicate this energy tomorrow night. I thought our crowd was awesome as well.
On the recent change to the starting lineup:
We tinkered with a number of different guys in that spot, and we just felt like with our team, especially on nights Kyrie’s not playing — and we don’t know exactly when those are going to be — we thought [Caleb?] gives us the best chance to be elite defensively and from a toughness standpoint.
And we also felt like the other four guys are scoring at a high clip, and that we needed someone to kind of give themselves up and connect the group while also still being a threat. He banged in his first jump shot. After that, I thought he played really, really well. And there’s going to be some games when he steps up and gives us 15 or whatever the case, because that’s what the game dictates. But I thought tonight he did what he does. He played a very good floor game. He’s bright out there. We need his voice on both sides of the ball. We just have a lot of really good players, and it’s tough to decide which ones to go with. But we just felt like, with that group, he allows us to be big, to be physical, and have a real defensive presence, but also have a high basketball IQ on the offensive end.
